Final Thoughts

As our time in The Netherlands is coming to an end, I feel sad but excited to be going home. Throughout our time in Eindhoven, we were quite lucky regarding Covid 19. We got to experience life back to “normal” as masks became a thing of the past (excluding public transport and hospitals) so that was nice but scary as we became so use to it the past two years. However, the lifting of most restrictions then caused problems later on and we were then suddenly immersed into a minor lockdown- meaning all non-essentials would have to close at 8 o’clock. This was not a major problem until the curfew was brought back to 5pm. This affected most of our social life as most places were not opened until 12pm then closed 4-5 hours later. It was also anxious not knowing if a full lockdown would be implemented and it felt that we were waiting for each announcement every Friday. Thankfully, it only affected our last month! 

We had an amazing time and got to experience moving to a new country with a great location. The Netherlands has such an apt location that you can visit any country via bus, train, or plane for an excellent price. Whilst in Eindhoven, we visited Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Brussels, Rome Ciampino, Paris, London and flew back home once. If you do go to The Netherlands, I’d highly recommend this if you have the money as you won’t get the chance again. The workload in Fontys is minimal so it is a great opportunity to use your academic semester to your advantage! 

 

Finally, the college was interesting- it had a mix of multiple cultures and learning to get along with other cultures was an experience I won’t take for granted. The Dutch are quite direct, so getting use to this was challenging as for the majority- Irish people tend to beat around the bush. I believe this skill will stay with me for life as I begin my adventure into employment after college.

Thank you for reading and I hope to have offered some insight into living & studying in The Netherlands.