In any case, financially, it was a complicated period: the master’s degree was funded with an Erasmus Mundus grant. These scholarships are aimed at both European and non-European students. For non-Europeans the amounts are bigger, most notably to help students return home to see their family once a year. In my case, however, they argued that I had already lived in Europe for over 12 months and so they granted me the scholarship usually reserved for Europeans. Furthermore, if you receive an Erasmus Mundus scholarship you are not allowed to work… compared to other students I couldn’t count on the support of my family; mine was far away and couldn’t help me financially anyway.