Final considerations

My portfolio has not a chronological order and every single post is not necessary connected with the previous one.
I chose to express my feelings and my opinions without closing them in an ordered box, but I left them free; for this motivation something could be not understandable, or at least not immediately understandable, but I prefer to express them how they are. They were born from a free mind and they should express what that mind wanted to say.

My portfolio is based on my feelings; it doesn’t talk about everything, about all the experiences, but only about those things that impressed my mind, that had a psychological importance in head, that gave me the opportunity to grow and to mature my critical thinking.

Erasmus experience made me changing and this is what I would like to convey.

Thanks,
Angela Testa.

Angela Testa intervews herself

Almost at the end of my Erasmus, today is 11th of January, I can finally answer to some questions.

Angela Testa interviews herself!

– What were your motivations to participate in a study exchange?

I had a lot of motivations.  I love to travel everywhere and discovered everything. I would like to be a journalist, and my curiosity brings me wherever it wants.
When I decided to participate to a study exchange I was moved by the wish to have different knowledge, to know different habit and ways of life.

– Why did you choose The Netherlands?

I love Netherlands. I was here, in Amsterdam, for the first time two years ago, on summer , and I fell immediately in love with it. I looked up the way to live of Dutch people and I dreamt to live here.
Then I thought that could be really nice to come here thanks to an Erasmus exchange, and I tried.
I had lots of expectations, I wanted study my subjects and have a professional growth, comparing my knowledge with Dutch way of communication.
When I discovered to have won the place for The Netherlands I was divided between tow different possibilities: Belgium and Netherlands. I could also go to Bruxelles, but I preferred to come here, even because of the language. In Bruxelles I would have to speak French, and even if know French, It’s much easier and more useful to speak English.
After 5 months I could say that I missed my goals, but I don’t’ regret my choise, because here I learnt a lot about life.

– In what is the life in The Netherlands different from Italy?

I can’t answer to this question, because I didn’t live like a Dutch person, but I lived in a surreal space and time. Erasmus life is a dream, in some way, you can forget about problems and live your life with happiness and joy.

–  What do you think about teachers/students relation here?

Wow, this is the most surprising thing. In Italy is totally different, we have class of 200 students, we can meet the teachers only once per week and the relations are very formal.
Here, we have had their telephone number and we could call them with the first name: impossible in Italy!!!

– What did you learn from the educational content that has been offered to you?

This is the bad side of my Erasmus experience. I learn nothing useful for my career, but in spite of this I learnt new things that have increase my background of knowledge.

– Are you satisfied by your choise?

Of course I am.
I could never regret.

Me

 

My Erasmus family

It’s the moment to talk about my Erasmus’ family: people who lived this experience with me.
We lived in Nijmegen, in a student-complex called Vossenveld. We were 23 people on three different floors (1st, 2nd, 8th) plus 7 people from Arnhem.
We were always together: trips, parties, dinners, barbecue…

I’ve ever met as much as special  people like them. I learnt a lot from everybody, I love them a lot, I look up to all of them, I’ll miss them.

With them I felt like home, with lots of sisters and brothers, with mom Maja and dad Rober.
Joy, happiness, fun, love, brotherhood, friendship…they have been the strongest feelings everybody felt.

Rober: He’s special, lovely guy, very gentle an pure. From him I learnt that there’s always a hope.
Maja: She’s determined and bossy, but deep down she has a big and generous heart. Thanks to her I learnt to be diplomatic.
Barbara: I don’t have nothing to say, a part that I love her. She’s a bright flower in a dark forest. I learnt lots of things from her and I’ll bring with me her preceptions, for ever.
Mauro: The same as Barbara. I love him, I look up to him, I’m glad to have met him. Thanks to him I learnt to enjoy every moments and to be lively.
Teemu: He’s one of the most important for me. He’s Finnish and he’s like a  dream. From him I learnt that feelings are more important than sex.
Merete: Wonderful, lively, smiley, funny, crazy woman. I learnt that laughing is the best way to be happy.
Gokce: My favourite sister. Shy, but charismatic. Thanks to her I learnt that it’s really nice to compare ideas about wars, politic, history with a person from another country, with different culture.
Sauro and Chiara: marvellous people. From them I learnt that the silence is the best way to be in contact even if we are in the same room.
And than the rest: all special, all great, all awesome.

(Thanks to Alberto for the video)

Does erasmus experience change your life?

Everybody asks me if it’s true that the Erasmus experience change the life.
I thought about this…
…and I think it doesn’t change the life, but for sure I’ll come back a bit different from five months ago.

Here I learnt a lot of things.
I understood that people let you down, but they do this only if you have expectations about them;
I learnt to accept people how they are;
I learnt that if you don’t ask you’ll receive;
I learnt that people could surprise you;
I learnt that people are not how they appear;
I understood that it’s really stupid to have prejudices;
I understood that simplicity is the best way towards happiness;
I understood that you never know what the life is preparing for you, but for sure it will be wonderful;
I learnt that a smile could be the best present that you can give and receive;
I understood that I can feel home even if I’m 2300 km far from home, because home is the place where you feel safety;
I learnt that you can love without demanding;
I understood that accepting people how they are is an important step towards forgiveness.

I learnt to love, to be happy in every situation and condition, to walk on my way in spite of obstacles.
I found serenity inside of me.

Erasmus experience

Five months without writing…
…it’s too much for me.

Of course, I wrote something for myself and for this portfolio, but it’s different. I would like to write articles, reviews, essays… but I have no inspiration about any subject.
Instead, during these five months I wrote a lot about myself, my mental growth, my personal development and I discovered that when I write I can connect myself with the subconscious part of my soul.
In other words, it’s an inner dialogue that gives me another point of view on the reality.

