Introduction

My name is Twan van der Slikke and I am a third year Management and Consumer studies student. When I got the possibility to study a semester abroad I was very curious and immediately decided to take this opportunity. From February till June you I will study at the Izmir University of Economics. If you are also curious about how it is to study a semester abroad, please, feel free to follow my journey.

I will follow different courses like retail management, health economics and newsmaking at the University. I expect there will be many differences compared with studying in Wageningen, but that’s just exactly where it goes about. It will be an adventure with lots of new experiences and people. But studying is not the only thing I am planning to do in Izmir! I want to explore the big city Izmir (3,5 million inhabitants) and other places in Turkey. Living in such a big city may be a culture shock for me. I come from a town with 10.000 people so let’s say it will be “different” then I’m used to.

I will go to Izmir with a good friend of me who does the same study. He also comes from a small village so I guess we have to help each other out haha. I am sure we will be fine. For my birthday I received a Turkish dictionary from a friend. I am now trying to learn the language a bit. I think the students and people at the university can speak English but for the daily life in Izmir it will be very handy to know some Turkish. I really have to go know! I need to learn how to say “2 beers please” in Turkish.