Homesickness isn’t something I’m used to—after all, I spent my first years on my own 5,000 miles away from my home. But It’s something relatively common for any study-abroad traveler. While a common language and spirit may unite California and Washington, D.C., when you jump over an ocean and onto a new continent, you get a whole new culture. Feelings of Isolation and innate difference become everyday hurdles, and these feelings are especially prevalent in your first week on your own.
My first week in Maastricht proved to me that I wasn’t immune to feeling homesickness. I felt out of place—I remember calling my parents and complaining that I had made the biggest mistake of my life by, me, the 158 cm, lactose-intolerant American girl who couldn’t ride a bike, moving myself for five months to a country full of tall people obsessed with cheese, and who text on their bicycle like it’s second nature. My Dad, who spent a majority of his younger years in Italy told me everything would be ok, while I shoved chocolate spread spoonfuls in between sobs, in disbelief.
Granted, it was. About two weeks into classes now, Maastricht and my exchange program are starting to feel more like home. I’m still short, still lactose intolerant, and still can’t ride a bike, but I am feeling more situated, to say the least. Once I got over the culture shock, I realized how easy it is to feel comfortable here. The Southern city of Maastricht is a relaxed and small city—quite the opposite of DC. People take their time to enjoy life, whether by picking up fresh Limburg tarts and spelt bread from the Bisschopsmollen or through a nice beer and meal on a restaurant overlooking the river Maas. People are friendly and direct, as all Dutch are, and eager to know you. Though initially quite reserved, once you get them talking, especially about US politics, sometimes you’ll even wish they’ll be quiet.
The program itself is conducive to this—UCM is a small—around 300 or so people—honours program, housed in an old nunnery. Most people spend all their day in this building, in the reading room, prepping for their tutorials, or in the common room or courtyard in-between breaks. Everyone knows each other and is eager to get you into the family, as you’ll be suffering with them soon in this intense, problem-based learning environment.
The motto of UCM is everything will be ok, plastered on the side of the courtyard wall in neon purple cursive. A motto perfect to drag the intensive motivated academic 20 year old back to earth. Calm down, take a break: everything will be ok, you’ll get through your classes. But, on another level, it’s a reminder that, for every other odd, chaotic event in life that seems to slap you across the face (see, moving across an ocean), everything will be ok.