by Chase Newman
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Now that I've been living here a bit longer, I feel a lot more comfortable and more capable of managing life in a foreign city. In fact, Leiden is starting to feel not so "foreign" at all. I know my way around the main part of the city fairly well now, as I no longer use a map to navigate. I actually feel confident enough to make a trip to the grocery store to buy food now, which may not sound like much, but believe me it is very intimidating when everything is written in Dutch and nothing is quite the same. I have found that I'm beginning to miss all the greasy, fattening, unhealthy American food a lot (I would devour a cheeseburger right now), but I really haven't had much of a chance to discover the Dutch food for the fact that I've been cooking for myself a lot. This also doesn't sound like much, but it's a huge change for me when before I didn't know what I would do with myself if I didn't have Pearsons or Isaacs to make me food whenever I wanted. I have discovered though that spaghetti is very good, very easy to make, and very cheap. Also, on a side note, I really miss ice, because apparently they don't believe in that over here.
One of the biggest changes that I'm only now starting to get adjusted to are the differences in administration between American and European universities. Back at Maryville, if you don't register for the classes you want within the first three minutes that they're open then you're stuck finding something else. Here, it doesn't really matter if you're registered in advance or not- you can simply show up on the first day of class and then register later. For all the classes you have to both register for the class itself as well as for the exam, so one of my professors said that if we couldn't get the course registration to work then registration for the exam would suffice. I like to think of myself as a laid-back kind of person, but this level of laid-backness is enough to stress even me out. I want to know that everything is taken care of and I want it done now, but that's not the way it works here.
Also on the subject of classes, those are equally as laid back. Each one only meets once a week for two hours, but that usually ends up only being an hour and a half. Dutch classes always start fifteen minutes late to allow people to get in and get comfortable, socialize a bit, and drink some coffee. They also take a break in the middle of each class for coffee or tea, and that lasts about fifteen minutes as well. Oh, and did I mention that there is no homework? Yeah, you won't find me complaining about this aspect of the laid-back approach.
I haven't had the chance to make any big trips yet, which was one of my main goals in coming over here, but I will once things get settled down a bit more. I have been participating in a lot of activities that were put on by the international student organization in Leiden though. Last night we went bowling in what was perhaps the nicest, classiest bowling alley I have ever seen. On the way back my group encountered a challenge that I never really thought I would have to deal with- biking in gale-force winds. It's pretty unbelievable until it happens to you, but let me just say that my legs were rather sore by the time I got back considering that the wind was strong enough to slow me down from a considerably steady speed to a near crawl. At one point I just got off and walked because I was making absolutely no progress on the bike. I'm surprised someone didn't get blown off into the canal.
These little events have been really fun though, and I've made quite a few friends at them so far, which is a trend that I hope continues.
I haven't really faced any other major, huge challenges yet, but I'm sure there will be quite a few to come. Perhaps not though, because I really do feel that I'm acclimating to life here surprisingly well. I think that trying to figure out how to work the washers and dryers in my building and battling ridiculously strong winds have been my biggest challenges this week. Regardless of all that, I really am enjoying my time here.
Leiden University, The Netherlands
Now that I've been living here a bit longer, I feel a lot more comfortable and more capable of managing life in a foreign city. In fact, Leiden is starting to feel not so "foreign" at all. I know my way around the main part of the city fairly well now, as I no longer use a map to navigate. I actually feel confident enough to make a trip to the grocery store to buy food now, which may not sound like much, but believe me it is very intimidating when everything is written in Dutch and nothing is quite the same. I have found that I'm beginning to miss all the greasy, fattening, unhealthy American food a lot (I would devour a cheeseburger right now), but I really haven't had much of a chance to discover the Dutch food for the fact that I've been cooking for myself a lot. This also doesn't sound like much, but it's a huge change for me when before I didn't know what I would do with myself if I didn't have Pearsons or Isaacs to make me food whenever I wanted. I have discovered though that spaghetti is very good, very easy to make, and very cheap. Also, on a side note, I really miss ice, because apparently they don't believe in that over here.
One of the biggest changes that I'm only now starting to get adjusted to are the differences in administration between American and European universities. Back at Maryville, if you don't register for the classes you want within the first three minutes that they're open then you're stuck finding something else. Here, it doesn't really matter if you're registered in advance or not- you can simply show up on the first day of class and then register later. For all the classes you have to both register for the class itself as well as for the exam, so one of my professors said that if we couldn't get the course registration to work then registration for the exam would suffice. I like to think of myself as a laid-back kind of person, but this level of laid-backness is enough to stress even me out. I want to know that everything is taken care of and I want it done now, but that's not the way it works here.
Also on the subject of classes, those are equally as laid back. Each one only meets once a week for two hours, but that usually ends up only being an hour and a half. Dutch classes always start fifteen minutes late to allow people to get in and get comfortable, socialize a bit, and drink some coffee. They also take a break in the middle of each class for coffee or tea, and that lasts about fifteen minutes as well. Oh, and did I mention that there is no homework? Yeah, you won't find me complaining about this aspect of the laid-back approach.
I haven't had the chance to make any big trips yet, which was one of my main goals in coming over here, but I will once things get settled down a bit more. I have been participating in a lot of activities that were put on by the international student organization in Leiden though. Last night we went bowling in what was perhaps the nicest, classiest bowling alley I have ever seen. On the way back my group encountered a challenge that I never really thought I would have to deal with- biking in gale-force winds. It's pretty unbelievable until it happens to you, but let me just say that my legs were rather sore by the time I got back considering that the wind was strong enough to slow me down from a considerably steady speed to a near crawl. At one point I just got off and walked because I was making absolutely no progress on the bike. I'm surprised someone didn't get blown off into the canal.
These little events have been really fun though, and I've made quite a few friends at them so far, which is a trend that I hope continues.
I haven't really faced any other major, huge challenges yet, but I'm sure there will be quite a few to come. Perhaps not though, because I really do feel that I'm acclimating to life here surprisingly well. I think that trying to figure out how to work the washers and dryers in my building and battling ridiculously strong winds have been my biggest challenges this week. Regardless of all that, I really am enjoying my time here.