Amy Marchi: Life in Vlissingen

The first couple of weeks were hard to adjust to, but after being here for a month I have comfortably settled into life in Vlissingen. We quickly realized it was necessary to buy a bike and rely on that as our mode of transportation. I miss my car back home but biking around the city to run errands is a nice change! (although it can be difficult sometimes when you have to do things like laundry). Everything is in Dutch obviously, so finding things when you are grocery shopping and navigating around the city can be a challenge at times. I will say though that you can talk to almost anyone in English in Holland and they will understand you and be able to speak very good English back to you.

The city we are living in is quite small and not very exciting during the year. It is located right on the south coast of Holland and attracts a lot of tourists during the summer months that come here to enjoy the beautiful beach and its boulevard. School is very slack and relaxed here so I have found myself with a lot of free time to engage in different activities.

I have become a far better cook over here because I have had a lot of time to cook and prepare good meals. I have also learned how to knit and play some strings on the ukulele. The student housing isn’t the nicest place to live in but it is a blast! I live close to all the new and previous international students studying at HZ. Every night you can find something to do because students are always hosting parties or get togethers. There has even been a few nights where students would cook for each other, different foods and meals they eat from their country.

Me and Chelsea cooked curry butter chicken for 12 people on a Sunday night and it turned out excellent! All the international students are really cool people around here who enjoy socializing, partying and having a good time. We have already had a week break at the end of February and have another 2 week break coming up at the end of March. During these breaks I have/will be taking these opportunities to travel to different places around Europe.

Travelling to different countries and cities within Europe is decently close, cheap and easy to get to. During the February break Chelsea and I travelled with a few international students we have met here to Amsterdam, then Barcelona and finished the trip off with one night in Brussels. It was a great week and we plan to travel to Budapest and Italy on our next trip at the end of March.

So far I have learnt quite a bit about myself, different people, cultures and customs and the norms in different parts of Europe. Travelling and living in Vlissingen with students from different parts of Europe and the world has really given me a perspective on the similarities and differences in different cultures and countries compared to my own. There are quite a few differences in Europe from Canada but not any that I haven’t been able to adapt to or embrace. Vancouver is a multicultural city so we are used to seeing many different cultures but there are still so many different cultures and people that I have met over here that I wasn’t really exposed to in Vancouver.

I have only been here for about a month now and plan to stay for at least 5 more. I have learnt so many things so far I am anxiously anticipating what the rest of my travels and adventures will hold. I am having a great time over here in Europe so far and I would recommend the chance to study abroad to anyone!