How I Found Myself in the Netherlands

​       For the past couple of months, I have been living in Tilburg, The Netherlands, completing my master’s at Tilburg University. Between the deadlines, my boyfriend, friends and family visiting me and travelling around the country every time I have a chance, I haven’t found time to keep blogging. I’ve been thinking about the blog these days, with a few months left until the end of my master’s and writing my thesis, I thought it is time to start blogging again. And what a better way to start than sharing how the heck I found myself in Tilburg.

        ​Every good story starts in the summer, right? Well, at least mine started in the summer of 2016. I had just finished my last bachelor exam at the University of Glasgow and had decided to take a gap year, before continuing my studies. I wanted to work, to take a break from studying, to decide which course I want to follow for my master’s and many other things. Some of my friends went back to Bulgaria, some were heading to continue their studies in other countries and some stayed in Scotland, including me. Between applying for jobs, working part-time and hanging out with my friends, I was browsing through different master’s programs in Europe to decide where I wanted to go next year. By the end of June, I exhausted almost every choice that there was, as it was either not affordable, not possible to apply or because they were not taught in English. I scratched almost every European country: the UK – too expensive, Spain – also too expensive, Sweden – it was an option, but I wasn’t sure, France and Portugal – no programs in English or too expensive, Germany – I could not find what I was looking for and the list continued on and on. Until I remembered that in my second year in my bachelor I wanted to go for an Erasmus in Maastricht, the Netherlands. I searched for master’s programs there in Marketing, Digital Marketing and Communications and there it was, one of the top searches: Communication and Information Studies at Tilburg University. I went to the website of the program and there I found out that there were 4 tracks, one of which the Business Communication and Digital Media, was very close to my interests. The subjects were similar but still different to what I already studied which was one of my requirements, the program was in English, it was affordable and it was not too difficult to apply. Checked, checked, checked and checked. All of my requirements were checked. The only problem was that I did not expect to find something so soon, I mean, I had a year off to do that, right? Since it was almost the middle of July and the program was about to start in August, I decided to postpone it for the following year. But right there, I knew, that I am going to be in the Netherlands for my master’s in August 2017.  I was telling all of my friends even before I applied. I applied in April 2017 and a month later I knew that I was going to do my master’s at Tilburg University in the fall of 2017. And here I was, embarking on a new journey, in a new country with many new places to see and new people to meet. 

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