Jun

4

Hello again from Netherlands

Filed Under Netherlands | Leave a Comment  | by

Wow, so I really ended up failing at this blog thing. After awhile you feel like no one is reading so it is kind of pointless but then again I think I’ll enjoy reading these someday. So here it goes.

School has been going … weird. This “module” (they break each semester up into 2 modules) I don’t have any class. Like I had 2 or 3 at the beginning then they are just having us work on a project independently. So basically I feel like I am doing nothing but at the same time I am doing a lot. It is hard to explain. It just doesn’t feel like school when you aren’t going to class seeing other students and stuff like that. Luckily the project is pretty interesting and will actually end up being quite beneficial.

The other odd thing you may be thinking is, “Why are you still talking about school, it’s June” well my school doesn’t end until late June. Granted they didn’t start class until the first of February but still that was only about 1 week after OU.

On to another topic. I only have about a month and a half of time left in Europe. I have really mixed feelings about the whole situation. I have been talking to other friends who have studied abroad about what they think the “perfect” amount of time abroad is. Basically I haven’t reached a conclusion yet but I’m thinking it is about 5 months. Of course this is different for everybody and in every situation but for me that’s what I think. At 4 months I would not have been ready at all but here getting into the fifth month it feels about right. I’m not saying I want to leave right now, I’m just saying if I had scheduled my flight for about right now I wouldn’t be thinking it is the biggest mistake ever.

After awhile you begin to feel detached from your “real life” back home and that can be a scary feeling. You wonder how things will be different when you get back, how they will be the same. You wonder if you yourself are really different or still the same. Our study abroad person at OU Jack Hobson put it really well:

Before you leave to study abroad you are a plant and you are in a pot, your pot is your home. Then you go to study in another country and you get uprooted and taken out of your pot. While out of your pot you grow, in all different directions, sometimes a little sometimes a lot. When you get back home you and everyone else will try to put you back into your pot. The problem is, sometimes you don’t fit anymore. There will be struggles and fights to get you back into that same pot you used to fit in and sometimes you get right back in but sometimes you just have to get a different pot.

To me that sounds pretty perfect. I guess I am scared that I’m not going to know where I fit in when I get back. What am I going to do, I have been gone for so long and guess what? The world moved on without me.

So I leave you with that and I hope to write more.

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