{"id":2777,"date":"2016-07-29T14:53:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-29T05:23:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/?p=2777"},"modified":"2016-07-29T14:53:59","modified_gmt":"2016-07-29T05:23:59","slug":"not-long-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/2016\/07\/29\/not-long-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Long Now!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Only two short weeks until I hop on a plane and endure 24 hours\u2019 worth of air time!
\nI am so excited to revisit some old friends in Scotland and around the UK and Europe before settling down in the Netherlands; my home for the next six months. I visited the NDL only very briefly a few years ago, so I am really looking forward to planting my roots in the gorgeous city of Maastricht<\/a> and being able to properly explore the whole country.<\/p>\n

By the time I leave Adelaide, I should have managed to save about $10, 000 (shout outs to Centrelink and the OS-Help Loan<\/a>, I recommend everyone eligible take full advantage!). This should suffice for rent, food, transport and a bit of cheeky travel along the way. Although I have done the Europe trek before, I still have a few places left on my to-see list and I hope I can cross them all off during my semester abroad.\u00a0After living in the UK for three years, I was always envious of their flourishing student lifestyle. I\u2019ve always wanted to experience school in another country and I feel grateful that I can do this AND travel all whilst still contributing to my degree at Flinders.<\/p>\n

For anyone reading this and having second thoughts about applying for the exchange programme, just do it! Don\u2019t hesitate; you\u2019re going to be spending a lot of time at Uni, why not embrace all the opportunities that come with being a student and break up your degree\u00a0a bit by completing a semester in a totally different environment!<\/p>\n

I\u2019m dreading saying goodbye to my friends and family in Australia for a second time. Having only just moved back home to Adelaide last year, I\u2019ve really just begun to settle in to home life and already I\u2019m packing up and leaving again. It\u2019s scary, but the opportunity was too good to pass up and I can\u2019t wait for all the amazing experiences I\u2019m about to have. I know the time will absolutely fly by and once February rolls around I will be dreading saying goodbye to my new friends and family in the Netherlands!<\/p>\n

See you again soon Adelaide xx<\/p>\n

\u00a0Melissa Sims, a\u00a0Bachelor of Psychological Science<\/a>\u00a0student,\u00a0Semester 2 2016 exchange at\u00a0Maastricht University<\/a>, the Netherlands\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Amsterdam,
Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Melissa
Melissa in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dutch
Dutch chocolate milk, ‘Choco Mel’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only two short weeks until I hop on a plane and endure 24 hours\u2019 worth of air time! I am so excited to revisit some old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[78,194,314,352,379,383,400,428,487],"class_list":["post-2777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-experience-blogs","category-outbound-student-experiences","tag-bachelor-of-psychological-science","tag-flinders-learn-without-borders","tag-maastricht-university","tag-netherlands","tag-opportunity","tag-os-help-loan","tag-pre-departure-post","tag-semester-exchange","tag-travel"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-exchange-experiences\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}