This fall, as I prepared to spend the spring semester in Maastricht, the Netherlands, I imagined excursions that would take me to the far-flung corners of Europe. I longed for weekends spent far away from my normal responsibilities.
Throughoutmy first three months , those daydreams became reality. I don’t leave until early June, so I’m sure there’s more to come.
Thanks to the support of family, friends, and both IU and Maastricht University, I have been able to travel to areas of the world that were previously completely foreign to me.
Sure, this experience wasn’t fully as romantic and glamorous as I had conceived it to be. Being away from the only country you know for more than four months during such a formative period of your early adulthood does not come without challenges.
At times, the stress associated with planning trips with five or six other people far outweighed the stress of studying for an exam or writing a term paper. Once you’ve planned the trip, there’s the stress of sprinting through the Maastricht train station to make the train to Liege, Belgium and more.
I’ve had my share of hiccups this semester, the least of which was not showing up at the wrong Brussels airport for a flight to Morocco and having to kiss my 150-euro plane ticket goodbye.
Some of these moments provide opportunities for learning and growth that you can’t find in the comfort of your hometown or home country. You can make phone calls to family and friends, but those will only take you so far.
There’s not much your mom or best friend can do for you when they’re an ocean away. Instead, you’re forced to fend for yourself, and you often grow because of it.
The classroom dynamic was quite a shock as well. For one group project, I worked with four students from Poland, Brazil, France and Austria. While it took a bit longer for us to complete the project than it might have had we all been of the same cultural background, it was truly incredible to watch people think and reason in ways that I wasn’t used to.
From a wider perspective, Maastricht University’s approach to instruction has conditioned me to be a lot more self-sufficient in the classroom. Rather than being trained to regurgitate factoids on a Scantron, there’s more importance placed on solving a problem related to the course material and learning how to think independently.
While many people might cite separation from friends and loved ones as a reason not to study abroad, I feel the experience has strengthened those ties in many ways.
Something as simple as a random FaceTime call from a friend back home can remind you to put things in perspective and appreciate people you might usually take for granted.
The international flavor of Maastricht has certainly made for a distinctive experience as well. The dormitories are designated for international students, and I’ve befriended people from all over the world.
Though I’ve not become even remotely conversational in Dutch, I’ve become fond of the Dutch culture. Strangers regularly stop to greet you with a “Hoi!” and a smile.
People don’t move with the same hurried pace as they do in the United States. When I learned the Dutch eat their fries with mayonnaise, I deemed it heresy. Now, three months later, I’m a firm believer.
My semester in Europe hasn’t come without challenges, but it’s taught me lessons I couldn’t have learned elsewhere. The last few months have brought too many life-changing experiences to count, and I’m looking forward to what memories and lessons May will bring.
