As hard as it is to believe, I have now hit the half way mark of my time as an exchange student at Maastricht University. So much has happened since I first arrived, yet my first days in Maastricht seem but a second ago. This means of course that I am now half way through my studies here. Studying psychology at Maastricht has been a different but fascinating experience, so for all of those interested psychology students out there let me give you the rundown..
Psychology students who elect to come to Maastricht University in the spring semester have the option to participate in the third year elective subjects. The elective semester is quite different from a third year semester back at Sydney. Students pick four elective subjects, which run in succession for about three and a half weeks each. It is a welcome change to be able to focus on a single subject before moving on to the next one, though it does mean that quite a lot of content is fit into not a lot of time. The choice abounds for the elective subjects, ranging from neuroscience, to sexuality, to helicopter psychology!
So far I have completed Propaganda and Adolescence, both of which have been interesting in their own right. Propaganda in particular stood out in its focus on the contributions that cognitive psychology has made to the study of persuasion, which was demonstrated in a contemporary media context. As part of our final assessment, we had to design a flyer that encouraged active participation in tutorial meetings. When brainstorming with my group of regular Dutch students, I happened to mention a story about a holiday where I unknowingly became the host to a number of leeches. As any proper Australian knows, the situation was remedied by salting the leeches, causing them to drop off. The Dutch students couldn’t believe that firstly, leeches attack people on holidays, and secondly, that salt causes them to roll off. It successfully added to my image of the Australian who lives In The Wild back home, which of course includes kangaroos that hop around her backyard. Yes I was asked that question. And yes they were serious. But the moral of this long winded story is that the dutch students liked the idea of salting leeches so much that ‘End the Leeching’ became the slogan of our campaign! Always happy to contribute..