by chilljin » Thu Sep 17, 2015 12:03 pm
need some advice
Been in Leiden for nearly 3 weeks now, studying here at the University.
The Netherlands is a lovely place, incredibly beautiful people and scenery - problem is that after a short stint homeless the only housing that has been offered to me is 535 eur per month, including a 950 eur fee - huge increase to what I was told/expected to pay. Plus, It's in Den Haag, a different city to Leiden. The commute is 15 minutes by train, but have to factor in the price and the fact I'd have to leave friends early to get the train and such.
Living poor itself doesn't really phase me, I can get by on minimal funds. It's just that stacking that up against the fact that in 3 weeks I haven't really made any friends - I missed the introduction week due to being at my sisters wedding, and everybody already seems immersed in their cliques. Went out last night to an international pub which was alright, but again I only met two people and that's because they had a bet that I was English. Don't misunderstand me here - it's not like I'm sitting and waiting for people to approach me, it's hard to gain friendship from forced interaction in a bar.
I'm just really unsure of what to do - the communication and help received from both Home and Host university has been displeasing, to say the least. My home university has informed me that I can switch back to my normal 3 year degree if I so please, so I've been weighing up my options to decide what to do with my life. What i'm studying in Leiden isn't really interesting as they for some reason don't let internationals onto the English Literature course despite it being taught in English, so I'm studying easy stuff non-related to what I enjoy.
I don't want to waste the opportunity of living in Europe, and how fantastic of an opportunity it is. I just don't want to end up poor and miserable with no friends, but I'm not sure how much of my loneliness can be accredited to the fact that I haven't really settled in at all with nowhere to live, thus limited interaction, whilst also having lots of alone time to miss my friends back home and the thought of graduating with them.