Field report: Thilo in the Netherlands

My name is Thilo Querfurth, I was born in Wilhelmshaven, Germany and I am 21 years old.
I lived my whole life in the same city together with my parents and my sister. 
After I finished the High school I decided for myself to study abroad. The decision was very easy for me, because I love to visit other countries and I like to make new experiences.

Because of one travel to England I thought it would be nice to study an English subject. My old school was an economics and business school and because I like these topics I planned to study also something like this.

Then I moved to Leeuwarden in the Netherlands and I studied IBMS (international business and management studies)  at the Stenden Hogeschool. I was there for half a year and I am quite happy with my decision so far.

When I arrived in the Netherlands I had no culture shock at all. As a kid I used to travel a lot of times to the Netherlands so I was already familiar with this country. I also think that the Netherlands and Germany are not so different from each other.

I arrived here shortly before the Study Start Week started so I had not much time were I was by myself and where I could get confronted with new unknown situations. In the Start Week I already made several friends and if you have contact with other people it is quite difficult to realize the culture shock.

But I heard from other students having some problems to stay here in the Netherlands. For example one student from Cameron had no idea what to do or what to eat. He was not at the Starting Week so it was quite difficult for him to get used to this country or to get in touch with the other students. After I met him we took him to the city center to show him everything.

When I talked the last time to him he seemed to be more relaxed and already happy in the Netherlands.

So my conclusion is that for Germans or students from west Europe there is almost no culture shock, because of the similarities of the countries but for students from other continents it is quite hard to get used to the western world. 
I would tell other people to study a semester abroad, because you get a lot of international competences. I got new friends and experiences. A semester abroad can help you to become adult and independent.