An experience abroad was for me a must during my studies, as it’s something that was done by members of my family before me. Upon arriving at ÉTS, I learned about the prerequisites to be eligible to ensure that I didn’t miss out on the experience of « leaving everything I know behind in order to rediscover myself and to enjoy an incredible experience. »
I decided to travel to Prague in the Czech Republic, a tourist destination that I wasn’t familiar with, aside from the famous Charles Bridge. I decided to go at it blindly by limiting my knowledge about the country. I left with the goal of working on myself and discovering who Yasmine really is. I was leaving for a country I didn’t know and with no point of reference. Me and person, we were ready for the adventure.
The point of a student exchange is more than simply to develop your technical knowledge in another university. It’s also an opportunity to explore the world around you, to live in a city where the official language isn’t French or English.
Czech Technical University of Prague is a university known for its international experience, welcoming around 150 students from all around the world each semester, which greatly enriched my own experience. The UCT Student Association offers numerous activities and outings to explore the city and get to know the cultures of other students throughout the school semester.
Additionally, my course schedule allowed me Fridays off, which gave me the opportunity to take small four-day trips to visit the rest of Europe. Almost every weekend, I embarked on an adventure to discover a new city. During the six months of my exchange abroad, I visited around ten countries, including Italy, Austria, Poland, Hungary, the south of France and Spain. I was accompanied by friends I’d met during my exchange.
When we think of a student exchange, the words that often come to mind are travel, experience, and meeting new people. We often forget about fulfillment and self-discovery. Everything is connected. When you get the opportunity to live without a fixed routine, without time or job obligations, you have a lot more time to reflect and learn about yourself. Doing an exchange abroad without having any expectations and without really knowing where I was going, was for me a way to get to know myself more.
Throughout my adventure, I faced several challenges: sharing accommodation with strangers, being a visible minority in a country lacking ethnic diversity, overcoming my shyness and making new acquaintances and new friends, being left to my own devices for the first time and being far away from my family and close friends.
I have no words to describe what this experience allowed me to accomplish. I was able to travel all over Europe and discover magnificent places, but the most important part of my trip was self-discovery in an unknown environment. Sometimes, when we are in the company of our loved ones and people who we are familiar with, we become accustomed to behaving in a certain way automatically. In my case, I didn’t know anyone during my trip. My actions and my interests were simply based on what I wanted. After this magnificent experience, I understand more of what makes me, me.
The expectations I had regarding the exchange were greatly surpassed. It’s an experience I recommend to all students. For more information on International Experience and to create your own, visit https://www.etsmtl.ca/en/studies/international-experience.