• Biking

A fun fact about The Netherlands is there are two bikes for every one person. I heard this going into Holland, but I never actually visualized what it would look like. There are bikes everywhere! Every time I walked across the road I was worried about getting hit by a bike. I truly did the “look right, left, and right again” walking around the city.  Within the first week of walking miles a day, I did the Dutch thing and bought a bike. I fell in love with my bike, because I used it every single day. Now, being back in the United Sates, I miss it more than ever. I will start taking weekend biking trips and remember the good times I had biking to the North Sea.

• Easy/Spontaneous Travel

In the States, I can hop in my car and drive anywhere I want, but I usually just drive to school or to get food. In The Netherlands, traveling was just as easy if not easier. I didn’t have a car in Europe, but that didn’t stop me from waking up early to catch the first three-hour train to Paris, or jump on the ten euro Flix bus for an eight-hour drive to Belgium. When I was in Europe, I had a sense of adventure. I only realized that I can do the same kind of adventures right here in the States when I talked to the people from Europe asking me if I’ve visited California. I now know how easy it really is to just make a destination a goal and go for it.

• Language

I’ve always had an interest in foreign languages, but I never actually understood the importance of them until I went to an international school. I knew a little bit of Spanish, and I even got into an introduction to Dutch class, but none of those were quite enough for me to actually communicate with some of my closest friends in their native language. Hanging around many Spanish speaking people, the once English-speaking majority soon became Spanish. I was unable to fully understand what my friends were saying, but I could see the expressions on their face which gave me a little bit of an idea. Being back in the States, I am going to make it a goal of mine to practice different languages with the help of my newly made international friends.

• News

In Europe, I started every single day by reading the news. I got my news from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other forms of online media postings. This was a great way for me to be able to stay in touch with my friends and family back home. The only problem with my news was that it was a majority from the United States. I realized that for me to learn what was happening around in Europe, I had to ask my friends and classmates. They briefed me on the major events that happened in The Netherlands and what was happening in their home countries. This showed me that I didn’t have the perspective of the world like I thought I had. I now start my day on talking to people I have met, because it is usually mid-day for them, and get caught up very quickly on what’s happening around the world.

• Friends

Friends and Family are the most important things in life. This is something that I believe and hope that everyone understands. I was very lucky when I met a group of friends on the introduction day at The Hague that lasted until the day I left. Even though oceans are between us, we still stay up to date using Snap Chat and Instagram.