Universiteit Maastricht (UM)

The best of the Residence (Gest House) was the social life there. Almost all the residents were exchange students, so living there permitted to get to know easily a lot of people from other coutries. I made a lot of friends there. The bad point was the price; excessive for the services offered (shared bathrooms and kitchens, no restaurant or cafeteria, no free access to the sport faccilities...).

International dinners and parties at the residence. The bad/weird point about it is that these were (almost) spontaneoulsy organized, so missing it was so easy as fiding it by chance.

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The language I spoke most was english (though I often spoke french with the french and belgian people). I hardly ever had problems in communicating myself in english, though acquired more fluency. I was not afraid of not speaking the local language (dutch, even a dialect of dutch in Maastricht), because I knew that english was widely spoken. And it really is! So I did not really had the chance of learning dutch since everybody spoke english, though I got to learn some expressions.

It is possible to request a free mentor service from ESN (Erasmus Student Network). They pick you up at the station and drive you to the Residence. They also offer any kind of help, especially during the first days.