For me, the best part (and most challenging) part of living abroad is creating a sense of community within a foreign culture. It makes the beautiful sights I get to see and the lessons I learn here so much more meaningful if I can share them with my friends.
Before moving to the Netherlands, I was incredibly nervous about making friends in my new home. I was worried I would have a hard time meeting people or that I would be lonely. I worried that language barriers(communication problems that arise when two people don’t speak the same language) would prevent me from talking with new people. I wondered if cultural differences would make it hard to relate to others. All these fears about making friends made me a little scared to move to Rotterdam. But after nearly two months in Rotterdam, I realized I had nothing to be afraid of—I’ve made lots of awesome friends here.
To start with, I live with four great friends. We are all foreign students doing a year abroad at Erasmus University, and we share an apartment close to the school. We cook dinner together every Sunday (this week we made pasta and veggies) and sometimes we travel to nearby Dutch towns together so we can explore. Fiona and Jess are from England, and we have fun imitating each other’s accents. Liam is from Canada, and tonight he is cooking us all a traditional Canadian Thanksgiving dinner.
