Grace Baldwin ’17
Majors: Government and Global Studies
CIEE Study Abroad in Amsterdam-Social Sciences
Fall 2015
Amsterdam, oh Amsterdam. How I miss you so much!
I’ve officially been back at Colby for a little over a month now after studying abroad last semester with CIEE in Amsterdam and spending JanPlan in Italy. The transition back to Mayflower Hill has been exhausting, but I think I’m finally starting to get back into the groove of Colby life.
I had traveled a fair amount before I went abroad, including spending two months in rural Ecuador during high school. I figured Europe would be a piece of cake compared to being woken up by roosters every morning and showering with a cold hose. I thought I was pretty mature and felt that I had a pretty-defined sense of self. My foundation couldn’t be shaken. Turns out I was so wrong.
Before you go abroad, everyone tells you that it’s going to be “a life-changing experience” and that you’re “going to have so much fun” and “grow so much as a person”. I hate language like this. It’s soft and doesn’t actually do a very good job of describing a situation. My experience in Amsterdam solidified this notion; these simple words couldn’t even begin to come close to explaining the changes that I was going through. Through CIEE, I had the opportunity to explore a city that in many ways reminded me of my hometown. I had the chance to live on my own for the first time and learn about real-life problems, like how to toast bread when you don’t own a toaster or an oven. While I was well-supported by the program, I was able to be as involved as I wanted to be and that gave me so much freedom to learn how to stand on my own two feet. At the most fundamental level, I gained an appreciation of myself and an admiration for my capacity to pretend to be an adult in the real world. Studying abroad helped me find direction with what I wanted to do with my life, including defining what I want to do after Colby.
I’m thankful that my experience abroad made coming back to Colby so difficult. For me personally, that means that I had a successful time. My experience was so overwhelmingly positive that I’m returning to CIEE in Amsterdam this summer for 12 weeks.
While everyone’s semester abroad is unique in its own way, I still think it’s worth embarking on because you learn so much about yourself and your relationship with this giant planet we call home. It doesn’t matter if you’re in London or Japan, you’re still going to emerge with incredible insights and thoughts about what it means to be human.