Georgia's Exchange to Utrecht University of Applied Sciences & Danish School of Media and Journalism | The Netherlands & Denmark
I’ve
wanted to study abroad for as long as I’ve wanted to go to university, with the
expectation that an exchange year would be exciting, challenging and take me
out of my comfort zone. My year away didn’t disappoint. I’ve fallen in love
with seeing new places. Travel bug? I’ve well and truly caught it. My first
semester away was in the Netherlands and the second was in Denmark. I think
spending a whole year away is really worthwhile, it gives you plenty of time to
form close friendships and see all the things you want to see. Friends of mine
who were only away for six months found that it was too short, time really
flies!
Studying abroad in Europe is fantastic if you want to visit a few a
bunch of places while you’re away, it’s a short flight to so many other
countries. For my first semester, I lived with a Dutch family and for my second
I lived in student accommodation so I can really recommend both. Living with a
family has the great benefit of giving you an insight into how people in your
host country go about their lives. It also means that you will see a side to
the place that you’re living that you might not have seen otherwise, if you’re
on exchange and mostly hanging out with foreign students you can sometimes miss
some of the parts of the place that the locals know really well. Living in
student accommodation is its own kind of fun and is really worth doing as well,
it can be lots of socialising and partying.
I participated in a journalism course
called Europe in the World, this course was particularly exciting because we
had to travel and report from different countries for some of our assignments.
An example of this was the time I went to Kosovo with a small group of fellow
students, where we had to interview people and write up news articles. It was
really challenging at times but I learnt so much, particularly from listening
to people’s stories in nations that have seen so much conflict and political
turmoil over the decades.
It is really beneficial studying abroad because you are
exposed to new ways of learning the degree you are studying. My time abroad
taught me new ways of understanding and practising journalism and gave me ideas
about what to do with the skills I’ve acquired in terms of my future career. Aside
from equipping me with many skills which I will be able to use in a
professional sense, my year abroad opened up my world with new close
connections to people all around the world. The friends I made on this course
have taught me so much and I now have a close network of people who I can not
only visit but that I am planning to collaborate with professionally in the
future.
- Georgia studied abroad at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and the Danish School of Media & Journalism
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Murdoch University Study Abroad & Exchange - Outbound
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTACT US!
EMAIL: studyabroad@murdoch.edu.au
PHONE: +61 8 93607836
VISIT: Murdoch University, Student Centre, 90 South Street, Murdoch, WA, 6150
FIND US!
FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/murdochoutbound
INSTAGRAM: www.instagram.com/murdochoutbound
