Over the past year, the Synjaal
Committee shared stories of Radboud students on exchange. Now, we’ll give the
floor to incoming exchange students.
Meet Jovial Jiawei Zhang, an international student from China who studies in Canada at Western University. Being an international student in Canada wasn’t enough for Jovial, so he decided to go on exchange in the Netherlands for a few months.
When he arrived in the Netherlands at
the end of January, he was impressed with the friendliness of the Dutch. They
were all willing to speak English to make him feel comfortable: a very
essential point in being abroad, if you ask me! Studying abroad is very
different from what you’re used to, in my experience. Jovial agrees, since in
Canada students usually have assignments, midterms, quizzes, and finals,
whereas his grades in the Netherlands depend on only one final exam and maybe
some assignment. Also, he needed to get used to the fact that all stores in the
Netherlands close early, especially on Sundays, that people cycle literally
everywhere, and, something I can really relate to, the lack of Tim Horton’s.
Surprisingly, Jovial admits he misses the Canadian snow too!
Luckily for us, there are some things
that Jovial loves about the Netherlands and Europe in general: Football, for
example. He doesn’t understand why the sport is not that popular in North
America, and he really enjoys watching the games. Besides that, there are no
huge distances within or between countries in Europe as is the case for Canada.
So far, Jovial travelled to Germany, Denmark, Czech, Belgium, and a few Dutch
cities, and he’s currently planning a visit to Greece. In the little time of
his exchange that is left, Jovial really tries to enjoy the culture of the
Netherlands, and strengthening the amazing friendships he’s made so far.
It’s amazing to see for someone born
and raised in the Netherlands that people are so excited about things that are
common for people living here, and choose to go on exchange here. But, then
again, speaking to Jovial made me realize once more that the Netherlands is
pretty awesome!
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