Blog Postings by Returning Stellenbosch University Students
Pre-departure:
The preparation for the exchange program was a lot of effort, but once I returned it all seemed like minor detail. It is worth it! My stay at TU Delft was only 3 months and not the usual 6-month exchange. The shorter stay is possible because subjects are taken in a quarter of a year and not a semester. It is possible to stay for 2 quarters, most international students did it that way. I chose the shorter exchange, because I wanted to return and work on my thesis.
I loved my comfort zone, a lot. Then I left it and learnt a great lesson. Before boarding the plane, I spent weeks terrifyingly wondering why I chose to exchange a perfectly happy life for one I had no clue about. I was annoyed by those comfortingly saying that I would return in six months and that it would all be the same again, because they were wrong – it won’t be the same – and I needed someone to tell me to stay. Nobody did, so I flew away.
Pre-departure:
For me the semester abroad meant much more than just an exchange. Living abroad, specifically Italy, has been something I thought about often but I never dared to explore the possibility. However, I knew that I would one-day regret not pursuing this dream. So, for about a year and a half before my exchange I started studying Italian, simply because I liked the language and the Italian way of life and I had a hope to perhaps have a use for it someday. Little did I know that an adventure of a lifetime was waiting for me…