Ha fellow econometricians,
Apart from the interested reader this article is mainly written for those of you who feel themselves captivated by the luring opportunity of studying a semester abroad. I will tell you about my experiences at the Auckland University of Technology but of course I will only be able to hit the tip of the iceberg. I like to see life as a sum of experiences and an exchange is definitely an experience that adds to this sum. I hope you will find this piece helpful and I encourage you to not hesitate and contact me if you were to consider choosing the partner university AUT.
But on exchange you get the chance to look at the Netherlands and at the world through the eyes of a foreigner.
Of course there are the obvious reasons to go on exchange like: meeting new people, getting involved in an unknown culture, becoming more independent, etcetera. But there is one particular reason that stands out to me and that I would like to highlight: that reason is the change of perspective going on exchange will gain you. All your beliefs and opinions are a direct result of your perspective, the perspective you have spent your entire life developing and that is shaped by every single experience of yours. But on exchange you get the chance to look at the Netherlands and at the world through the eyes of a foreigner.
So what is an exchange like? At first you may feel hyped and excited or maybe a little scared and lonely. You will be outside of your comfort zone. What I found to be the best approach was being proactive, talk to people, get involved and then you will feel home soon enough. AUT made it very convenient for us, they set up a facebook group with all the exchange students through which it was very easy to meet people almost immediately upon arrival. It was also very helpful that the majority of the (international) students all were living in the same place (WSA student apartments in the centre of the city), which made it very easy to make and maintain a lot of friends.
The workload of the university in the undergraduate was very low which left me with a lot of spare time to spend on travelling and parties. Basically I could join some people to party almost every day but I chose to spend more time to explore the best of what the country has to offer. Every day was just a lot of fun and all the people around you are likeminded in the sense that they want to make the most of their time.
As a concluding note to this article a few general observations about New Zealand: the people are extremely relaxed, nice, and polite, the nature is breath-taking, cost of living and housing are relatively high, in general the country is a little underdeveloped compared to the Netherlands, the nightlife is okay, Maori culture is definitely worth exploring.
I would say choose a destination you like and make the most out of your exchange!
Martijn Cazemier
