Howdy ho!

Here it is… my first entry from Brussels and perhaps my last one …

So last week was awful. Awful. I felt crushed having to leave and because it didn’t seem fair at all having to let go of what I’ve so much enjoyed doing during three months. I said goodbye to my teachers, pupils, friends… and then to the Netherlands. All and all it was a great experience.

It’s hard to describe what I have learnt. I mean, it’s not that there’s too much to write about, it’s simply because it is more at a personal level, as a person, that I realize this experience has affected me. And describing feelings is always though. Anyway, let’s just say that I learned quite a lot about the Dutch educational system and overall about Dutch culture, most of it from my colleagues. Not to forget the student-teacher relation, how they get on with each other and things like methodology or the difficulties of French as a foreign language.

In the Netherlands you live at a different pace… a slower pace. There is much less cars, especially in villages like mine, which obviously means less traffic, less noise, less stress but more time to enjoy the landscape and the surroundings. I’m really glad I took part in this exchange program and I always feel lucky to have met all those wonderful people. I’m forever thankful to whoever is responsible for sending me there. I would gladly have spent the end of the year there but duty called. That’s why I recommend everyone to travel abroad, if not now, at some point in the future for their personal experience.

See ya, Aswin!