So long, farewell...

A rather sad ending to the month but also another brilliant night was the Erasmus BBQ! It seems as though barbecueing (sp?!) is adored by all nations…the English of course, the Spanish love it, the French were well in there, the Germans and Austrians obviously being meat capitals of Europe, and Argentineans too which I didn’t know until recently – apparently barbecue is like their national dish and everyone has one. Pretty cool I reckon. Slightly amusingly the guys from the Canary Islands weren’t so much into the barbecue but did bring immense amounts of ingredients to make their own mojitos – lush! 

What used to make us cringe a bit about Parma Erasmus are now the most endearing and lovable qualities of the city’s society, and I think we will all genuinely miss this amazing network of people, parties, trips and information thrown at us on a weekly basis! Even at one of the last events we were still meeting new people and finding mutual friends that we didn’t know we had with people. We’re only just starting to feel like we’re getting to know other nationalities and about their life and culture, such a shame that it has to end.

But, all good things must come to an end, and all we can do now is make sure the end is a damn good one!

Dancing in the moonlight

After saying for so long that we’d go to Rimini, we finally made it there a couple of weeks ago. The three hour train journey after Spritz the night before wasn’t ideal, but was definitely worth it!

The beach looks totally like a holiday resort with hundreds and hundreds of sunbeds in lines and only a small area of ‘free’ beach, which it took us a while to find, but which wasn’t too busy. I don’t know how to describe the sheer pleasure we all felt at being able to just lay in the sun for the whole afternoon. Of course we got sand in our sandwiches, unavoidable, and a small amount of burn here and there, but for me, as a resident of a North Sea coastal town, swimming in a sea and not nearly dying was incredible! So refreshing and something I do pretty rarely but would love to do more often!

Santiago’s offering of tunes on the ukulele and Argentinean tea called ‘mate’ as the sun started to go down was just perfect. It all felt so chilled and everyone had such a good day. 

The next night we had a ‘European Dinner’ at our house and cycled out to a party at a club called ‘Mu’ afterwards. We weren’t quite sure what to expect but it turned out to be one of the coolest places ever…just a brick building with a dancefloor and bar inside, then another DJ and dancefloor outside. Throwing shapes to the reggae/afrobeat/funk tunes in the evening heat was pretty exhilarating and we all went a good kind of crazy with our moves. Hilarious, and will definitely be going back if possible!

Oh isn't erasmus life just great

In recent weeks we’ve all been ‘getting on it’ socialising wise and making the absolute most of the last month or so.

Things that have been going on include:
 >  a tea party at mine and Emma’s house, complete with triangular cucumber sandwiches, bucksfizz, and Victoria Sponge Cake. Scrumptious!

the kitchen during preparation

yum yum yum

>     another two prison parties – the perfect excuse for two amazing dance-fests in a row, taking advantage of the warm nights

       >  a spontaneous trip trip to Cremona to see a Tallis Scholars concert (Lyds had free tickets – can’t argue with that!). The concert was amazing; both of us agreed it was a joy to hear an English choir after so much Italian singing this year, and they were all such lovely people, making it even better. The night was so spontaneous in fact that we didn’t actually have anywhere to stay, so praying that the weather stayed nice and that the choir would be up for drinks afterwards, we blagged ourselves through the night until the first train at 6am. Luckily things were on our side, we found a bar that opened later than the rest and even managed to get a good 6 hours sleep when we got in at 7am. Pretty much a normal night’s sleep!

Cremona in the evening

>      a visit to an amazing tea shop in Parma, selling almost every type of tea you can imagine, at only 5euros for a big pot to yourself, and free macaroons. What a treat.

>      saying goodbye to James :( a sad day for all, and the beginning of the end…but let’s not think about that!