Maastricht Exchange

Firsty I would like to apologise so far how little I have written about my time overseas, this by any means does not meant that I have nothing to report back on! I in fact could write a whole book on my experiences, the amazing people I met, the good times I had, what I learnt, and how I would be back there in two seconds if I could be.

To start with Maastricht is an amazing place, little cobble stones everywhere, grand bell towers, roman inspired buildings and towers, fountains, bicycles everywhere, its just absolutly gorgeous!! What did make my time in Maastricht a truly unforgetable experience was the people. The Guesthouse provided is a great way to meet all the other exchange students who are all in the same boat as you. You then begin to create some life long friendships and live out the most amazing experiences in which you will never forget.

The university itself was a huge challenge for me as it is run with the Problem Base Learning system, a huge shock from Waikato Uni. I think i can truly say that I learnt more at my short time at Maastricht uni then what I would have learnt in a whole year at Waikato. In saying this, yes the workload was hard, but I feel that I have gained signigicanlty from being placed in this situatuion and would not choose another exchange uni over Maastricht any day.

There is a great group of volunteer dutch and german students who are called the ESN group. They organise introduction week, weekly parties, as well as weekend trips away. They provided us with great entertainment and an insight to a different culture.

It was amazing to just say im of to Paris, or Prague for the weekend as every weekend would be a totally new adventure. With cheep ryanair flights and lots of awesme likeminded people who are all keen to travel like myself, you soon get a big group of people traveling to different places each weeked.

Oktoberfest was one of my favourite weekends away, we all piled into a car and travelled 7 hours to Munich where it was all happening. I think its fair to say this has been the most crazyest thing I have ever experienced. We all piled into cheap tents we had found, and lined up at 8.30AM outside a tent, waiting to be served our first beers of the day at 9am.. now these just arent ordinary sized beers, they are one litre (similar to the ones you find at the outback beer fest). The spirit inside these tents was just amazing and gets you so amped up to the best mood ever! Everyone is in their german outfits and in the greatest moodset. You found yourself crawling out of the tent around 1pm, only to have a little nap under a nice shady tree, and then wake up and head into another tent for the afternoon. Oktoberfest is defintly something that everyone should experience in their lifetime!!

I remember the first day the snow came, I was way to excited for everyone to believe haha, I hadnt seen it snowing before so i was defintly over the moon. It was amazing and heading out to your end of year exams with the whole place completely covered in snow will defintly be an experience I will never forget. I always thought that I could never live in a cold place covered in snow, but after this trip I know that I would absolutly love it. Sweeden was my first touch of being absolutly freezing, and getting dark around 3pm fully thats screwing with your mind, thinking that you have to eat dinner soon and then either go out or start to feel tired way to early, and you can defintly not sleep in or then you will only have a few hours of daylight each day.

I really feel that throughout a students university life, to go and experience a new university with a different approach to learning, or even experiencing another culture is defintly an opportunity that should not be missed. Europe is amazing with everything close by, I remember one weekend we all got on our bikes and biked 2ks down the road to belgium and tasted the belgian beer (fantastic by the way). I think overall I went to about 16 countries or something riduculous like that. I defintly feel that I made the most out of every opportunity which was made available to me, and feel that I have gained so many life skills and learnt so much from this experience and would defintely be back there in a second if I could.

From this I have friends all over the world in which i still keep in touch with and know that I will go back and see them one day hopefully in the near future. It just opens so many new doors for your future.

Alright feel like I should wrap this up even though I could for sure babble on for about another 10 thousand words, if anyone wants to know more about my trip or have any questions about exchange or Maastricht, please dont hesitate to email me.

Emma McMahon