Milk

Hi! I'm Therese. I'm a 20-year-old medical student going into my 3rd year of medicine studying at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (that's in Belgium). I'm originally from Norway but I've lived in Belgium pretty much my whole life. This year, however, comes with a  bit of a twist for me: I'm on an exchange year in Lausanne, Switzerland via the Erasmus program and it's my first time ever living away from home. I just arrived here yesterday and I'm so excited for this year to kick off! So I've started this blog to share a few of my experiences of moving abroad, the process of creating a home away from home, and just day-to-day thoughts and things that might be worth writing about. Here we go!

First of all: Milk.

It is Sunday and my first official full day in Lausanne. I left behind my two little sisters (not so little anymore), my parents, and my cocker spaniel in Brussels (or more exactly my parents drove me down here and have now gone back home), and am now pretty much all by myself in a new city, with new people, and lots of things to take care of. Great. I quickly realized this morning on my little sightseeing trip round the neighborhood arranged by my new flatmate that everything is closed in Lausanne on a Sunday. Very useful. I therefore spent the day with my parents (who still hadn't left), visiting one of my oldest friends who's lived near Geneva for a long time with her family. This is where my parents left me, with instructions to take the train back to Lausanne and find the correct bus home to my apartment.

My first problem occurred at the train station in Nyon where I had to buy my train ticket from a very fancy machine. This machine took euros and swiss francs and all the bank cards you could possibly think of , and yet somehow I could not make it accept my bank card, my Swiss francs were in the form of 200CHF notes just supplied by my parents (too huge to be accepted by said machine), my only euros were a 10 and a 50 note (also too big for machine), and the amount to be paid of 16 CHF (or 14 euros) was therefore difficult. I had no coins either. The train was also arriving at the station. Thankfully the machine accepted my 10 euro (12 CHF) note and my friend thankfully had 4 CHF coins and my ticket was acquired. Don't we all love changing to a new currency? But I got on the train and made it back to Lausanne, my euro and CHF-paid ticket being approved with a nod by a strict-looking conductor.

At the station in Lausanne I happily found an open Coop store (!! yay) and remembered I did not have any juice, milk, yoghurt, or dinner for tonight. Right then, in we go. I bought my first official living-alone food consisting of one pack of pasta, a glass of pasta sauce (let's not make it complicated the first day), two packs of yoghurt, a bottle of orange juice, and of course, my first Swiss carton of MILK.

I've come to the conclusion that I don't think you can say you actually live somewhere before you have bought a carton of milk in your designated place. A carton of milk requires the possession of a fridge, something not often found in hotel rooms or youth hostels. Milk is also something I never drink when on holiday, and something usually related to my morning cereal if I'm not actually planning on drinking it. So there you go- my definition of having really moved somewhere- buying that carton of milk. My own carton is currently in my fridge, happily cooling off after the bus ride home from the Sunday-open Coop. Therefore I have now officially arrived in Lausanne. It's getting late though so I am going to sleep in my new bed in my new room, and look forward to a glass of my new milk for breakfast in the morning.