Mathis is a student in sport studies and is doing his 3rd year of his Bachelor's degree as an Erasmus+ exchange student at the University of South-East Norway - Universitetet i Sørøst-Norgee, Notodden campus. Here's a look back at his Nordic experience.

"After 4 months that have gone by extremely quickly, I have so many things to share, unique moments and magnificent photos.

Meeting new people...

I live in Notodden, a small town, 1h45 from Oslo. The university is a 5-minute walk from my flat. I live with an Italian (Matteo), a Dane (August) and a Spaniard (José), so there's no choice but to speak English, and living with foreigners has helped me improve enormously. We get on really well and we're together 24 hours a day, morning, noon, evening, weekends and in class. The bonds we've created are very strong, and we've all become real friends. It's hard to explain the relationship between all the Erasmus students, because we're together all the time, we're experiencing something so incredible that we feel like part of a family.

University...

At school, everything's different here: you have a lot of breaks during class. There aren't really any fixed times (apart from the start time), it's up to the teacher and that suits everyone. Personally, I pay a lot more attention. There's a lot more oral participation, we do more presentations in front of the class and we do it all in English.

Outside the classroom...

We're lucky enough to be able to do lots of outdoor activities: skating, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, ski touring, trips lasting several days. As someone who's only been skiing twice in my life, the early days were very chaotic. But now I'm rather proud of myself and of my progress, because it was clearly not easy!

The only negative point in Norway is the cost of living! Everything here is much more expensive than in France: beer costs €17 for 6, chicken €15 for two legs, the same goes for minced meat, etc. But you manage to find alternative solutions. But we do manage to find cheaper alternatives.

In a nutshell...

It's the best decision I've ever made in my life, taking the 'risk' of leaving my comfort zone and moving away from my family and friends. I freaked out before setting off into the unknown, but if some people are still wondering about it and cancelling their departure because it scares them too much, or if they're hesitating between staying and leaving, there's only one thing I can say: don't ask yourself any questions, it's an incredible experience, you'll meet some incredible people and it's good to get away from what you know!
It's also the best way to find out what you want to do later in life, what you really like, etc... When you're on the move, you learn so much from everyone. "