To try to learn some interview techniques and for a touch of light relief during this long period of no travelling, I asked a recent Airbnb guest if he’d be kind enough to let me ask him a few questions, and he was.
Mathis Goussard is French and studying computer science and robotics at the École Nationale Supérieure D’ingénieurs De Caen in Normandy, and spent a semester at the University of L’Aquila here in Italy as an Erasmus exchange student.
We rattled through the standard questions about what it’s like to be a foreign university student here and he told me he’d loved having international flatmates, that he found Italians in general to be ‘joyful and easy to speak to’. The local public transport was appalling, he said, but the social life was good, his courses were fine, and he’s glad he came.
Mathis’ advice to new IT university students everywhere: ” Try to know a bit about lots of things and be good at them. Don’t aim to be an expert in any one area because there are new developments daily. Learn how to learn.”
Someone whose work & ideas he recommends : Jean-Marc Jacovici
A special photo: when he was in a body building contest in Sydney (‘ they sprayed us in gold, it was really funny’ )
Out There & In Here 