Dublin

What Dublin? No I'm still studying in Glasgow. Last weekend me and nine other friends decided to visit Dublin. We had to get up at four in the morning to catch our bus to the Airport. Since we took the regional buss on a Friday evening it was packed with drunken Scots, a very interesting experience. From Glasgow to Dublin takes you only 20 minutes by plain. So at 9 in the morning we arrived at our hostel in Dublin. The hostel was very neat and we even got breakfast! First time that ever happened to me. After a good breakfast we explored the city for a bit. First we went to see Trinity college ( where Steven is currently studying ). The University is the exact opposite of Strathclyde. It's very nice and traditional, pretty buildings and all, whereas Strathclyde is really modern. We visited several musea and parks as well. After sightseeing the city, we made our way to the Guinness brewery! If you go to Dublin, make sure you put that on your bucket list! The day after we also visited the Jameson Distillery. It was very different from the Auchentoshan brewery I visited earlier this semester, although it was interesting to observe the differences between the two. That evening we went to Temple Bar to hit some pubs ( but i'm used to doing that in Glasgow!).

The weekend before my girlfriend visited me. That weekend I had my first Haggis. To be honest it wasn't that bad at all! Is tasted like spicy minced beef, with a bit more fat in it compared to Dutch ground beef. It was very cool showing my girlfriend around Glasgow. That Sunday we went to Edinburgh by bus. It is only about 7 pounds from Glasgow to Edinburgh. Even though Edinburgh is only an hour away, it is totally different from Glasgow. It is much more touristic and has more history, compared to Glasgow. The Dublin castle is very cool, because you are able to see it from almost everywhere in the city. We also visited the Scottish national museum, that is very impressive in size!

This is all for today, since I'm off to a Rangers game! I'll make sure to let you guys know how it was next post.

Cheers

The city of Shanghai

Nǐ hǎo!

I would like to welcome you to China and the city of Shanghai! I’m glad to participate in this blog and to share experiences of studying abroad. I hope my input would give you a good view of living and studying in Shanghai! In this first blog I would like to give you an introduction of this metropolis.

First of all, I’m honored for going on exchange to China and to live in Shanghai in particular. Before the application procedure to study abroad began, I had made a shortlist of my preferences where to go. On the top of that list was Shanghai. I was really glad when I found out that students from Tilburg University (TiU) are able to go there. There are several universities in Shanghai such as Fudan University, Tongji University, and Jiaotong University. The first and the third actually have an exchange program with TiU and my preference was to go to Fudan University. One of the main reasons was that it is one of the best universities of China. In fact, I’ve learned from fellow Chinese students that it is really a big thing to study at Fudan.

The university itself covers numerous different schools and these are mainly located in the north of Shanghai. The main campus is huge and it takes at least a half hour to walk from one side to another. Students usually rent a dormitory room at the campus and various facilities are located nearby. One of them is the School of Management, which is an independent school within the university. I’m following courses of the so called International MBA program. I’m living in a compound outside the campus, between the university and the city center.

To give a brief description of my classmates, the students have already obtained their master’s degree, worked for couple of years, and they went back to the university to better themselves even more. They are therefore a couple years older than the normal Dutch master student. It is really interesting to hear stories about their working experience and they have usually worked for big companies, e.g. Citi group, Tsingtao Beer, and Siemens. Moreover, their study backgrounds vary from all types of fields. They are all very interested to meet Western students and it is for me the same the other way around.

This was a short introduction for studying at Fudan University. There is a lot to tell more and I’ll do this in the next blog posts. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me!

See you soon!

Richard

E: r.n.d.s.jacobs@uvt.nl

Education and St Patrick's day

How are all you guys doing? In Ireland everybody is very excited since tomorrow is St Patrick’s day. This is the national celebration day in Ireland and you can compare it maybe a little bit with Queensday. However according to all the stories this should be even better. As some Irish people told me ‘St Patrick’s day is the time to make the tourist think that all their prejudices about Irish people are true’. It is expected that more than 700.000 green people will infiltrate Dublin city center and will drink for the full 24 hours. I hope it is going to be crazy!!!  Luckily we are also free Monday  from our lectures to recover. 

