Céline Zahno | Part-time resident, master traveler
Many international students at the UvA are masters in traveling – whenever they get a few days off from university, they are gone on their next trip. While traveling is rewarding, I found that staying back in Amsterdam can be even more so.
As the end of March was getting closer and exams were around the corner, I spent my lunch breaks around increasingly full cafeteria tables at the library. My fellow students were happy to engage in artificially long small-talk to help forget about their yet-unwritten essays. There was one question that almost all my conversations opened with: “So where are you going for the break?”
International students at the UvA are master travelers – and so they felt no need to inquire first whether I would be away in the week Political Science students get off from classes after their exams. Their “Oh nice” and the accompanying head-tilted nod looked a little pitiful when I told them that I will just be staying here.
A general need to flee the city seems to be present among international students. A few days off from university? A train is booked, or a flight boarded. Whether to get away from the weather or to visit family and friends, it looks like Amsterdam just does not have it all.
For some, that might be all there is to these regular week-long trips. For others, the lecture periods have become intermediaries to the real, more exciting part of life. Their social networks span across countries or even continents and friendships must be maintained – so as soon as the hour of semester break strikes, they are not to be found anywhere near a gracht for two months straight. Amsterdam is their “study city” at most, but not the place where they will spend the rest of their lives.
When it was only the commitment of weekly lectures and seminars that bound me to this city, there was this constant nagging knowledge that I could be anywhere else too. I understand the urge to look for excitement all over Europe – the things to miss out on in the places that were left behind or not yet seen are easy to spot. But constantly seeking adventure elsewhere felt exhausting and the satisfaction of trips always faded quickly. It took me a while to realize that what I was really looking for was the place I came back to to feel like home – somewhere that I do not feel the need to get away from.
What I needed were a few holidays without a plan. Being bored on a weekend made me find the market I go to every Saturday now. As all my friends were away on their trips, I started talking to the flower-store owner in my neighborhood, who now occasionally gifts me free tulips and whom I practice my Dutch with.
No need to revoke the master title entirely, but staying back had its perks. The discoveries I made on obligation-free days ended up revealing the joys of the full-time resident’s settled life – and with them, the relaxing feeling of belonging to a place, and that place only.
Céline Zahno is a Political Science student at the UvA. She is from Switzerland.
