Hoi, my name is Sarah and I am a 21-year-old French girl from Paris. Since my childhood, I have always wanted to live in the Netherlands and that is not a coincidence. Indeed, my grandmother lived in the Netherlands for thirty years and I was visiting her every vacation. For as long as I can remember I know that I wanted to come to this country one day and build a life there as I fell in love with this country, the culture, the food and the people. I liked everything about this place except for the wind maybe!
So, when I had the opportunity to come back to the Netherlands to study for one year, I had no doubt and knew that it was meant to be, my dream was finally coming true. Since I already knew the country and the culture, I knew more or less what to expect.
Nevertheless, it is completely different to go on holidays in a country and actually live there and that is what I learned. I realized that I only knew the place where my grandmother used to live and I have never really been in contact with Dutch people. Finally, I can say that this was still a discovery when I arrived and I appreciated discovering this country with a new perception. Even if I knew the Dutch culture before my arrival, seven months later I am still not used to it; I am always late and I definitely cannot have dinner at six pm!
Living in Leeuwarden has been the greatest experience of my life so far and I enjoy it every day. When I arrived in this place, I have never heard about it before so I was in a completely unknown environment and I didn’t really know what to expect. Then, I discovered the city and fell in love immediately with the canals and the cute cafés everywhere. To me, Leeuwarden is the best place for an Erasmus because it is a human size city, the people are very welcoming and you can do everything by bike!
I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to come here and I’m already sad thinking that I have to leave soon. Finally, I would recommend anyone to step out of their comfort zone and experience the life in a foreign country and especially in the Netherlands, the quality of life is worth it!
