Erasmus personal report Mees Tesselaar
In the first semester of 2019-2020 I followed courses at the university of Bologna through the Erasmus program. The exchange was an amazing experience and I would recommend going on an exchange to everyone. The exchange is a way to get to know another European culture up-close and to really experience what it’s like to live in a different country. This was a very good experience for me, especially because I have Italian family and always wanted to live there and learn about the culture and language. Integrating into the culture however is much more difficult, you can take over customs like taking an aperitivo or drinking coffee at the bar but really coming in contact with Italian students is more difficult. Especially because most foreign and Erasmus students tend to group together because its easier for them to make friends that way, and most Italian students had their circle of friends already and weren’t looking for anyone new to join their group. This made it difficult to really integrate in the culture as it’s best learned from interacting with its people. In the end I didn’t feel like my Italian improved much because I mostly had non-Italian friends. There are always exceptions to this and I knew some people that were very much integrated but this also often came because of their housing. My accommodation in the city was good of itself but not for integration as I lived with my older landlord one other student and no communal living space. It would better for integration to live with several Italian students and to have a communal living space where everyone is together and watches tv together this way you’re constantly in touch with the language and the cultural aspects of it.
I really liked the education at the university of Bologna. The course I followed at the faculty of political sciences where very interesting, interactive and up-to-date. What I don’t like about my university in Groningen is that education is to theoretical and misses the link to the real world. In the university of Bologna the knowledge was applied more to real-life practices and we discussed more recent topics. I followed three courses (democracy and populism in Europe, Dilpomacy in a global world, crises: risks for integration and solidarity in the European space) at the political science department and one (politca e media nell’età contemopranea) at the history department.
The courses at the department of political science where all at the level of a masters degree. Maye that is why they were all able to be used in the real world as much as they were. Democracy and populism in Europe was a course followed by mostly Erasmus students and a small amount of Italian master students, teaching was in English and the course very good for learning about several
democratic processes and tendencies in society. I also liked that the professor put a lot of effort in the course by inviting several guest-speakers in the lectures. What I didn’t like is that for the second half of the course we were only listening to other students presenting which wasn’t very helpful.
Diplomacy in a global world was the most up-to-date of all the courses. The lectures, given by an old diplomat with an impressive resume, were very loosely structured. We would mostly sit down and he started talking about an issue or phenomenon in international relations and then we could comment and ask questions. We always discussed current affairs how they came to be and what the solution to problems might be, he also through his own experiences as a diplomat let us in on how life as a diplomat is and how proper diplomacy is conducted. Crises; risks for integration and solidarity in the European space was in my opinion the best course that we had. This was also a master level course but also in Italian which unfortunately made it hard to understand and follow at times, especially because the professor talked very fast. We discussed two crises the 2008 financial crisis and the migrant crisis and their effects on European society. I feel like I learned a lot from this course especially as it gives a different perspective on these crises that I didn’t experience while studying in the Netherlands. The course was also very impressive because we saw around 15 guest-speakers in
the lectures and in other special lectures organized by the course. It’s unfortunate that I wasn’t able to fully participate in the lectures due to the language being very difficult, but it was definitely a very good course.
Bologna as a city is an amazing place to live and especially for students. The city quite compact especially the inner city and everything is reachable by bike or with a short bus ride. The university is located in the middle of the city in beautiful old buildings. The city being as student-oriented as it is, offers a lot of possibilities for students in bars, restaurants etc. The city is clean and apart from some areas I never felt unsafe within the city. Bologna is located in very beautiful region and through the very good and affordable Italian train system I was able to visit several other cities around Bologna like Modena, Ferrara and Venezia.
All in all I’m very positive of my exchange and with better housing and more integration with Italian culture it would have been a perfect exchange for me
