Voices from Abroad: Villy de Luca

I still recall the night of the 1st of September 2009. When I handed in my ticket at the gate the hostess looked at me and, looking at my luggage and noticing I was alone, told me straight "I bet you're going on Erasmus." When I confirmed her guss she told me something which, while packing my luggage ready to come back home, I now totally agree with. She said, "Enjoy it because time really flies while out there." The six months passed by like a flash down the sunny blue sky of Barcelona full of people met and adventures experienced, friends made and friends left, books studied and projects presented, languages learned and cultures enriched.
 

The THEMIS program in which I participated is the result of the joint efforts of 4 prestigious European universities: Bocconi, ESADE, Freie and Paris Val de Marne. The objective of this program is to create a law network in which selected students have the chance to spend a semester in one of the four partner universities. However, THEMIS is more than just a normal Erasmus program. The program, as a matter of fact, includes not only a semester abroad but also a seminar and an internship, therefore allowing students to have the chance to enrich their personal curriculum with a series of specific lectures and an "on-the-job" experience. 
 

The THEMIS program started for me the 1st of September with the Spanish language course offered by ESADE. This was one of the most important points of my experience since I both had the chance to learn a new language and to meet all the new exchange students who I lived with during this beautiful experience. After a 10-day intensive course, my colleagues and I hopped on the plane headed for Berlin in order to take part in the seminar. For 14 days, all of the THEMIS students scattered around Europe met in the beautiful “clubhaus” of the Freie Universitat in order to attend an intensive series of lectures on international commercial law. The seminar not only greatly enriched us culturally, giving us the chance to study law from an international point of view, but also allowed us to create a network of long lasting friendships with law students coming from all over Europe. 
 

Once the seminar was over, we all headed towards our host university in order to start our semester abroad.
 

ESADE is certainly one of the most well-known institutions in Europe. An international environment located in the Pedralbes hill, from its campus to its faculty, from the students to the administration, everything meets the standards one expects from a top European institution. Here I attended 6 courses and could appreciate the differences of a didactic approach which is more focused on class participation rather than only an exam. Classes are made up of 20-25 people and all the professors call the students by name, creating a very friendly atmosphere in which to learn. Students are expected to prepare at home for every lecture and are often expected to make presentations on assigned topics. The exams are concentrated in a 3-week period and are mainly written rather than oral. Student participation is not only fundamental in class but also out of class. The faculty often asks for student advice on the way the course should be developed and tries to involve students in the various events organized.
 

If I were to classify the most striking and life-changing experiences I lived through, the THEMIS program would most certainly rank first. This experience greatly opened my mind and for the first time I felt the feeling of living in a globalized world in which there are no barriers between different cultures.
 

After these six months spent abroad I can say that there are three things which every abroad student knows: the day to arrives, the day to leaves and the fact that he/she wants to make the best out of this time. Well, after countless friends made, a million life-changing experiences, 2000 kilometers traveled, 180 days spent in Barcelona, 20 (or more!) different nationalities encountered, 6 exams taken, 4 papers handed in, 3 oral presentation made, 2 trips around Spain, 1 new language learned and absolutely 0 hours spent at home getting bored I can totally say that the best was made out of this time!

 

These words can only partially explain what this adventure really is. Don’t stop here. Live the adventure. As the Chinese proverb goes "Don't listen to what they say. Go see."