Maastricht, NL

January 23 - June 5

After a week in London, I headed to my home base for exchange, Maastricht. Honestly, I didn’t really know what to expect before moving to Maastricht, as I had never really heard much about the city before.

Over my time on exchange, Maastricht has really surprised me in a positive way. It is a beautiful little city that has way more things to do and see than you would think. Often, I just go for small walks around the city, and it makes me really appreciate how beautiful it is. There are lots of nice little stores and restaurants all over the city to go to.

The going-out scene in Maastricht is also quite fun. We mostly go to a bar called Roto, and I also like Shamrock, Peter's (Trivia), Cafe Forum (Jazz), and Cliniq. I’ve had so many fun nights preing at the Guesthouse, then going out after 12 AM, which differs from the 9 PM Delilah’s resos back at home.

School has also been good, while also being very easy, which has been nice for me. We only have two classes per semester here, and the classes are all participation-based, which I am obviously really used to. I have noticed how much harder it is to work with the European students, though, as there are so many differences in the way they learn and approach group projects compared to what we’re used to back home.

Overall, I definitely love this place and have zero regrets about choosing this as my home base. It’s the perfect balance of chill and simple while also being fun. It’s always really nice for me to come back here after a big trip, as it feels like a refreshing reset, something that is really important when you are on exchange. I’ve met so many great people and friends here, and I’ll definitely need to come back and get nostalgic at some point in my life.