I was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, but I’ve always dreamed of moving abroad. It was a dream that I kept on the backburner as I grew up and went to college to study translation and book editing, but the timing was never right to take the leap. I kept putting it off until one day, disenchanted with my current office life (working a job that had nothing to do with my degree) and also tired of waiting for the opportunity to fall on my lap, I decided to chase after it myself—and that desire for an adventure abroad led me to France and eventually right into the heart of Besançon, where the Rare Books and Digital Humanities master was taking place.
Why did I choose the master? The simple answer would be that books and languages have always been my two biggest passions. The long answer encompasses a lot more than that. What first drew me in was its curriculum, which went from studying old languages to book history to learning new technologies, but what definitely locked my interest was the possibility to intern and eventually get a job at places I’ve only ever dreamed of such as libraries, bookshops, museums and other cultural institutes.
And why come France to study? I had already visited the country several times before and felt very comfortable navigating it, so it felt like an easy and obvious choice to make. Coming to Besançon, however, was a completely different matter. Living in Paris was no problem, but I had never really lived in a small town before, so I was I bit anxious about it. Despite all my worries, I was happy to discover that my assimilation to Besançon and the French culture in general went quite smoothly —nevermind the language barrier sometimes being an obstacle to overcome. I like to give it credit to my love of crêpes and pains au chocolat, which I can now live without. So, if anyone asks, maybe that’s the real reason I moved to France and everything else is just the cherry on top!
