I had three different courses that were all from different degree programs, so I didn’t have any courses from my own field of study – that alone was very mixed to say the least. It was the thing I stressed the most about and in the end I came to the realization that the courses and the knowledge from them weren’t usable at all in my own studies. What a bummer! So I would highly recommend to choose a country/ university that actually has the courses from your own studies!
On top of that, in every class there were different people, so it made integration quite impossible… In Finland we have the home class, so there’s always familiar faces and while studying the same subject, it is easy to get to know the same spirited people. So on top of being in unfamiliar territory altogether, the variability and alternating faces felt quite overwhelming. That was also the biggest reason I took advantage of the online class -possibility. So, I took most of my classes online, but on the flip side the workload was out of this world; 100 pages to read from one class – WOW!
Of course not going to the classes in person added to the loneliness -factor, because without the classes I didn’t get to know people at all, at least not in a way that would’ve been the most natural way otherwise… I’m a highly extroverted individual myself and I didn’t get to have any support or social relations there. Many exchange students had arrived in the city before me and they had already formed their own cliques and it was borderline impossible to get in… Hence I felt left outside. I didn’t feel comfortable to push myself in and I ended up spending most of my time in my apartment. Mostly because of that I had time to suffer from such intense home sickness that I got to ”enjoy” depression and daily cry fests… I just tried to hang on and survive from one day to another, doing the bare minimum, while school work was falling behind etc. In the end I came to the decision it was game over for me, and I have not regretted it for one bit. Maybe one day I’ll visit again, but not as an exchange student and definitely not alone!
Even though the experience wasn’t the greatest for me, it was important learning opportunity and I would encourage anyone to go and try!
I came to the conclusion myself that I really need people around me and if anyone is like me, I would recommend them to ensure there’s at least one of the five to have enough support and social network to flourish while in exchange; either have student(s) from your own country, student (group) from same field of studies, other exchange student(s) or roommate(s) to to connect with. One option is also to go to the exchange with (school) friend(s) or spouse. Also, I want to highlight the fact that one can ALWAYS come back home, if it doesn’t work out.
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