And so it begins…

Hi there!

First off, let me just say that I think it’s really fun that I get to write this blog for my home university, and it think it’s really fun that you’re all reading along. It’s nice to have a minute to stop and reflect on how my plans for my exchange are really going. So, Welcome. Come in. Have a cup of coffee. Join the ride.

So apparently, the day I leave for my semester abroad is getting closer and closer (which is why you’re here), but it honestly still doesn’t quite feel that way. My walls get emptier as my floors get messier, while the contents of my room are slowly being compressed into blue and white cardboard moving boxes.

I’ll be taking my final semester of my bachelor’s degree at Lund University (LU) in Lund, Sweden. I’m leaving mid January and will be returning around the end of June 2025. I’ll be taking my elective courses at LU, mostly about Swedish language, but also taking courses on Scandinavian society. One course is entitled ‘Gender, Social Change and Modernity in Sweden/Scandinavia’, and the other is ‘Scandinavian Model of Equality – Gender, Class, Ethnicity and the Social Welfare State’. These are obviously very different from my actual major in Psychology at Utrecht University (UU), but it’s refreshing to branch out after finishing my thesis at UU in January.

I would say I’m excited. But I haven’t really had the time to stop and FEEL excited yet, because the upcoming semester very rapidly went from being a distant future to staring me right in the face. There’s still a lot to care of, and to be honest it’s hard to imagine yourself living in another country for the first time. But either way, I’m able to find peace in the idea that the feeling of the excitement will soon set in once all the end-of-the-year pre-holiday chaos has worn off. Currently I’m just trying to go with the flow of things.

With that, I am at the point where I’m saying goodbye to my friends here. In a sense, I’m also saying goodbye to Utrecht. And even though it’s only a semester, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things, I am still a water sign (regards to my fellow pisces girlies), so I still get very sentimental. I’m going to miss my friends here a lot, but I also trust that we’ll keep such close contact that it won’t even feel like I’m away. I also get excited at the thought of making new friends, despite the fact that making friends as an adult can sometimes be really exhausting. I think nearly all of us will be in the same position, namely desperate for friends, so hopefully it’ll all come together pretty quickly.

At this point it’s just slowly starting to hit that it’s really starting, and I can’t wait to see what the upcoming 6 months will bring. I’m excited to share it with you!

Catch you later,
Ana