by Chase Newman
Leiden University, The Netherlands
So I've officially been in the Netherlands for 5 days now, and it's already been quite an adventure. And I'll go ahead and say that my overall attitude has shifted dramatically in that time. I arrived at 7:30 AM on Tuesday after an 8 hour flight, during which I got no sleep at all, so my first day was a bit rough to say the least. I had appointments in different buildings all over the city of Leiden and I had to find my way to each of them, on time, and still find time to eat something. During my desperate search for food in between appointments I finally happened upon this small cafe. I walked in, looked around for a few seconds, exchanged an awkward glance with the lady behind the counter, and finally said, "I don't know what I'm doing, but... I'm an international student and I want some food." So, I ended up with a slice of fruit and nut bread and an espresso- not exactly filling, but it would do. After that I had to go back to the visitor's center to get my luggage where the kind people there let me leave it, and then drag all 100+ pounds of it all the way across town to where I would be living. Let me just say that this is impossible to do without looking like a loser. When I finally arrived, got my key and got into my room, I fitted my bed with the awkward sheets that were provided to me and passed out until later on that night.
The following day was dedicated to purchasing a bike, because after the amount of walking that I did the first day, this was my top priority. For those of you who don't already know, bikes are a major part of life in the Netherlands. They pretty much dominate the roads here, and it's a common sight to see rows after rows of them locked up in places. With me being the type of person who likes to make the most well informed decision about everything, I decided to shop around at almost every bike shop in the city for the best price. I did a lot of walking. I ended up buying a second-hand one from the first shop I went to for 50 Euros. It's certainly not the best bike in the world, but it gets the job done. Also, that morning I had an "American" moment and saw something that I never thought I would actually be excited to see- a McDonald's. In a city where everything is written in Dutch, it was a huge relief to see something so familiar where I could know for sure what I'm getting. The Golden Arches actually made a pretty good breakfast, as a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich came with a croissant with fruit spread, an orange juice, and a cappuccino with a cookie. I also decided to go to the grocery store to buy a few things, but since everything was in Dutch, my options were a bit limited. This was actually a very interesting experience, as it showed me another aspect of just how different life here is. By the end of the second day, I still felt quite uncomfortable with my surroundings and rather lonely since I hadn't actually met anybody yet. I had this glorified expectation that I would come in and start having a great time immediately and that it really wouldn't be that hard, but I found out very quickly that I was completely wrong and that studying in an unfamiliar country is actually quite difficult. The city of Leiden is certainly a gorgeous city, but even that doesn't help much when everything is so different and unfamiliar. I guess there really isn't much of a way to prepare yourself for culture shock.
Thursday brought a very nice change. Thursday and Friday were the "Introduction Days" organized by the university, where I learned how to handle many of the online systems, how to deal with the Dutch people (yes, they actually had an entire program about how to deal with themselves), and where I received tours of different buildings and parts of the city. This was organized for all the international students, so on these days I was able to meet a lot of people and make quite a few new friends. This has definitely made all the difference, since many of these people are going through the exact same thing I'm going through. I guess you could say this was where my attitude started to shift towards a more positive outlook. I met people from all over the world, who were studying for all different reasons. Not all of them were undergraduates either, as I met quite a few people who were completing their Masters degrees and a few who were doing PhD work. I even met a few Dutch people, some of whom were rather interesting people. So many people have stereotyped the Dutch as rude people, but in my experience I've only met some incredibly kind people. For example, I was standing on a street-corner once holding my map, looking about as lost as anyone can appear, and some random guy just comes up and helps me figure out which direction I needed to go in. I know that there's a lot left for me to learn about this culture, but I'm already really enjoying it and anticipate learning much more.
Leiden University, The Netherlands
So I've officially been in the Netherlands for 5 days now, and it's already been quite an adventure. And I'll go ahead and say that my overall attitude has shifted dramatically in that time. I arrived at 7:30 AM on Tuesday after an 8 hour flight, during which I got no sleep at all, so my first day was a bit rough to say the least. I had appointments in different buildings all over the city of Leiden and I had to find my way to each of them, on time, and still find time to eat something. During my desperate search for food in between appointments I finally happened upon this small cafe. I walked in, looked around for a few seconds, exchanged an awkward glance with the lady behind the counter, and finally said, "I don't know what I'm doing, but... I'm an international student and I want some food." So, I ended up with a slice of fruit and nut bread and an espresso- not exactly filling, but it would do. After that I had to go back to the visitor's center to get my luggage where the kind people there let me leave it, and then drag all 100+ pounds of it all the way across town to where I would be living. Let me just say that this is impossible to do without looking like a loser. When I finally arrived, got my key and got into my room, I fitted my bed with the awkward sheets that were provided to me and passed out until later on that night.
The following day was dedicated to purchasing a bike, because after the amount of walking that I did the first day, this was my top priority. For those of you who don't already know, bikes are a major part of life in the Netherlands. They pretty much dominate the roads here, and it's a common sight to see rows after rows of them locked up in places. With me being the type of person who likes to make the most well informed decision about everything, I decided to shop around at almost every bike shop in the city for the best price. I did a lot of walking. I ended up buying a second-hand one from the first shop I went to for 50 Euros. It's certainly not the best bike in the world, but it gets the job done. Also, that morning I had an "American" moment and saw something that I never thought I would actually be excited to see- a McDonald's. In a city where everything is written in Dutch, it was a huge relief to see something so familiar where I could know for sure what I'm getting. The Golden Arches actually made a pretty good breakfast, as a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich came with a croissant with fruit spread, an orange juice, and a cappuccino with a cookie. I also decided to go to the grocery store to buy a few things, but since everything was in Dutch, my options were a bit limited. This was actually a very interesting experience, as it showed me another aspect of just how different life here is. By the end of the second day, I still felt quite uncomfortable with my surroundings and rather lonely since I hadn't actually met anybody yet. I had this glorified expectation that I would come in and start having a great time immediately and that it really wouldn't be that hard, but I found out very quickly that I was completely wrong and that studying in an unfamiliar country is actually quite difficult. The city of Leiden is certainly a gorgeous city, but even that doesn't help much when everything is so different and unfamiliar. I guess there really isn't much of a way to prepare yourself for culture shock.
Thursday brought a very nice change. Thursday and Friday were the "Introduction Days" organized by the university, where I learned how to handle many of the online systems, how to deal with the Dutch people (yes, they actually had an entire program about how to deal with themselves), and where I received tours of different buildings and parts of the city. This was organized for all the international students, so on these days I was able to meet a lot of people and make quite a few new friends. This has definitely made all the difference, since many of these people are going through the exact same thing I'm going through. I guess you could say this was where my attitude started to shift towards a more positive outlook. I met people from all over the world, who were studying for all different reasons. Not all of them were undergraduates either, as I met quite a few people who were completing their Masters degrees and a few who were doing PhD work. I even met a few Dutch people, some of whom were rather interesting people. So many people have stereotyped the Dutch as rude people, but in my experience I've only met some incredibly kind people. For example, I was standing on a street-corner once holding my map, looking about as lost as anyone can appear, and some random guy just comes up and helps me figure out which direction I needed to go in. I know that there's a lot left for me to learn about this culture, but I'm already really enjoying it and anticipate learning much more.