In the spotlight: Natasha Fairley

1. Who are you?
Name: Natasha fairley  
Age: 21
Hometown: Auckland, new Zealand                       
 
2. Studies
What? Law and politics
What year? 3rd year
Why? I want a job at the end of my degree and its great having the knowledge of the law when your in trouble for some reason.
 
3. What do you do apart from studying (hobbies etc.)? Travelling is great but hard since im from isolated NZ, I play chess competitively and use to enjoy exercise tennis and gym etc before i came on exchange.
4. Why did you choose to go abroad? To experience a place rather than just visit a country like a holiday, and to actually get to know and live the different lifestyle they have over here. Also to meet new people/ have new experiences that staying at home being in the same routine you don’t get the opportunity as often to do something different everyday.
5. And why Holland / Groningen? They teach in English and dutch people are accommodating and don’t mind speaking English socially to you, my sister also came here 3 years ago and recommended it to me. Plus the dutch are the tallest nation in the world or something so thats pretty awesome compared to nz guys!
6. Describe your first day in Holland / Groningen. I arrived at 10pm in the snow and eventually found the international house where a girl let me in and was really nice and then went into the common room and met about 20 people whos names i forgot a minute later but i eventually got to know them all really well.
7. What’s been your most positive experience so far?
Really just meeting so many people from all around the world that you can have such fun times with at esn parties or planning trips or just watching dvds in the common room.
8. And the most negative one? Nothing negative has really happened of course some people you don’t get along with or you find a course load more hard than back at home, but nothing has made me feel down for more than a couple of days,so nothing comes to my mind as really been something i wish hadnt happened.
9. Describe the Dutch in 3 words…
Tall, waxy-hair, confident.
10. What’s the main difference between (country of residence) and the Netherlands?
The landscape NZ is full of mountains and volcano’s, here there are no hills!
11. What do you miss most about home (and you can’t say ‘friends and family’!)?
My pets i have pictures of them on my wall. I also miss having the motivation to stay fit and health, that is truely gone here.
12.   Does Holland live up to your expectations, is it like you thought it would be
Yes definitely, theres alot of yum cheese and everyone is tall! And Holland is picturesque like i imagined.
13. What do you think of ESN so far?
A god-send for exchange students, esn does all the hard work by giving you oppurtunities to meet people all through out the semester also they throw great parties and trips.
14. What are your goals for this term?
To make sure i get to know people well enough to be able to meet them again later in life either in their home country or mine.
 15. Why would you or would you not recommend Groningen to your friends back home?
I would recommend it because it is a awesome student city with places to go out every night of the week, but also has a really nice relaxed vibe during the day.