Five months as an exchange student in Erasmus University, Rotterdam is too short to learn European law systematically and travel around the whole Europe. However, it is enough to let you love there—natural scenery, art and history, attitude toward life, communication among different cultures. I was just like that Alice in Wonderland, surprises, challenges, problems, new things coming into my world one after another and making me think and try to remember everything happened during last semester. It was just like a dream, but I know it was not. For me, that experience will be kept in the deepest area of my mind and give me inspiration and strength in the future.

Study in Erasmus

There are two blocks in one semester in Erasmus University, Rotterdam. During the first block, I chose Legal Terminology and European Company Law &Labour Law;In the second, I took Legal Theory&Method. Before each class, you must read a lot of materials in advance, otherwise you will not understand what the professor said. Usually all the materials like papers, important chapters in books, cases are collected in the "Reader", a booklet made by the tutor, and related legislative documents are collected in another booklet called "Legislation". Because books in Netherlands are really expensive, it is much cheaper and more convenient for the students to follow the course.

In Erasmus, campus life was composed of not only lectures, endless reading materials, but also a lot of social drink and parties. As a teacher in Erasmus law school told me at the beginning of the semester, “You can subscribe any course you like, or even just the course of Parties!” For me, the Party was definitely a new course where you could make new friends, join the circles of local students and have fun.

A deep impression Dutch students gave me is playing hard but studying even harder! Even after a crazy party night, the next morning you can still find they go to class and study like normal. Most of them are confident and active, expressing their opinions or challenging the teacher‘s points directly. What I admire mostly is their talented language ability—Dutch student usually can master at least two foreign languages and all of them can speak English fluently. In the library, you can always see students reading or doing research. Another interesting thing is that there is a project zone for group study and discussion in the library. That’s cool, isn’t it?

Life in Europe

If you come to Europe, how could you not travel? Same currency, no boundary, cheap airline, numerous attractions...It is absolutely a heaven for backpackers! For me, I took a long journey around South Europe, from Italy to Spain, and then to France. Rome, Venice, Florence, Barcelona and Paris...those cities I have been to once only appeared in my dream. Travel by yourself is not easy at all. You must arrange everything beforehand and tackle all the possible problems on the way. Nevertheless, I still enjoy the whole course of traveling.

Besides exciting travelling experience, I cherish the friendship in Europe as well. As an exchange student, I have chances to make friends with people all over the world. The feeling of sharing the different angles of view toward the same issue is fantastic! At first, it was difficult to understand their thoughts totally, not just due to the language, but also due to the way of thinking and the culture behind. Later on, I found the language was not the barrier at all. Like one of my friends said, "because we are all human being, a lot of things are universal!"

Of course, the life in Europe was not just full of happiness. There were a lot of troubles and problems as well. For example, we found bedbugs in our first apartment and fought with them for nearly one month. And at last we had to move into another flat all by ourselves. I could never forget that scene: two girls, in the evening, carrying all the stuff, walked at least two streets for several times. In Netherlands, you must learn to face every difficulty, stay calm, solve the problem instead of useless complaint and scary.

I think I am lucky, encountering many kind people who helped me a lot. I feel grateful for having this opportunity to study in Erasmus and live in Europe before I graduate.