Being an Erasmus = Being independent?

The first time that I heard the word Erasmus I was like what? So, one of my friends explained to me that Erasmus is the name of the student exchange programme, which consists on studying in another part of the European Union.  He also explained that the government supports the students by giving them an scholarship. 

I was amazed because in Mexico we do not have anything similar to this. If you want to study abroad, you have to pay for everything. Of course you can look for a scholarship given by the government or some institutions, but it's kind of difficult to get it because the offer is smaller than the demand. 

But my surprise doesn't finish here. Some days ago, when I was travelling with my spanish friends, they started to say that sometimes they have money difficulties and that they have to be very careful with the way they spent the money because they don't receive anything from their parents. This was like the biggest shock for me, because I started to think about many things and that I was feeling very indpendent because I was living alone and I had to cook and everything, but now I don't know if I am independent because I receive everything from m parents, for sure I couldn´t afford my life in Europe. Eventhough my friends receive money, some of them receive less than the others and I am not sure if that quantity is enough for living here, but at least they are sure they cannot ask for money to their parents. I even remeber that one of them told me that he had a loan. I think that in Mexico, nobody of my age has a loan, that would be very weird and probably most of the loan companies, wouldn't say NO to the request.

For sure this conversation made me think about many things and now I think that I am not independent at all, just because I am studing abroad doesn't mena that I am doing it by myself. Without my parents I wouldn't be here, and eventhough I have learnt a lot and I always have to figure things out by myself it's very different from the situation that the rest of my european friends.