Because of COVID, I had to study abroad online. The course took place in the Netherlands. Even though it was not the experience that I wanted, I gained a lot of knowledge. The course I took was on intercultural awareness. It was super interesting to speak to people from countries all over the world and hear their perspectives on the topics that we discussed. These topics included the history and economy of the Netherlands, stereotypes, and we connected what we talked about to our fields of study. Before the course, we wrote a pre-reflection about our thoughts regarding the culture, politics, society, educational system of The Netherlands. I realized from this assignment how little I knew about the Netherlands. In fact, throughout this entire experience I learned how little I knew about several cultures throughout the world. It was interesting to me to simply hear other peoples accents and languages, let alone hearing their perspectives. Even though I would have liked to travel for my study abroad, this experience was still beneficial to me because I was able to better develop my intercultural awareness.
