“Everyone sounds so smart, seems to know so much about so many things.” The Belgian Nour Rigo was impressed by her fellow students more than once during the first six months of her Global Studies degree. It gave her some doubts, did she know enough? Was her English good enough? How was she supposed to catch up on all this?
But that all changed when she moved to student accommodation in her second semester. “I wanted to live by myself, wanted the full student experience. I wasn’t involved with student life at all in those first six months; after class, I would leave more or less straightaway and head back home just over the border in Zichen-Zussen-Bolder.” She ended up in student housing in the city centre, enjoyed having her “own little household”, experienced the freedom and the responsibility that comes with living on your own (“you’re the only one to blame if you don’t do any laundry for a week”), and made friends. “Lots of people from the course, very international.” While talking to others, she learnt that everybody has moments of doubt. That put her mind at ease.
Venice
Nour Rigo is a quarter Italian, hence the surname. “My grandfather comes from a place near Venice, he moved to Belgium to work in the mines, but he and my grandmother quickly took over her parents’ café in the village. My father was born there. My mother is from Maastricht.” Her first name? She laughs, “When my mother was pregnant, my parents heard an opera singer in the car. That was Nour. It’s an Arabic name and means ‘light’, it symbolises hope and positivity; they liked it.”
No drudgery
After secondary school, she wanted to study a broad degree. “I enjoy discovering new things all the time, the course had to be interesting. Yeah, maybe I am easily bored, I certainly don’t like drudgery.” She went to an open day in Leuven and Maastricht, where her mother once studied psychology. There, she heard about problem-based learning, which she enjoyed. “In Belgium, you’re just a number in a large lecture hall. There are two exam periods, for which you have to spend a month revising hard. You have to learn a lot by heart and literally be able to replicate it. Here, you have to think critically, and you can voice your own opinions during discussions in the seminars.”
She chose Global Studies because she felt that was an “even broader” option than European Studies, for example. Is it as broad as she thought? “Yes, we tackle problems from all around the world. This term we are looking at peace and justice and places like Sudan, Congo, Palestine, and the United States. You learn a lot about the history, about international relations.”
Khmer Rouge
Nour felt she made the right choice back in her first year. She had thought she might discover where her heart truly lies and that the right Master’s programme would reveal itself. “But it’s not that simple. I thought it would be easier to cross things off the list. For example, we focused on law for a whole semester, and initially I thought I wouldn’t enjoy that at all, but I really did! Or, take economics. I did economics and languages at secondary school and thought I would have had enough by now. But that was also fascinating.”
And then there are the guest lectures, where speakers are invited to talk about subjects she knows very little about. “Niyalic Khun made a movie about life after the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in Cambodia: Three legs in the Evening. His story was impressive. I’ve found that I enjoy discovering stories that aren’t always shown on the news, such as migrants’ personal stories. They are an easily accessible way to show a big group how the world works, regardless of whether they’re on screen or on paper.”
Paris
That last one in particular led her to a two-year Master’s programme in International Relations and Journalism. “In Paris. A double Master’s degree, where you study journalism and international relations. It’s a whole process to get in: you have to have a 7.8 average, write a letter of motivation and provide letters of recommendation.” So that is what she will be doing shortly.
It’s no hardship for her to have to move to Paris for two years. Although at the moment, she does still go home every weekend because she works at a brasserie in Zichen-Zussen-Bolder. She laughs, “Paris will be good for my French, even though the course is in English. My family has accepted that I won’t be living down the street from them. I don’t really need to work in Belgium or the Netherlands, either. I love travelling, adventure. I’m very curious. My maternal grandfather worked on a ship, he was in the United States a lot. My father used to be a tour guide in America, my mother climbed Kilimanjaro after she graduated, my older brother (eighteen years older) used to work on a yacht and travelled around the world that way. I went backpacking round Thailand for six weeks over the summer. Yes, alone. It was my second solo trip. Two years ago, I spent a fortnight travelling to Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm by train. I really enjoyed myself. Before that, I was afraid to approach people; not really shy, I just left the ball in their court. This time I had to, and it helped me greatly. I’m much more confident socially. It’s not always fun at the start. On that first trip, I would very quickly turn to a book or my phone to hide away. Later on, I was less likely to look for distraction. This year, in Thailand, I felt much more at ease, I enjoyed meeting people – which is very easy to do when you’re alone and staying in hostels – but I also didn’t mind just being on my own. Discovering my passions and thinking about what I really want.”