Week One

Personal

"If you're twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel - as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them - wherever you go" Anthony Bourdain (2010)

Darren and I on the plane

I had this quote in mind when I boarded the plane to start my journey to the Netherlands to start Erasmus and what a journey it was, it’s hard to believe that I've only been here for one week. The journey started In Belfast international airport with the surprise of our lovely friends meeting us at the airport with a poster to wish us well, it was an emotional goodbye but that was quickly followed by excitement when we arrived at Schiphol airport. Apart from a certain incident with an escalator were I lost one of my bags and had to run back up the downward moving stairs to get it the journey was very easy.

The  'Family room'

When we arrived at halls we didn't have any buddies like we would have expected from Stranmillis, we felt a little bit lost and the feeling only got worse when we discovered that there was no Wi-Fi. Then we heard the welcome sound of other voices apart from our own and ran out to meet our flatmates, two lovely people from Belgium, I have not spent a day so far without laughing so much my ribs hurt.

We met the rest of the Erasmus group and the people who would be looking after us, Magda and Ben, on Friday and it was such a warm welcome. There are people from all over Europe; we were introduced to two girls from Dublin who have been here from September and were very excited to have some other ‘Irish’ people arriving, so they have been showing us around and helping us get our footing in this wonderful diverse and beautiful city.

Our welcome at pabo

Our classes started on Monday and unfortunately we didn't have bikes then so we were a bit late as we got lost by walking in the wrong direction, I showed a new found skill in map reading and we arrived eventually.We had a brief introduction to the Dutch education system; I would say that it is similar to our own in some ways but very different to ours in others. For example Dutch children take a test at the age of 11/12 to decide what secondary education they fall into, however there are three different routes that they can take, they are all trained to have a career regardless of how socially desirable that career may be, all students must stay in education until they have gained qualification.

My beautiful bike

We finally bought bikes on Tuesday and have been cycling around the town ever since, we have to cycle about 25 minutes to the university everyday so we may come back to Northern Ireland a lot more healthy than we left. I enjoy the freedom of having a bike and being able to take trips into the town to have coffee and not feel bad eating a huge chocolate muffin.

Shopping in Nijmegen

Overall the first week has been one to remember, I've made friends in one week which I know I will have for the rest of my life and am looking forward to the rest of my time here, learning about other cultures and learning more about myself along the way.


A,Bourdain. (2010) Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook,Bloomsbury Publishing, Great Britain.