As I promised to my very special Italian friend, I am writing this article in English. I am not really sure how to start or what exactly should I talk about. These five months have been an incredible journey that I could never have imagined. We all knew that Erasmus is about living a life in a life. And once you get out, you can never get back in. We were all aware that it was going to be painful. But I was not convinced of it. Until now. Until the moment when I was dancing at a silent disco and my friends were saying goodbye. But not just a regular goodbye ´see you tomorrow´ kind of goodbye. It was a goodbye ´I hope we will meet each other again´. Someplace in the world. On our journeys. Realizing that it will never be the same and having no power to change it hurts. You can simply say goodbye, hug that friend, and hope that your paths will cross again.
It’s been 5 months. Although I’ve lived in different families abroad and built strong relationships with them, this goodbye hurts differently.
It’s important to note that Arnhem wasn’t my first choice for Erasmus. To be honest, I had it in 18th place. But as I had never been to the Netherlands before, I was excited to start a new life in a new country. And from the first day, it’s been an awesome experience.
When I arrived in August I immediately went to the Welcome picnic that was organized for us, the exchange students. It was the first time I saw everyone. Including Czech students. My plan was to get to know the Czech students and make a strong relationship with the international students because I can make Czech friends while I am at home, right? Well, that didn’t go as planned. We clicked so well that they became my closest friends. It’s not that I haven’t made any international friends, of course.
I was surrounded by so many lovely and open-minded people. My neighbors were from all over the world – Italy, Austria, Chile, Mexico, Spain, France, Portugal, Canada…. And since we lived under one roof and went to the same school it was quite easy to get close to someone. Indeed, as I said, at first, the closest people to me were the Czechs. However, as soon as we started having parties, going on trips, and just hanging out in each other’s dorms, things changed.
By joining volleyball, my circle of friends has grown. My friend and I played volleyball at school together. Plus, since I knew I would have plenty of time, I planned to start playing volleyball at a club in Arnhem. Both groups welcomed us with open arms and we quickly became part of them. Since I almost stopped playing when starting my studies in Prague, I have been so grateful for such an opportunity. Both teams became a safe place for us. We were looking forward to each volleyball session. We were so excited that after every session we spent hours talking about it with my friend.
Although it might seem that the school was not our main interest, it is after all the one thing that brought us all to Arnhem.
HAN University of Applied Sciences has two campuses, in Arnhem and Nijmegen. In the end, that’s what the shortcut stands for. It is a school that highly supports international students. Together with other 91 exchange students from 21 different countries I was studying International Business for one semester which was divided into two periods.
Overall, I was really satisfied with the teaching methods and the communication. Comparing to my home university, the classes were more interactive and most of the assignments were supposed to be done in the groups. The teachers were very helpful in all aspects. They also treated us like their collegues which made the environment much more relaxed.
Talking about the environment, the school provided many student communities including my favorite ISB. Every week they organize different events for international students, such as food festivals, pot painting, movie nights and so on. It’s a wonderful place to spend time with your friends and do something enjoyable together.
We can’t forget about my beautiful porsche – my bike, of course. I think that when someone mentions the Netherlands, people tend to picture crazy language, marijuana, and cycling. And for us cycling was not an exception. I got my bike the first week of my stay and since then, I have been cycling everywhere in Arnhem. It was our only transport at that point, even when it was raining like crazy or freezing. We got used to it. And just so you can imagine what exactly I mean by that, in total, I cycled 865 km during these 5 months in Arnhem. And just to be clear I was not really a bike fan before.
Cycling is definitely something I love about the country. The language though on the other hand not so much. I took a Dutch course at my local university and thanks to our teacher, I learned basic things that are needed for a conversation. According to that course, I should have an A1 level. Well, that’s what the course says. However the language itself… German has suddenly become a nice language, I’ll just say that. Luckily, every Dutch person can speak English, including older people.
Besides that, the Netherlands is a nice country. We visited places like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Groningen. They all look pretty much the same. But they are all beautiful. Utrecht, The Hague, and Groningen are the cities that I liked the most. Utrecht, in my opinion, looks like a smaller Amsterdam. There are fewer people and less chaos, yet the structure of the city is really similar.
I think we took as much as possible from our exchange. Indeed, every Erasmus can look different. It really depends on the place, school and mostly on the people you spend the time with. We were lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing and friendly people. Either way, this is an experience I would recommend to anyone. It helped me grow as a person, to see life from different points of view, to work in an international space, and much more. And even though one semester is quite a short period you will find out if working and living abroad is actually a thing for you. The key is to be open minded and get out of your comfort zone.
It’s one big vacation, isn’t it, B?;D
BON VOYAGE 