Chiara Failla

Hi everyone, here's Chiara speaking! I'm a student of the MSc programme in Physics at DFA in Catania and I study Applied Physics. I came back from amazing Finland at the beginning of June. I've been an Erasmus student there for the second semester of the A.Y. 2021/2022. I spent 5 months in Turku, from the beginning of January till the beginning of June, and I had the opportunity to live the extreme winter in one of the coldest countries of Europe. I swear I was wearing the DFA hoodie in that picture but I wasn't brave enough to open up the coat and show it!
 
I decided to join the Erasmus program because I'm a very curious person and the opportunity to meet new people and live in a completely different country was too greedy, I couldn't let it pass me by! After two years in the pandemic this experience was a medicine for all the time that I felt I had wasted.
 
I loved every single snowflake and degree below 0°C (not few), the northern lights and the days in the lab, the trips and the discussions during the classes, the sunset after 22:00 and so much more.
 
It was an amazing experience! I recommend everybody to join the Erasmus Programme. Not only did I discover a new way to approach courses, exams and University life, but I also made new friends with people from the whole world and it's been great! Discovering new cultures, trying to learn new languages and living in a completely new reality opens the mind!

Never mind the foreign language, the temperatures, the food and the time spent far from home: it will be worth it. The Erasmus experience is amazing from every point of view.