Celtic!

It has been a while since my last post, but I had a fair reason: midterms! But before I started to get some studying done, I went to see a Celtic game. Seeing either a Celtic or Rangers game is definitely a thing you want to put on your bucket list for Glasgow! We started the afternoon by going to a pub along with all other Celtic fans. The atmosphere was absolutely amazing. Before entering the stadium, we bought some Fish & Chips to eat during the match. The first half wasn’t that good, but the second half was much better. Glaswegians take their football pretty serious, and it is very cool to be part of that.

That same week I had to start studying for the first time while I was here. I had two class tests, one for Financial Analysis and one for Treasury Management & International Finance. The teachers have yet to grade the tests, but I will let you guys know how I did in my next blog. The class tests are on average not too bad. And compared to Tilburg I would say it’s a bit easier.

This weekend we explored Glasgow even further. We went to the museum of transportation, which is absolutely a must do as well. It’s free, it’s fun and there are lot of things to see. However from campus it’s a hour walk, but a good way to explore Glasgow! That evening I went out for dinner with a couple of friends to an Indian place. I must say that in restaurants and bars you have to be alert for people trying to rip you off (It’s definitely the exception, not the rule!), because some restaurants tend to do that when they notice you are a foreigner. However when you do pay attention, there should be no problem. After dinner we went to the Nice & Sleazy which is definitely my favorite pub in Glasgow. The atmosphere is great, the drinks are good and they play nice music.

Today I went to St. Andrews with my flat mates and two others. It took us 2.5 hours to get there by bus, but it was totally worth the travel. After missing the sun for two months, it was a pleasant surprise to see the sun shining for a full day in St. Andrews. The weather on the east coast is significantly better than that on the west coast! We visited and old burned out church, which was pretty cool. Thereafter we visited the University of St. Andrews where almost every person of the Royal family studied and of course the golf courses, since St. Andrews is the home of golf. That’s it for now, in two weeks I will be visiting Dublin!

Preparation and introduction.

Dear reader,

First and foremost, let me introduce myself. My name is Thomas Ossenblok and I am 21 years old. Whereas the main group of exchange students is coming home and re-integrating in Dutch society, I am about to pack for my exciting destination: Peru.
And why, out of all places, did I pick Peru? Good question!

First of all, I love nature and history, both of which are very much present, since Peru is the home of the Incan/Mayan societies and one of the most diverse environments in the world.
Secondly, I wanted to learn a new language, preferably one which is spoken by many people. And last but not least, the family-oriented and sort of laidback culture really spoke to my imagination.

First Impressions in Dublin

Hiya everybody!!

Let me first introduce myself…. my name is Steven, I’m already 23 year old, and since 6 weeks I am a proud citizen of Dublin. To explain why I ended up here…. my reasons to go on this exchange adventure were quite simple, in Tilburg I have so many friends that went abroad and their stories were too good to be true. So after long consideration (because it would take me an extra year of my study) I decided to explore it myself.

The choice for Dublin however was less difficult. Firstly, I really wanted to improve my English, secondly, I don’t believe you have to go outside Europe to find beautiful places and people, and lastly I heard Trinity College is amazing and one of the most beautiful universities in the world. I was really happy to hear that I got the chance to study at Trinity college for 5 months.

Before I went on the exchange I really had the following expectations of going on exchange and Ireland:

Fire, Stirling and Isle of Arran

This week I joined an indoor soccer team for internationals. The way Scots play indoor soccer is somewhat different to what I am used to. They have very little and wide goals and you are allowed to make sliding tackles! During the match we smelled fire. A few minutes later an employee of the university came in to tell us that the James Weir building was on fire! The James Weir building is one of the biggest buildings around campus, so it was a pretty big deal. When we walked back to our flat, we saw a lot of smoke coming out of the building, but no fire whatsoever. The police is still investigating what happened, but they expect some kind of chemical reaction set the building on fire (since all the science labs are located in James Weir). All classes that were supposed to take place in JW were cancelled. Luckily for me the teacher decided to relocate the lecture. While everyone had a day of, I had to attend lecture!

