Marta Torelli

Hallo van Amsterdam!

I’ve been in my ancestral homeland of the Netherlands since the first week of August, visiting family members in different cities and getting accumulated to an even more European lifestyle than I’m used to. My maternal grandfather immigrated to the United States in the 1950s from Alkmaar in Noord-Holland and brought many Dutch traditions and family lore to his children and grandchildren. Although I heard stories about my distant cousins, I always wanted to meet them and see where my grandfather grew up. Choosing Amsterdam for my study abroad location seemed like an obvious choice. I’ve been bouncing around to have dinner with my distant aunts, uncles, and cousins in Den Haag, Lisse, Haarlem, and Utrecht, learning about their lives in the Netherlands, since my grandfather left.

These past two months have been a whirlwind of brief rainstorms, relearning how to ride a bike, and trying to pick up as much Dutch as possible. The Dutch have this program called the “Museum-Kaart,” where you pay €60 per year for free entry into most museums throughout the country.

Although I have been in the Netherlands for two and a half months now, I am finding it hard to describe my time in these public blog posts. Study abroad is such a personal and independent experience that has really made me turn inwards to think about myself and my place in the world. Not that I’m having a full existential crisis in Amsterdam, but my courses are making me think more about life after Colby than I have in the past. Reconnecting with distant family brings typical questions into the forefront of our conversations: what are you studying? What classes are you taking? and what do you want to do when you graduate? These questions have obviously haunted all of us Colby students since we received our acceptance.