I had been studying in Italy, living in a hall of residence with a mix of Italians and foreign exchange students, as part of the Erasmus programme – an EU student foreign exchange scheme founded in 1987, now known as Erasmus+. Contrary to the story told by the photographs, Erasmus meant so much more to me than a year of partying. It’s hard to express all that this programme gave me, without becoming emotional. ‘I could never have afforded to move to Italy without the grant the EU gave me.’ The writer during her Erasmus year. My world was small and it grew big, thanks to my experiences in Europe.

Source: The Guardian January 09, 2020 15:41 UTC