A Place I called Home
It’s almost over! I can’t believe
it… Where did the time go to? The 11th
of January feels like yesterday, not almost 6 months ago. The past few months have been one great
adventure. I feel so lucky to have met some beautiful people during this
experience. We have shared some great times together. Times that were marked
with laugher, smiles and now, as we say goodbye to the people we’ve grown so
close to over the past few months, tears. We’ve experienced a lot together kido
from 8.45am tutorials, picnics, deserts, milka muffins, dinners, study
sessions, scrap book parties, parties, presentations, blah blah blah, you get
the idea... I am glad you sat beside me that day in Social Cognition. From then
I haven’t been able to shake you, even no matter how hard I’ve tried. And, just look at us now! Your high degree of
centrality in your group allowed me get to know a lot of people. Your friends
became my friends and…. Now they all like me better.
I look forward to visiting you in
Canada! Waterloo, must be a pretty cool place if Abba made a song about it.
While our time in Tilburg has come to an end, I look forward to a different
adventure we will have together some day! Come visit me in Ireland anytime..
you just need to improve your tea drinking abilities.
Have a fabulous time travelling
through Europe. I can’t find the words to describe how I’m feeling, other than
to say, thank you for everything.
Love,
Eadaoin xo
Ps. Sorry for telling you, you talk to fast.
Pps. Dogs are better than cats
Renáta (Hungary)
Although it didn’t quite go as planned, I could
finally spend a semester in Tilburg. First of all I was never supposed to be
here during spring. I originally applied for the fall semester and got a
response from my university last May that I got accepted, just to find out two
weeks later that although they had chosen me the host university had never even
heard of me. (And I wish that was the only “administration problem” during my
exchange…)
Well, at last I ended up going to the Netherlands for
the spring semester and I left with tons of (sometimes cloudy) memories,
bruises from falling off my bike, but most importantly lots of friends from all
over the world. I lived in a dorm for the first time in my life and shared a
flat with16 other exchange students (and several mice). And I sure as hell
didn’t regret it because I spent the best semester of my life there so far and
all these were part of it. I guess I was supposed to go there during the spring
term after all. All the more because I wouldn’t have met most of the amazing
people I did these past 5 months.
The funny thing about living in Verbs is that after a
couple of months you know almost everybody there and almost everybody knows you.
You know their name, where they came from, who they hang out with, even if
you’ve never ever spoken to them before. So it’s a little bit hard to remember
when you actually met for the first time. But I (think) I do remember the first
time I met Janine. Actually, Bean was not the first Janine I met there, as
funny as it sounds it turned out my mentor’s name was also Janine who happened
to be also from Canada. The world sure is a small place.
First couple of weeks Marta and Ellaisha asked me if I
wanted to go to Brugge that weekend. Ten of us ended up going there and it was
actually fun even though I had already been there before. It’s a cute city but
there’s not so many things to see (which I was actually aware of but I guess my
memory faded in the last 8 years since I’ve last been there). My first memory
of Janine was when a few of us were walking towards the city center and I
overheard them with Jess talking about how it was a bad idea going on a trip
with ten people and it’s just too much. Since I knew we were the last four
people joining the trip at the last minute I kind of thought “Well, thanks” and
didn’t quite feel welcome at first. But now I just have to laugh at it every
time I remember this, because I got to know her since then. (Btw you sure
became better at travelling with a lot of people since then! Haha ;))
But we bonded more during the Leiden trip (for which
I’m so grateful because it became my favourite Dutch city ever and I probably
wouldn’t have gone there on my own) and I realized actually how many things we
have in common and that was just the start. We got to go together to many
places we went together to Barcelona and Ibiza (where I got to know that even
though you’re – one of the – most sober people I’ve ever known you sure are the
craziest dancer of them all), Giethoorn and so on. Many dinners, funny talks
(gonna always remember your “quotes”), chasing stray cats or picnics. It was
all part of the greatest experience of my life. I’m glad we have met. Exchange
probably wouldn’t have been the same if we didn’t.
But this is not goodbye and this is not the end. I’ll
see you soon in Hungary and you better be ready because you can take for
granted that I’ll visit you in Canada one day too. It’s a promise. J
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