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24 -year -old Colby Gray grew up in a very rural and conservative community in San Louis Obpronia. And only until they moved for two hours to attend the University of California, Santa -Krus, he first traveled.
It was the beginning of a new life for the Gray – he just didn’t know it.
“Not many people in my city had passports. You didn’t really travel much and you also did not go to school very far,” says Gray CNBC. “I was one of those who went on and then when I was studying abroad, I was one of the first to leave the country.”
Gray lived on a campus at the beginning of his freshman, but the Covid-19 pandemic completely broken his time. By the second semester, Gray was forced to move home for about a year. It was at this time that the San Louis -Obiss, Gray studied abroad.
Gray studied in Copenhagen for six months. When he was, he didn’t want to return to Santa -Krus.
“(Denmark) managed a very well pandemic and had a very high level of vaccination,” he says. “I fell in love with him and decided what I wanted to do more.”
Gray completed the semester in the sea before he finally goes home to California.
“When I returned to Santa -Krus, it was a real return cultural shock to me,” he says. “There is no housing left. The city is not built for students.”
From the first visit to Europe in 2021 and the move in 2023, Gray traveled to 20 different countries.
Colby Gray
Returning to Santa Cruz, Gray lived at a campus in a two-room apartment with three other roommates and worked as an advisor to study abroad. According to the documents considered by CNBC, Gray’s proportion was $ 1340 a month.
“I paid more to live in Santa -Krus than I paid to live abroad. I told myself I could no longer do it,” says Gray. “I knew that after I finished (with the undergraduate), I would submit to a master’s degree in Belgium.”
Gray says his main motivation for the desire to leave the US is that life in cities has never resonated there – and he hated car driving.
“It was one of the things I liked to live in Europe, I never felt that I needed to live to live,” he says.
Gray was also dissatisfied with the quality of education he received in UC Santa Cruz, first and foremost because of the cost. For 2024-2025 academic year, Average cost For students living on a campus, it is $ 44,160. Guy’s classes were canceled more than half -up in one year, and he still had to pay for the whole business.
“It just didn’t seem like I was getting what I paid even with a ton of federal and state financing,” Gray says. “I knew it should be the best system and the best way to get an education. Thanks to my study abroad, I realized that I could just get a visa and study as an international student at the sixth price.”
“I wanted to continue my education but wanted to use it as a way to residence.”
Gray and friends attended the famous EDM festival, Tomorrowland.
Colby Gray
Gray decided to go to a master’s degree and considered the programs in the UK, such as at the University of Cambridge, the University of Oxford and Edinburgh University in Scotland, but he could not justify the costs.
That led gray to Leven, Belgium, which seemed the perfect choice. Leuven was built as a “15-minute city”, the concept of urban planning, where most daily essentials such as shopping, healthcare and more can be achieved in 15 minutes of walking or cycling. The concept is gaining cravings in other Belgian cities, such as Brussels and Mechlen, and exists in major cities such as Paris, France, Barcelona, Spain and Melbourne, Australia.
In Leuven, cars are forbidden in the city center, and it is easy – and it is recommended – to do bike.
“I fell in love with him and loved that Belgium was located in the city center, so I could also travel,” he says, “there are four different countries around me in a three-hour train ride, and it was very unique.”
The Ku Leuven University in Belgium offers a program for students looking for a degree called search permit. This permit allows students or researchers to stay throughout the year and work without restriction while they receive a master’s degree at university in the country. This is an annual program, and the training cost is about 3,800 euros per year or $ 4,310.
“However, as a student, there is no better cost of life. There is nothing better in Europe than to be in Europe. There is no reason to go for debt, so at this stage of my life it just makes sense,” he says.
Guy’s family came to visit him in Belgium, and they went to Italy together.
Colby Gray
Gray arrived in Belgium with two proven bags and a backpack and moved to a four -room house with three other people. He paid 500 euros or $ 567 a month to rent: “It was fantastic. I mean I paid a third of the cost to get my own room.”
He immediately went to build life in Leuven.
“When I first came here, it was scary. I was aware that I had no friends here and I was completely myself,” he says. “I think it was the first time I felt like that in life. I worked a lot to make friends and create a community here.”
After Ku -Loven, Gray made a bicycle trip from the underground to Basel, Switzerland.
Colby Gray
Gray finished last summer and moved about 10-minute bicycle riding outside the city. It pays 420 euros per month, including utilities. His current housing also provides some toiletries and several foods.
Gray’s additional monthly expenses include 236 euros in foods, 154 euros in food, 11 euros in health insurance and health visits, 48 euros in transit, 50 euros for the gym, 30 euros, 20 euros for visa fees, 20 euros and 10 euros. Including its rent, the total monthly Gray costs are about 998 euros per month or 1132.
Gray has been living in Belgium for almost two years and says he loves the balance of the working and the life he has managed to find there.
“The community feels so strong here, and I really have a great balance between my working life and home,” he says. “It’s such a slow pace of life here, and it’s really beautiful.”
Gray says he loves the balance of the working and life he was able to find after leaving the US.
Colby Gray
From the first visit to Europe in 2021 and the move in 2023, Gray traveled to 20 different countries. His family and friends also visit.
In 2024, the Gray family came to Belgium, and they made a trip to Tuscany. He returned to the US for the first time in December.
In the Guy left seven months on the permit stages in Brussels or Portugal.
The only thing is that Gray knows exactly that he is not yet ready to return to America.
“While living in the US, I felt that there was a watch inside me, where I had to enter the labor, get a house, have a family, and I think now I slowed down and just smelled roses a little more,” he says.
On May 8, 2025, transformations from the euro to USD were made using the Oanda conversion factor from $ 1 to $ 1.13.
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