I was super overwhelmed when I first arrived in Maastricht, but I am attributing that to the fact that I have never been to Europe before this semester. The geography is very flat, which makes biking around very easy and fun. It is not as green and vibrant as Fairfield, but it is nice to have some aspects of city life/education. Everything is very clean and I really liked the architecture, history and international feel of the city. It was very overwhelming hearing so many languages in such a short period of time but now I have adjusted and gotten used to it.
I am really happy to have a single and my own space, but then our kitchen is shared across the hall so I have made a lot of friends and fun memories cooking and hanging out with everyone on my floor. Out of the 20 people in my hall, I am 1 of 6 Americans and the rest are international students from across the world. It is super cool to make friends with so many international students.
The academic experience is taxing and rigorous, but this is what I signed up for. Two classes per period, two periods per semester so things move really fast. Problem-based learning (PBL) is very different from the teaching style at Fairfield and from what I am hearing from friends pretty much everywhere else. I have had to do more reading than I am used to, turn in fewer assignments than I am used to, and there is only one test per class which is very different from the time at Fairfield. I meet twice a week for 2 hours at a time with my tutorial group (smaller classes of about 10-15 students led by a master/phd candidate student)in each class, where we go over problems assigned from the syllabus or from a previous lecture (taught by course coordinator, includes everyone that is taking the class this semester from across tutorial groups).
have been able to travel/plan to travel every weekend from 15/9/2023 to 7/10/2023. Maastricht is an awesome launching point for day trips and longer trips as well. There is a very vibrant nightlife and social scenes here, as well as many opportunities to be involved in an active setting and various clubs in the area (gym, biking, hiking…). For time off I have been doing a lot of cooking, working out, tennis, and traveling.