Starting to realize that I'm back home..

Dear all! It has been almost three weeks since I came back home =) First one and a half week were great. Everyone wanted to meet up with me, hear my stories and it was great to feel all the love and all the great things about the Netherlands again. Now, things have calmed down and everyone is back to his/her own life again, including me. This week I will be starting my bachelor thesis. Really working on my graduation from Tilburg University! Perfect timing to make an analysis of the pros and cons of both Budapest and home:

Things that Hungary could improve 0=)

- Our International Office coordinator.. what an..
- Getting in separate queues for stamps, envelopes, addresses and sending the actual package at the post office. The bureaucracy is still crazy, especially in the Immigration Office; the only place where people actually need to speak English.. and don't.

- The women in the supermarket yelling "Tessék?!", when I did not come to the counter quick enough.

- The political climate and the challenges of post-communism for the society, first and foremost corruption.

Things that are great at home

- Seeing and hanging out with my great family and friends.

- Normal supermarkets, with normal bread and a nice variety of food.

- Structure and good responses at Tilburg University.

- Okay, this list is too short... uhm!

- Oh! The one I have been coming to appreciate the most about the Netherlands: the freedom of debate. I have become to realize how special it is that no matter the subject and no matter how much we disagree, when we keep our decency we can talk speak about everything in our country. Anything. That is one of the greatest values of the Dutch society I think and it should be cherished.

- My bike!!

Final Goodbye...

I have been back in the Netherlands since a few weeks now and I miss Glasgow and all my friends so much!! My flight back was on the 21th of January, only two days after my last exam. Consequently I had no time to say a proper goodbye to Glasgow, but I don’t need it because I’m certain I will go back to Glasgow within a year! Some of my friends still study in Glasgow for the next few years and they have offered me a place to sleep anytime I’d like to come to Glasgow.

Zài jiàn Shanghai

I have been back now for nearly a week and I must say that I am in some ways really glad to be back. For me the exchange experience has been less drastic than for others, for I have lived in several countries already and have moved a lot throughout my childhood. However, having never lived in a large city before it was quite a change for me. Having now returned home the differences between living in a small village in Holland and a metropolis in China become evident.

Upon my arrival the first thing I saw was a large banner which awaited me at the arrival gate at Dusseldorf airport. Finally, I was no longer a minority! I was among my friends, family and girlfriend once again! We headed over to the nearest bar to have a small celebration. I had to walk over to the bar to order because as we sat down we were not helped. It was the first real difference I noticed, for in Western society labor is a large cost for businesses while in Asia labor is cheap and service is second nature.

Exploring

Last saturday me and my flatmates decided to explore Glasgow some more. Together with my Tsjech friend george, Canadian friend John and my Mexican friend Esteban we walked around Glasgow for the full day. There are a bunch of really nice places to visit in Glasgow. For you who do not plan to go on exchange to Glasgow, the city is still worth visiting as a city trip! It is very common to go to a pub around noon and have a beer and something to eat, so that is what we did. When we were sitting in a pub, some Gaelic dancers came in and a girl with a violin. All of a sudden they started to play music and dance Gaelic dances. It is really cool to see that traditions are a big part of the Scottish culture. At the end of the day we visited the Kelvin Grove museum and the University of Glasgow, which is pretty amazing.

The city that meets all my needs

I've been back for two days, I feel weird. Happy to be home with family. Sad that I left the beautiful city Lisbon. Sad that it is more than 20 degrees colder here. Happy to see friends and pickup normal life. I don't know what I should feel. The last weeks in Lisbon were amazing. I finished all my courses with around 15. Transformed to Tilburg University a 15 will be an 8, so I am satisfied. The last weeks I was more on my own, since a lot of friends already left. But that gave me more inner peace. I could visit the districts, museums that I didn't visit before.

