Study Abroad: Envy? Ain't nobody got time for that.

If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.

I am not going to sit up here and lie to those reading... I am anxious as hell about going abroad! Although I am busy preparing for finals as well, I am counting the days until I leave (which are not a lot tbh T^T). To document my experiences going away I am going to try to discipline myself when it comes to blogging. I have also decided to make vlogs, (which will probably not go public for everyone to see though,) and this I believe will be the most difficult part to get used to! But having looked around on the Internet, I have not found many blogs that have detailed journals of people's experiences living abroad for school or work. And especially not about where I am going... I did not want to reveal where I am going until actually being there (I am paranoia like that sometimes), but I thought blogging about it would give me the opportunity to get to know people from there (or know about it). So without further ado, spilling the beans right here right now, in one month I will be leaving for..... Toronto, Canada!

Oh my beloved city of Amsterdam, just thinking about leaving you behind gets me all teared up from inside! Although I betrayed you by moving to the outskirts (because almost everything outside of XXX belongs to the outskirts for a girl from Amsterdam), you will always have a special place in my heart and I will still love you dearly. But now the time has come for me to expand my horizon, and seen as I like to be a little extra sometimes, I decided "Why not cross a damn ocean?" And so I will!

To be frank, I have never shown a lot of interest in Canada. Being a bit obsessed with both Asian and American (as in U.S.) culture, I always 'forgot' about the northern part of North-America. I have though, been addicted to the Degrassi series back when I went to highschool. But it never really hit me the show was actually Canadian. Also, thanks to Southpark I automatically thought of Terrence and Philip, when thinking about the country. I know, shame on me.

When I applied for the exchange program (because I will be going there to study yes), not many choices were given because of the period it would take place in. Also, my level of studying limited my options (I am already a Master's student). But in between that small list of city names, there was Toronto and I thought "Hmm... Sounds kind of interesting...". So I went online to find out about this magical place, and to my suprise it turned out to be one of the most multicultural cities in the world! Being from the multi-culti city of Amsterdam (although this idea is very ambiguous in my opinion), this sounded like the perfect place for me to live in.

When I found out I was selected for the program you could not tell whether I was laughing or crying, and whether the latter resulted in tears of despair or joy. This was truly a dream come true! It was really difficult for me not to share this exciting news with all of my friends and family, but being supersticious as I am I waited until I received an official acceptance letter from the university I applied for. And now, here I am counting the days until I will be leaving. Which is über-annoying, because it is so hard for me to focus on studying for my finals right now! But I have to get a grip on myself, quit blogging for today, and continue being fruitful and productive. Although it is kind of a good excuse, I have to admit that blogging is still a major form of procrastination!

This sums up my study abroad experience for now. I will be back soon for another update, and please make sure to follow me on social media if you want to read more about my study abroad experience to Toronto! Please leave a comment below and leave your blog address behind if you want me to visit it! Torontonians; Hey girl hey! I would really like to get you know you all ^^ (Non-Toronto people as well of course, hihi).

X

Sefanja Rubina

Pictures found on Google.com