The people I met here, and the experiences I had, went beyond what I
could imagine before arriving. If you speak to anyone who saw me in the weeks
leading up to this exchange you would hear what a nervous wreck I was becoming.
I worried about absolutely everything. My worries ranged from how to get from
Amsterdam airport to Tilburg (having never used the train systems in Europe before)
to wondering if having such a small course load would leave me bored and
unfufilled. These and many other worries proved completely unnecessary after I
arrived. The trains in the Netherlands are so easy to navigate, and the Dutch
people are always willing to help if you don’t understand something or have too
much luggage. As for the small course load, this was one of the best decisions
I made prior to arriving. The small amount of work left time for the many
impromptu social gatherings that occurred in verbs, unplanned weekend and day
trips though Belgium and the Netherlands, and week long vacations in further
countries.
Once I arrived in the Netherlands in January I was exhausted from
staying up all night on the plane, and worried about meeting new people. The
first few days were hard for me. I was going back to my shy ways from the
beginning of university and high school. I felt too nervous to leave my room
and search for people to be with. That’s where Andrea came in. The happiest,
friendliest Italian I’d ever met (and at that point the only Italian). He
invited me to bike to the city center for the city tour with him, and therefore
pulled me out of my shell (and out of my room).
The week of my arrival was of course the infamous TOP week. The week I
had been dreading, scared of meeting so many people so quickly and
participating in many activities with alcohol as the basis. It proved to both
fulfill my expectations and exceed them. I spent the majority of my week with
my mentor group, some of which became close friends. I was amazed at how people
could get drunk every evening for 6 days and still be able to function. Each
night a new party at carpe diem, a beer cantus, and on the weekend Intro camp. Intro camp is a whole other story, games in
which people end up running around the camp half naked, inappropriate skits
about cows (amongst other things), and beer races at 9am on a Sunday morning.
The first week of class started off rather poorly. I didn’t understand
the schools website Blackboard, and ended up skipping more classes than I
attended (something very unusual for me). Shortly I became comfortable with the
campus and with verbs (or as comfortable as you can be living on verbs 28). I
developed routines; a mentor dinner and carpe diem party every Tuesday evening,
Wednesday dinners with Laura, Jess, and Jiri and carpe dinners on Fridays. With
weekly Skype dates with my parents and Mishaela I was able to feel completely
at home in my new surroundings.
Throughout the semester day and weekend trips became the norm in my
life. Not a week went by where I wasn’t exploring a new city in my surrounding
areas. My first trip of the year was to Brugge in Belgium with ten exchange
students (6 of which I had not yet met). It was an eventful weekend due to our
lack of knowledge on how to travel, and how to use public transport. We took a
trip to Brussels, staying in a-bed-bug-
infested-cow-sheet-communal-shower-low-budget hotel. Lesson from that weekend;
always book your accommodation sooner than 11pm the night before! We were
sailors in Ghent on a houseboat hostel, spent a night in Amsterdam visiting the
famous red light district, a sunny day in adorable Leiden, a memorable day
searching for my dads old house in Egmond Ann Zee, a rainy day looking at tulips
and clogs, and of course 8 cities in one day with the Holland city race.
I travelled much farther in Europe as well, checking destinations off
my bucket list along the way. I spent a week in London England visiting my
Spanish friend Dalia, a three-year wait made it much overdue. It was nice to
have a chance to explore a city I had only previously visited under the
supervision of my history teachers in high school. A week in Black Forest
Germany in Laura’s adorable wooden cabin was something I never imagined I would
do. The surrounding villages are still to this day my favourite part of Europe.
Not to mention how nice it was to have a home cooked meal and parents looking
out for you, things I’d been without for 2 months. A trip to Krakow Poland to
visit Auschwitz concentration camp and eat as many perogies as I possibly could
manage. We took a trip to Barcelona Spain, staying at Marta’s house giving us our
own personal Spanish tour guide. Once again, I am so thankful to Marta and her
family for allowing us to stay with them and treating us like family. And
finally, a weekend in Ibiza Spain, renting a car and hopping from beach to
beach (7 beaches in one day must be some sort of record).
The last month in Tilburg was spent mainly in Tilburg. Everybody was clinging
on to each other knowing that the end of the semester was near. Each night
dinner included up to ten people to ensure the most time was spent together as
possible. We spent late nights talking, cuddling, and watching movies. Verbs
has become quiet now with many people having moved home or started their summer
travels. Now that I have finished my exams, today I will start my travels in
Copenhagen Denmark with Mishaela. I will say goodbye to everything that became
so important to me in the past few months. For a final cheesy closing line;
“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened”
-Bean
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