At home but on the road

by Gianluca Michieletto (Italy)

A leap into the unknown Italy

This is a different travel story. An experience which I had the fortune to live in over the past two years. A non-conventional travel story which describes my life during my master studies. A story which includes different experiences, adventures, friends, and - as the title “At home but on the road” entails – a lot of travelling. Some people would be probably questioning my decision to choose a Master Programme as a travel story. Give me the chance to explain it before saying that. My name is Gianluca and I am studying Euroculture, an Erasmus Mundus Master of Arts which focuses on Europe and the European Union. As many of you probably already know, “Erasmuses” are projects funded by the European Union, which allow students to spend a period of their academic studies at a partner university around the world. However, while most of Erasmus students spend only a semester or an academic year in a single destination, Erasmus Mundus students are given the possibility to change location every semester. Göttingen (Germany), Bilbao (Spain), and Indianapolis (USA) were my base camps during this adventure. It was the beginning of a challenging two-year period in which travelling became one of the main activities in my life: travelling to move to a new house, travelling to discover new places, travelling to go home and visit my family. Plane, train or car, I was always on the road. But let’s start from the beginning… On a typical lukewarm morning of end September 2018, I was heading to the International Airport of Venice with my life inside two suitcases. I still remember the atmosphere … goodbyes are never easy, especially in Italy. I was ready to leave my beloved country and start a new foreign adventure. I felt like a pupil who was getting prepared on his first day of school. Excitement and fear kept me company during the whole trip and the first weeks of my staying. Different questions were floating around my brain: where am I going?; Who am I going to meet?; What is it waiting for me?; Am I ready for this? I did not know what to expect, yet, I knew I was prepared for the unknown. Over time, circumstances have slightly changed. I learned to control myself and not be overwhelmed by emotions, above all, I got used to this kind of living. In this period, I understood the difficulty and the sacrifices you have to make in order to live “on the road”. It is not always easy. In less than one year (October 2018 – August 2019), I had already changed three countries and moved out from three different apartments, leaving everything behind: habits, university, friends, love. Yet, it felt like being in the funniest amusement park, when at the end of the ride, after the first minute of displeasure, you would cheerfully scream “another run, another race” before starting a new adventure. We, Erasmus Mundus Master students, live our young lives this way and we love to do so. As I have already mentioned, it is not easy, but how many people can say to have done the same? For example, during this period I have been lucky enough to share my homes with three Germans, a Mexican, a French, a Dutch and a Bangladeshi. I learned so much about their cultures, their customs, their traditions and their habits. When I was in Germany, I had the opportunity to discover hidden places and immerse myself in a completely different culture. In Spain, or better, in the Basque Country, I had the privilege to discover the Basque coast, new sports (surf particularly) and visit wonderful places in the Iberian Peninsula. Finally, thanks to my semester in the United States, I had the fortune to discover the “New Continent”, the land of opportunities and the country I had read and seen so much in books and movies, leaving Europe for the first time in my life. Once again, how many people can say to have experienced the same terrific experiences, travelled to so many places and met so many people while studying? Not many, I guess!