How I Learned to Lose Fear of Uncertainty

Living and Loving Taiwan : How I Learned to Lose Fear of Uncertainty: There are many many lessons that I have learned in Taiwan that I could write pages about but the one lesson I am so happy to come back home ...

If i had to describe my year so far, studying abroad, this little story does it almost too well. The choice to leave home along with its feeling of security and stability and reach out to new experiences, you learn to fear not what you don't understand and that not knowing is but an opportunity to learn.
Check out this insightful post!

And as always, Ask any questions about my experiences or share some of your stories & pictures of your experience studying abroad/ visiting a foreign country :)!!

Big shot, Big Campus!

Here in the Netherlands I attend Erasmus University, which at first seemed completely different than I was use to. Not only were the people and professors I met at campus a new experience but the campus itself, which is really really huge. 10 story buildings all around the campus gave a entirely different feeling of "school", one that i wasn't entirely used to. But that definitely intrigued me. Everything what we students on the island (St. Maarten) knew about what "universities" or "colleges" looked like, came from television or the internet so we sort of knew what to expect but it's a completely different feeling when seeing it in person.

This is a picture i took of a building on campus, it's funny to know that I haven't been in half of the buildings on my campus.

Just to give you a preview of my high school back home i found some pictures online.
(Pictures source: AOB architects: http://www.aobarchitects.com/miltoncollege.htm)

Buildings were nowhere nearly as tall and colors like neon green and blue seemed very appropriate. 

My high school, Milton Peters College, is the biggest school on the island with a rough average of 1000 students. From going to a class of 10 students to a class of 100+ was defiantly the weirdest for me. Making classes seem somewhat impersonal and difficult to even remember all the names of your classmates.

But that's what I love about studying abroad, it is experiencing these different situations and scenes and getting out of your comfort zone. 

Ask or share some of your stories & pictures of your experience studying abroad/ visiting a foreign country :)!!

Bikers, Bikers everywhere!

Bikers, bikers everywhere in the center of the Hague!

Biking is very popular way to get around in the Netherlands, seriously if you don’t have a bike or god forbid you don’t know how to ride one you’re going get some big reactions. What is considered as a mere hobby on my island (there is no way you can get from point A to point B with a bike on St. Maarten due to the gazillion hills we have) is seen as transportation for the Dutch.

When I told my Dutch classmates of my bike rides around the neighborhood just for fun, they could not hold back their smiles asking me: “So you don’t go anywhere?” and “You just bike around?”. Sounded pretty ridiculous too now that I was seeing it from their perspective.

Culture, making a certain activity two completely different things.

Ask  questions, or even share some of your stories or pictures of your own experience studying abroad/ visiting a foreign country :)!!