Zac's Exchange to Utrecht University of Applied Sciences | The Netherlands
There is something so strange about getting on the plane to go to the other side of the world to study on an exchange program. I remember watching Fast and Furious 7 and crying at the end in the dedication to Paul Walker. My nervousness made it seem like I was watching the notebook. The first few days were terrifyingly beautiful. I had no house, no friends other than Rosh my exchange mate, knew 3 words of the language and felt particularly unorganised after meeting some of the european students who had already organised rooms and were in groups of school friends. There is no time for the social anxiety and procrastination that we let ourselves get away with in Australia. I stayed in a hostel and said hello to everyone, on the first night a beautiful girl from Finland arrived in the room, my heart leapt but I said hello anyway and we started talking. 3 days later we moved out of the hostel and I was sleeping on her couch and cooking her dinner. She was my best friend for the entire exchange. In the first days a big group on incoming students already in Utrecht. We would post up meeting points to drink a beer and get to know each other. We were from all over the world but all in the exact same position. It was liberating to have something in common with new and different people. To be completely away from the bubble that we normally live in. Within 2 weeks I already felt so many strong connections with people, we already had inside jokes, we had bikes to get ride around the dutch streets like locals and from the first night we had already found a meeting place at a nice canal to sit down with tapas and wine.
This was the best part of the exchange, to get thrown into an ocean of new cultures and personalities and start swimming immediately. I learnt how to say thank you and cheers in 10 languages, I visited friends I met there in Germany, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, France, Denmark and Finland. For five months I never watched tv, there was always people to meet, new experiences to have. The city felt like home after a month, it was such a magical thing to see your new friends on the street, to drop by their houses, to go to their birthday parties and feel like you have known them and the other people there for years.
The feeling of spontaneity that comes from being away from everything familiar is something special, you don’t have time to overthink problems or stress. I found myself having mostly female friends from northern Europe drinking wine, riding bikes to parks and eating picnics. It was hilarious how novel and exciting everything seemed away from Australia and the routines we fall into. It was incredible being able to go a random trip to another country with people you had just met. in the winter I booked flights to Morocco, to Poland, to Iceland for 100 euros total. It is so incredibly interesting hearing the stories of locals and seeing the contrasts and similarities between other cultures and ours. My favourite is the Austrian holiday of Krampus where the adults dress up as demons, drink whiskey all day and whip the kids with reeds so they don’t be naughty. So good they made a movie about it. Or the dating application of Iceland that warns you if you are related to the person you are getting familiar with.
My favourite thing about exchange was being able to fit my studies into 3 days and allow myself a four day weekend, nearly every weekend I travelled to a new place and made the absolute most of the time. One weekend i went to Italy to visit a friend, I saw the terraced hills of Cinque Terre with red wine and spaghetti and i had booked a ticket on a night train back to Utrecht because i had to present a speech with a dutch partner the next morning at 10am. After aperitivo we started driving to Milan, about halfway we realised that we were going to be late for the train, my connection left at midnight from Bern and it was 10.30 we were still on the edge of the city in Milan! She got a fine for driving into the “locals only” area (italian police thing) and dropped me at the metro, i raced through, got to the central station, squeezed onto the next train to Bern and as I pulled into the station I heard “the train to Amsterdam, leaves in 1 minute!!!” I raced out of one train and towards the platform, it had been delayed by 30 minutes and just as I got on the doors closed behind me. I sat down and began writing my speech for the next morning.. I arrived in Amsterdam at 9am, raced onto the next train, then the bus to university. I ran down the main street of the university and saw many exchange students I knew looking at me puzzled. I had my backpack and had been up all night. I made it to class just before we were about to speak and we topped the class!
So yes, I studied at some points but honestly you will probably going to have less workload than you usually have. My studies of journalism in Netherlands were very interesting, the faculty were multi disciplined, very engaging teachers and group work as the main percentage of testing. This was also nice on exchange as it meant that we could engage with the local students a little more and learn a bit of their prior learning as well as share ours. At first it was hard to socialise with the students who already had friend groups and spoke a different language but I found that if you made an effort than they would as well. The background knowledge and system of study was surprisingly different and I really enjoyed being able to get an international perspective on my degree. It definitely made me realise that more possibilities of thought, education and employment exist in Europe. Dutch teachers were much more straight forward, they would give you a lot of freedom in how you wanted to do a task but if your attendance, personality or work was lacking they would let you know directly to your face. This was great, they were also always presenting information that would be applied in the workplace and were quite thorough in their teaching and less focused on the end term examination. But honestly just pass your classes, study is the reason you are there but it seems like such a small part of the experience.
It will go fast, it will be an absolute emotional roller coaster, you will do assignments the last minute with a hangover. You will learn, love, laugh and experience and probably cry more in 5 months than you could ever in a year at home. You will have so many stories that only the people you studied with will understand, I have a lot that I could never write in this. But organise your things and go, it’s not only an unforgettable experience you will make friends, live in a new part of the world and even have a nice addition to your resume. Everything will be there when you return so fear nothing, in the months of exchange absolutely anything is possible, go have the experience of a life time.
- Zac studied abroad at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands
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