As you might know, Erasmus program usually asks exchange students to give advises to the back-home university students or the future exchange students. To be honest, I won’t and can’t give you a numerous and concrete advises, as I don’t see myself as an expert in studying abroad, in travelling or in dealing with cultural differences.

For the practical issues, you might know better than me the names of good shops, nice bar or find better ways for your trips. I just can tell you to prepare your good English, as it’s very important for your work as well as your daily communication. The common medicines (for the cold and flu) are also important as the weather in Groningen is very unpredictable and you can get sick easily. However, if you prefer the Dutch attitude, you won’t need medicines: you wait up to 2 weeks for the flu or cold to go away naturally every time you get sick, and do sport regularly here to strengthen your immune system.

About the cultural shocks and differences, they are still issues that I have to deal with in my daily life which is hard to tell and even harder to find a way to solve; and maybe one thing that I’d love to tell you, and that I try to remind me everyday is that “don’t try to please everyone, to understand every person, and to be the perfect intercultural person who don’t have any intercultural difficulty”.

However, if you still want to hear my advise, there is one message that I strongly want to give you: ‘Go abroad, travel, go for your work or your study, stay there longer than just few tourism days and get to know people!’.
Things will NOT be always easy: there will be moments when you get bored, feel lonely, miss your beloved family and friends, your country foods; there will be moments when you feel lost, you wonder about yourself, your values, whether you are doing the right things; there will even be moments when you ask yourself ‘why I’m here?’.
But all those moments won’t last long, and by the end, you always tell yourself that you have learned a lot, have gotten much more mature, and that going abroad is one of the best chances and experiences that you’ve ever had.