By Phoebe Johnson

I took this exchange originally for the opportunity not only to travel, but experience life in a new environment. I gotta say, I got exactly what I wanted and more from this 6-month experience. Studying in Maastricht has been an amazing time for me, allowing me to take my sociology course to the next level and garner new experiences and stories that I can implement into my learning. Major highlights for me have definitely been the boundless opportunity for travel. Maastricht is a very central place, making it incredibly easy to catch a bus, train or even a plane to anywhere else in Europe, and I have definitely used this to my advantage. It has been a major highlight to experience holidays and seasons in new places, from summer in Germany, Halloween in Romania, winter in Hungary and then to Christmas in England.

The experience isn’t without its challenges; however, language barriers, even in the Netherlands, can be a partial issue. Often, I depend on what little knowledge I know of the language or even context clues to get by. It’s a minor issue, but not unexpected when you are travelling or living somewhere new.

Regarding the challenges from university itself, I recommend always keeping an open mind. A lot of the content in overseas universities will be, well, overseas content, essentially, it will be new to us New Zealanders. Something I personally struggled with at times is when the work centred around European history, when classmates were so well versed in European events I had never heard of. But this is what I wanted, and it’s what I got. Although it was hard at times, tutors and classmates are often understanding as to why you wouldn’t know certain events. They even welcome New Zealand perspectives into their learning, so remember that even though you are an exchange student, you’re there for a reason.

In the end, this experience taught me about the world around me really. I was able to live somewhere new, not as a brief visitor but as a resident. I was able to walk around new supermarkets, learn new public transport and even at times pick up new languages. This entire experience will greatly impact my future, making me more open to others, other cultures, other foods etc. For my degree, I can only imagine how far it will take me. I’ve learnt new perspectives of different societies and histories, being exactly the outcome I wanted for my sociology degree.

I am so grateful I was able to go on this exchange experience and I can only hope more people are willing to give it a go in the future.