Emma Kovarova: Erasmus University Rotterdam

Studying abroad can bring a world of new experiences, learning, and exploring. Emma, an Curatorial and Visual Arts student at AAU shares her story below:

Hey, I’m Emma! I’m a second-year major in Curatorial Studies and Visual Arts, and I decided to spend the Fall 2025 semester abroad in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Despite it not sounding like the nicest or most breathtaking European city, the gritty, industrial vibe with bizarre contemporary art and architecture was the only realistic option I had if I wanted to do an exchange. So, after completing the paperwork, at the end of the summer, I moved to Rotterdam. I was incredibly lucky to already know people both in Rotterdam and neighbouring cities, so the first few weeks was me going around Rotterdam, The Hague, and Amsterdam to meet my friends.

The partnering university I attended, Erasmus University of Rotterdam, was known to be a highly achieving and quite difficult school to keep up with. I can truly second that, the workload, readings, and assessments were truly time consuming. However, it had a massive modern campus, with welcoming staff, great professors, and interesting courses. As a Curatorial Studies major, it was challenging to pick courses that would transfer credits—as the school focuses on history, culture. and communication—so I only had one art course: was the History of Western Arts and Culture. For my other classes I was able to use my electives for advanced art philosophy classes.

The entirety of my 6-month exchange built up a part of my adult life that I have neglected for a while. As an art student, the availability of amazing museums and galleries in most cities, especially the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam, was wonderful. Being able to sit on a train for an hour and appear in a different city made exploring the Netherlands, as well as Belgium and Germany quite easy. Train and metro tickets do add up pretty quickly, and just travelling around the city for a day can get you anywhere from 10 to 30 euros, depending on the trip and means of transport. They do offer various discount and season tickets, but despite this, every month I would be shocked as to the fact that I was capable of spending 200 euros/month only on travel costs. I suggest getting a bike from Swapfiets or just walking, as the flatness of the city makes it quite simple.

The housing crisis is like no other European country, making me appreciate life in Prague. To get affordable student housing can be tough, so best way to do it is find people who “sublet”, facebook posts (watch out for scams, I recommend feeding images of the place to google see if the location even matches), or someone to live with as it is easier to get housing in pairs or student housing provided by EUR although it has a limited capacity. 

My time in Rotterdam built my resilience and independence. I felt a surge of confidence and power; I was able to develop hobbies like bouldering and dancing without the fear of judgment or the weight of past expectations. It was a period of pure, focused self-growth. I believe I have returned more grown up and culturally aware. I learned how to build a life in a foreign environment. The experience is like no other. I recommend anyone who has the money, time, and guts to use the opportunity of the Erasmus+ grants. Moving there in the Fall of 2025 turned out to be one of the most transformative decisions of my life.

P.S. The rain and wind conditions really do get bad in Winter, but not unbearably.