Start of Fall Semester

Dear blog-readers,

The Fall Semester started in Seattle: the lectures started, the beautiful UW campus is crowded because of all the students and it is real Seattle-weather: sun, rain and wind at the same time! 

I am taking three courses: Financial Crisis, International Trade and Economics of Human Resource Management. There are around 35 students in every class and the professors expect you to prepare every class, because you get class-participation grades. For the Financial Crisis course, I need the American History as a pre-knowledge (so, that class is pretty difficult!). Furthermore, I get 4 unexpected quizzes and a test about the WallStreet Journal. Besides, I have assignments

due every week and in two out of three classes, I am the only exchange student! So, studies here are serious haha! The (American) students in my classes are very friendly and a lot of boys always wear sportshoes and (purple) sportshirts!

My professor of the Financial Crisis course is a 68-years old man. His lectures are like history classes (he knows everything about every historical crisis) and he loves to talk about the history of the money. When doing that, he unbuttons his shirt, takes his wallet (that is hidden under his shirt) and takes out coins and dollar billets. He then explains why the billets are green and how the coins are designed. He also wanted to know how tall I was, because according to him all the Dutch people are very tall haha!

Besides taking classes, every American student is participating in clubs. There are around 700 clubs at the University of Washington (ranging from Disney-fan, Muslim-community to Snowboard). You can become a member of every club and the clubs advertize a lot on the campus. I participated in a sailing-class from the Yacht-club, I participated in two practices of the Lacrosse-club and I went to an event of the Woman-In-Business Club. The last one is for students who are studying Finance, Accounting or Marketing and their theme is: CEO’s look better in high heels! This made me decide to become a member of this club. The club is only for female students and it has around 125 members. The club organizes events (like speakers, workshops, networking drinks with companies etc.) every Wednesday.

In my spare time I meet other international students. We drink a lot of Starbucks coffee, we went to the Theatre and the Cinema, we went to a potluck (everyone shares their dishes) and we went to Boeing. This company started its business in Seattle and the largest and first factory is located in the north of Seattle. We made a tour around this impressive factory, in which all the airplanes are made.

Last weekend I went on a road trip to Vancouver BC with two other international students. Vancouver is an amazing city with a lot of beautiful modern buildings and nature (however, I prefer Seattle of course haha)! I also visited the University of British Columbia, an apple festival, the Stanley park etc.

So far my update for you! Love from Seattle!

P.S. Something funny: from my balcony I have a view on Lake Washington, and Bill Gates lives on the other side of this lake in a very very big house!