Unique First Feelings As Third World Student In Europe

Your first few days as an international and especially third world student in Europe are very special. Here is how to fight some wrong first impressions.

Passing the airport corridors of arrivals from the plane to the passport check, you have your first glance as an international student at the country you are about to inhabit for a relatively long time, either temporarily, say, for two years, or who knows what happens next.

These first scenes outside the glass walls are the ones you will rarely see but ones you probably will not forget. Air-conditioned and unusually calm, well-dressed personnel, some smiling, some chit-chatting their early morning away. All looks so promising. Your passport check goes well. Except for a few basic questions about where you will study or stay, it does not look like an investigation.

As you pass and drag your heavy luggage through the arrival hall, you slowly start to believe that you have already accomplished a lot. You are in Europe as an international student. And you were probably in the middle-east, from what they call a third-world country. It cannot be a subjective fact when everybody calls it for what it is: a third-world country.