Part two of Lucy’s experience of her term abroad at the Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
I gained more self-confidence in spending time alone; I am leaving my study exchange with a newfound appreciation of my own company. I gained new cultural skills after being immersed in a new country and enrolled in such as diverse international university. Plus, I am super proud of the personal accomplishments I have achieved by living and studying abroad.
Honestly, at first, making friends at uni was hard. I’m a social person but I found that as I started in the last term of uni, everyone had their own friendship groups. Plus, I tended to stick with fellow Goldsmiths friends who were also on their exchange. However, once I was there a couple of weeks I hung out with new people. On my first day at uni, I joined a society’s meeting and hung out with them and once I met them, they invited me to other society events such as exhibitions and gigs. This was a good way to meet new people and I had a lot of fun with them.
My top tips for students:
- Get a bike (this is Netherlands specific).
- Spend time doing things alone and make opportunities for yourself.
- Attempt to learn the language.
- Get out your comfort zone.
- Remember you are living in a new country and that’s an achievement in itself.
- Don’t focus too much on uni, try to prioritise immersing in a new culture and enjoy it too its fullest.
Overall, I can’t write down everything that I did over the last three months, but my leaving message would be: you are so privileged to be able to do this during university so make the absolute most of your time, it’ll go faster than you’d expect so simply have fun!