Saying goodbye to Madrid

Hello blog readers,
Today it is the 31st of January. I will write my last blog while I am back in the Netherlands. Last Time I wrote about my first exams. That Tuesday I decide to not make the exam of genesis of the modern firm. I thought that this course would be an mission impossible and the day after we had the exam of organizational economics.

Wednesday at 17.00h we would have the exam, instead of 17.00h we finally started at 17.45 due to a lack of organization. ( how funny when you come to make an exam for organizational economics.)
We first took our place In the rooms 10.2.07 and 10.2.08. On the aula global site you could find these rooms but once we all had our place we had to go out and were divided by the teacher, all the candidates got called name by name to took place at your own seat. I had my seat in the first row what was so annoying because there was a lot of noise in the hall and I couldn’t read the questions very well. Also the teacher came 3 times in the class to change his questions of the exam because otherwise the answers would be wrong. The exam was very hard and since you got minus points for answering wrong I didn’t answered 4 questions. After the exam I thought it was nice to have a little break at the 100 monteditos with Jasper where we had French fries a salad with salmon and a drink for just 4 euros.

Whoopsy...

To be honest... I totally forgot my blog!! I have been back in the Netherlands since a week now. I will tell you a bit about my last 2 weeks in Glasgow and next week I'll probably write my last blog telling you how it is to be back.

I went back to the Netherlands during the Christmas holiday and New Years Eve. It was nice seeing my family again and spending Christmas with them. However, I do regret my decision to stay in the Netherlands with NYE. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to be with NYE in Glasgow and I passed... My flatmates organized a party at our flat, so when I saw all the pictures of my friends in my flat without me I got sad. I did enjoy my NYE in the Netherlands, but I can do that every year, that's not the same with Glasgow!

Countdown..

By now, I am back in the Netherlands. My last week in Budapest, by some horrifically called 'The Countdown' has gone by so fast. Especially, since my cousin Roel visited me for my last four days. That was so great! Also, after being back for two weeks I will post a list of pro's and cons of both The Netherlands/Tilburg and Hungary/Budapest.. some sort of reflection! However, first let me tell you about my last week in dazzling Budapest!

Saturday, 21th of January - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

The flat is clean, the laundry is done.. I am ready for Roel to arrive! I am so excited. The last two days I spent saying goodbye to some people, cleaning the flat and packing my suitcase. Now, it is time for me to start saying goodbye myself to this wonderful city and to close my exchange period in the best way possible!

First week

so it has been little less than a week since I arrived in Glasgow. It all started in the taxi, heading to my Hotel in central Glasgow. The taxi driver was a true Glaswegian, and therefore it was pretty tough to understand the guy. Surprisingly enough, the friendly man knew Eindhoven, since he had been there to see some PSV-Rangers games. My first impression of Glasgow, is that it is a really nice city with some pretty cool architecture. Moreover the Scots are very kind and friendly.

Arrival day at Strathclyde took place last Sunday. I really looked forward to meet the people I was supposed to be living with for the next five months. My accomodation is called Birckbeck Court, and thats the place usually all the international students live. I am living with 5 other guys: An American, Canadian, Mexican, Chinese and a guy from the Tsjech republic. During your first week there are all kinds of introductions, were you will meet a lot of new people as well. As far as I can tell you now, it is awsome to live with students from all over the world! This wednesday we went to a pub called the piper. The University organizes an event called: Pub night. Every Wednesday all international students gather to a pub in Glasgow. It is a really fun way to meet new people. Pub's close at 12 already, so thereafter students usually go to the common. This is a club were all drinks are only a pound!

