If Its Dutch, It Ain't Much

When I was accepted to study abroad at Maastricht, I was incredibly excited to have the opportunity to take classes on European Studies in the city where the modern European Union was founded. Unfortunately, my experience there failed to live up to my expectations and my semester there was one of the worst experiences I have had in my academic career.

Instead of arriving in a welcoming, inclusive environment, I unknowingly arrived in the Dutch version of Trump country and I wasn’t even safe from far-right nationalism in class. Having to listen to professors rationalize colonialism and slavery, insist that communism made Eastern Europeans lazy, and assign readings that were filled with racial slurs was incredibly demeaning. To come all the way to The Netherlands just to have to sit in class and be made to feel like I’m inherently inferior and don’t belong in the country because of my ethnic and religious background was beyond humiliating and dehumanizing.

I felt like the environment in Maastricht was so suffocating, both academically and socially, that I ended up traveling a lot just to escape and catch my breath for a moment. To feel like I had to escape from the city and country I had to call home for four months was incredibly upsetting.

Had I known that I would have had to constantly confront far-right nationalism and defend my humanity both inside and outside the classroom, I would have never set foot in Maastricht. As much as I did enjoy my travels and the new people that I met, I can not ignore how much pain I went through during my time there.