Thursday 7 May 2020

Multicultural student life in Venlo!

Okay, so it is Kate again doing my final blog post. Due to the Covid-19 outbreak my time in Venlo was short, I was only there for about 6 weeks. However, within those 6 weeks, I have made some great memories and some great friends. Though I am no longer over there, I keep in contact with some great people! 

Lunch on a cycle to Germany!
I have made friends with people from Mexico, Germany, Italy, France, Denmark and Latvia to name but a few. As you can imagine, each culture is quite different. From being away I feel like I was given a greater understanding of cultural differences, but also how alike some cultures are to the Irish. 

From all of the Erasmus students and exchange students, the Mexicans were the biggest group.  Because of this, they were really able to show their culture and some of the best dancers I’ve ever seen! Dancing is like walking for them. They love to move and are constantly wanting you to dance with them. Unfortunately, I would not be the best dancer but with their help I improved a little!

Mexican friends wearing my hat
 which I forgot to bring home!
From the very start, a nice friendly group emerged, and everyone got on very well. We constantly were going out for dinner together and lunch at the weekends, and then during the week we would gather together in someone’s apartment and cook together. Often times, there could be up to 20 people eating dinner together. I really enjoyed doing this because each person would bring an item to contribute to the meal. Pancakes become a regular occurrence for us. We would eat, listen to music and just talk on the nights that we did not want to party. I also had joined a soccer team while I was over there, we trained Tuesday and Thursday evenings. I really liked going to training, even though I can barely kick a ball, but I was meeting local people not only exchange students. The team was a mix of girls and boys, but there were only 4 girls on the team, so we never got a real change to play! The boys were too competitive, but it had a great social aspect to it either way!

Playing cards became a weekly thing as well. I had never played much cards, but it was another great way to get to know people without the awkward conversations. I really loved being in Venlo, I was so so upset returning home so quickly. 6 weeks was just not long enough!

Thanks so much for reading my blog post  through out the year. If anyone from WIT likes the idea of working in Boulangerie Jade or has any questions about Venlo, I would be more than happy to talk to you.

Kate Miller. 

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