Upon my arrival, the first thought that came to mind was: “Damn, this place is huge!”. And this applied to everything: buildings, distances, people (especially in their waist size) and of course also the food. It’s not a coincidence that the term ‘kingsize’ was invented here.

I went to Rutgers University, which in fact cannot be called a university according to Dutch standards. It’s practically a city! Spanning four campuses with a combined surface mass of almost 11km², 10+ bus lines that help you commute across campus and a hell of a lot of stuff to do. They literally have associations for everything (often multiple ones for each thing).

I always wanted to take up dancing so it was an obvious choice for me to join the Rutgers Ballroom Club. For a meager $20 per semester I was allowed to participate in everything. This not only gave me the opportunity to learn how to dance, but also got me to travel the country to participate in several dance competitions.

For example we travelled to Columbus, which lies at a distance of approximately 850 km from New Brunswick, to attend the USA Dance National Collegiate DanceSport Championship. An unforgettable bus ride of 2x11 hours, various food and fun trips with the club, the opportunity to see performers from all over the country and of course winning gold! Yes you read it correctly: our team won gold for the second year running.

After Columbus I also got the chance to participate in a competition held in New York. This was at Columbia University which gave me the chance to explore that university as well.

To conclude, America is a fantastic country with countless possibilities. If there is one piece of advice that I may give you then let it be this: go live the American Dream!