Erasmus experience gave me the opportunity to analyse and understand myself. Maybe it wasn’t good for my future career, my professional growth and my studies, but it was really important for me as a person.

I’ll never regret to have done this experience an I’ll never forget any wonderful moment that I spent here in the Netherlands, with special people, magnificent environments and amazing atmospheres.

It’s the best experience of my whole and short life.

Travels #2

The Netherlands is almost in the middle of the Europe, so it’s really simple to travel everywhere.
From here I went to different countries: United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium.

I was in London in October, with Enrique. There I met two friends from Italy and it was perfect. Good weather, funny company, bewitching city.

Holland Park

I went to Belgium in November, with 14 people, included students from the TET course. Three days, three cities: Bruxelles, Brouge, Gent. Wonderful cities, I gasped. Chocolate, music and good smells everywhere. I fell in love also with Belgium.

Brouge

Finally I was in Spain: Malaga and Seville. For me this travel was like a flashback, it was like to be in Italy. Warm and noisemaker, with my Italian friend it was like to be home. But after one week I was happy to come back in the Netherlands!

Reale Alcazar, Sivilla

I love to travel and this Erasmus experience gave me the opportunity to go everywhere. I’m so happy to have chosen Netherlands.

What’s the meaning of life?

Meaning of life

What’s the meaning of life?
This hard question followed us for 5 days, during the tour to the west.
Everybody tried to answer. Someone said: “Live the life without asking everyday what‘s the mining of life”; and someone else: “Experience it very fully” and than “Take care of other people”, or “believe in a life after death and live to reach it”.
But is it really like this?
I think that everybody has the own meaning of life, but nobody knows it exactly.

My meaning of life is to love. I mean, not to be loved but to give love to everybody, unconditionally: it’s human being’s instinct.

But this could be a problem, because everybody could misunderstand and think that it’s not normal to love so much, only as a friend. But I’m like this, I like to be like this and I want to continue to love everybody in my own way.

Thanks to Erasmus, I met people like me, for example Barbara and Mauro.
I know that I can love them and show them my love. They are my family here.
Sometimes, when I felt alone they were with me, they brought me out from the sadness that I had at the beginning of the Erasmus, they made me happy and joyful.
They show me what’s the meaning of my life.
I’ll never stop to thank them.

Travels #1

The Netherlands is famous for numerous things: cheese, tulips, bikes, marijuana, red light districts…

Specially in Italy, people think that Netherlands is an Eden because of the coffee shops and the legal prostitution, but during these five months I discovered that Netherlands is more than these superficial things.
In my opinion, The Netherlands is a special Country, inhabited by friendly and open minded people.

19 wind mills

Big and smiley windows seem to say “you are welcome”, little houses on two floors could surprise you, nineteen wind mills on a river leave you breathless, Amsterdam by night is

Strange thing

amazing, everywhere strange little thing could always make you smile.

The Netherlands is little and it‘s easy to make cheap trips in few time, by train or by car. I travelled a lot in all the Country (I miss only the North) and every city is awesome.
The tour to west was a good way to let us know something about the habits and to see some characteristic place.
Den Haag is indescribable with the Parliament on the water and lots of fantastic towers.
Delft is little and particular, everywhere you can find blue and white hand-thrown souvenirs: tulips, wind mills, children…
But the best is Gouda. A cute small town where we made our own candles. That day there was a street market in the main square; it was perfect because I love street market and also because there was the sun all the day.

Den Haag

ù

Delft

Gouda

A part of this, I was also in Utrecht, Amsterdam and Maastricht.
Amsterdam is the most amazing city I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ll leave a little piece of my heart in Amsterdam, for ever.

Amsyterda, Dam square

Vondelpark

Utrecht is really cute, I think is like a little Amsterdam, but more quiet, with lots of students.ù

Utrecht

Maastricht…is strange. Everybody told me is wonderful, but I was there in Christmas time and I didn’t like so much. It’s nice, but in my opinion is too commercial, with too much shops.

Maastricht

In sum, I’m in love with The Netherlands.

Crazy men!

In my apartment there are one crazy Spanish guy and one crazy Italian guy: David and Andrea.
You can imagine: crazy + crazy = madness.
They are like fools in a castle and they entertain us with crazy songs, stupid jokes and much fantasy.
You can see, if you don’t trust me:

Italian and Spanish people…I love them!

Cold war

In the first lesson of iEARN, with Roland Kok, we talked a little bit about Cold war.
Why it was called “cold war”?
The Cold War was the state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between the United State (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies from the mid-1940s until 1989s, when was broken the Berlin wall. Throughout this period, rivalry between the two superpowers was expressed through military coalitions, propaganda, espionage, weapons development, industrial advances, and competitive technological development, for example the space race.
The most important feeling in that period was the fear. There was no war between the two superpowers, but only local wars between the allies, for example South Korea vs. North Korea, Vietnam vs. US, Afghanistan vs. USSR.
Everybody thought that it was the beginning of a new world war, fortunately the crisis was solved.
But now, if we analysed our historical period we could find almost the same situation, i.e. fear everywhere: fear to fly, fear to go in Muslim Countries, fear to meet new people, new cultures, fear of a nuclear war. And again the USA are part of this “conflict”.
There’s something wrong.
Why couldn’t we live in real situation of peace?
Why should we have fear everywhere, everyday, for everything?
We are in a period of cold war, again, but nobody wants admit it.
My sensation is that nobody wants to find a solution, every Country is searching out the strife. That’s the problem.