Questions and answers

I was answering unsurprising questions with a surprising reaction: 'I'm going to study European Law in Maastricht'. Where else should I study such a subject than in the heart of European Union, where the famous Maastricht Treaty was signed in 1992. Even though somebody was surprise by my choice of university, I knew since my early high school studies that a university abroad is, after Open Gate, my second goal and dream.

Questions of the other were replaced by my own: 'Did I manage to arrange everything?' Needless to say that the next symbol of my summer holidays was arranging. Exchange of twenty emails with the university, sending documents, receiving documents, looking for accommodation, shopping, booking tickets and finally packing...But I did it all with a nice feeling of curiosity and a question 'How is it going to be?'. The answer was more than close, when I departed with the overnight Student Agency bus for a twelve-hour ride.

I arrived to Maastricht not only loaded down with an unbearably (literally) heavy luggage but also with questions 'What am I doing here, so far from home? Am I going to find any friends in here? Am I going to like it at all?' It is difficult to describe what I was feeling in that moment. Happiness that I have finally arrived was replaced by anxiety and fear of the new. Nevertheless, I was not finding any answers to my questions.  But it was only the first day.

Now I know that the first day is always demanding. The first day of the IB exams was also the hardest and did I make it? Yes. Did I overcome the initial fear? Yes. To worry about something new is a natural human reaction. I am saying this especially for future university students. You can pose the same questions like me, but trust me, there is only one possible answer and that answer is positive. Yes, I am correctly in Maastricht, the city I chose to study in. Yes, I found friends. Yes, I like it.

'Where do I start? How do I assimilate to the student life?' I asked, but more than myself I asked this my housemates, whom are already more experienced than me. The whole September could be therefore characterized by discovering new people, new places and university associations...and when there was time to decide, in which way I want to be involved in the university life, I chose my favorites. ELSA Maastricht and Universiteitskoor Maastricht. For those who don't know, ELSA is an abbreviation for European Law Student's Association, which is the biggest and the most prestigious of its kind in Europe. It consists of many committees, which organize tutorials, lecture and trips – it is the Seminars and Conferences Committee of which I have become an active member and which organizes these educational trips to Brussels, Hague or Luxembourg. Needless to say that thanks to this association I met so many amazing people. I met them too in the Universiteitskoor Maastricht, the Maastricht university choir. I was chosen to become a member of the choir out of 71 auditions, hence now as the rightful member I am already rehearsing the composition Magnificat for a big concert in January. As a part of the 'discovering' in September, I have also visited the city and mostly began to get used to the local university system.

There are two main way of teaching – tutorials and lectures. Tutorials last for two hours, consist of a discussion led by an experienced tutor and the students leave it enriched by new information and knowledge. Lectures, equally lasting for two hours, extend the curriculum of tutorials and are usually led by the coordinators of the current subjects. Both are taking place twice or three times a week. For example, I only have ten hours of school this semester. The rest of the time is a self-study, which is, at least fro me, the biggest problem. A considerable amount of courage is necessary to force myself to study even on Sunday afternoon.

The university is therefore simply a whole new level. It's no longer teaching from morning until late afternoon, nobody is going to write down your homework for you, nor is he going to remind you of them. This is where the adult life really begins. It is thus a question 'How am I going to manage to cook, make a presentation and study for a tutorial in one day?' that I ask myself on a daily basis now.

And when I find an answer for this one too, because I try really hard, the reward for me is the feeling of preparedness and knowledge, but also the view into future and another question 'What interesting and challenging is going to happen next in Maastricht?'.