My father in Shanghai

As mentioned my father arrived a day before the New Year which we celebrated extensively! And now I will add a picture of the speed at which we travel from Pu Dong International Airport to the outer city ring. The Maglev goes 430Kmph!!! On January first we spend the day relaxing and not doing much, I had to walk over East Nanjing Road from People square to the Bund, which on the morning of January first proved to be quite the challenge. It was crowded with people and the walk took me twice as long!

Arriving at the hotel we planned to spend the rest of the day visiting the Fake Market to show them what Shanghai has to offer. He was very pleased to find some of his watched copied and at over an hundredth of the price! The fake market is quite the experience, shop sellers calling and pulling you into their shops. The best response to give them is “Bu yao, xie xie.” Which literally translates to “Need not, thank you.” There are several fake markets scattered around Shanghai, the largest being in the Science and Technology Museum subway stop. My personal favorite is the one on West Nanjing Road, for it has the shops sorted by floors. Some of the shops have secret hidden compartments where you have to crawl through clothing racks to get to the secret room behind. And if you are nice enough you can then again go through the second compartment into the ‘ultra’ secret room. All in all it’s a lot of fun but be sure to inform yourself about the ‘real’ prices beforehand. Anyone reading this please ask me for information on any item. I think I have a vague understanding of what one should pay after my time there! (in the picture btw you can see the top floor of the market…yes, only in China)

Merry Chrismas and a Happy New Year!!!

Christmas and New Years Eve were a lot of fun! For Christmas we decided to celebrate it with a large group of people and not go out for dinner but for the first time in Shanghai cook a home-cooked-meal! We were with 5 Swedish, 4 Germans and a Dutch guy, me! So everyone set out to cook their national dish. The Swedes went to Ikea and got Swedish Meatballs and Glugg with of course mashed potato. The Germans made potato salad with Schnitzels and a fresh salad. And what did I, the Dutch guy do? I simply bought a lot of Heineken! Along with Christmas decorations and I helped out wherever possible, because I can’t really cook! So eating out in Shanghai was not a problem for me! It was funny to see how different nationalities all have their own little traditions. The Swedes watch Donald Duck episodes at 4 in the afternoon. While the Germans, when entering a home, have to spend at least 5 minutes admiring the Christmas tree. We Dutch don’t really have a Christmas tradition but my tales of this long bearded white male on a horse who has black guys as his helpers/slaves, did get everyone laughing!

Studying in Shanghai at SJTU

During my time in Shanghai, I of course also went to University. Some might forget this reading my blogs about Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Hong Kong, the constant parties and excursions I plan with my friends and fellow exchange students. However, one needs to consider something very important when on exchange. You have a lot of spare time!

When on exchange, and you travel to a country far away enough you leave everything behind. Your girlfriend, your family, your friends, your sport and even your own stuff! Keep in mind you can only bring a certain amount of kilo’s with you on the plane! So you spend hardly any time with them, this gives you so much time to do all the other stuff. Spending your days on the internet, simply browsing and looking at video’s or pictures is also over. For the internet in Shanghai was so drastically slow, it makes it so time consuming you simply leave it be.

University life is very different from in the Netherlands. The classes are hands on and you really need to prepare. Part of the grade ranging from 20 to 50 percent of the grade includes; class attendance and class participation. This means you need to answer questions and show up for class. This does not automatically count for all lectures but it does for the majority. Some teachers give out surprise quizzes, which you need to complete before you leave. Its mainly done to check attendance but the quizzes are marked and affect your class participation grade!The university takes up very little time as far as lectures are concerned. For every class there is only 1 lecture a week which consists of 2 hours in a smaller classroom with roughly 30-40 students. We exchange students always sit at the front because the Chinese students always arrive earlier than we do and occupy the back rows. They do this because most of them simply sleep during lectures. The most memorable phrase I will probably hear in my life is when our lecturer said: “And now a question for the exchange students because all my Chinese students are sleeping.” We looked back and indeed all of them were heads down on their desks!

Christmas

This week Kelly and I would go to Porto, how exciting!

First however some classes had to be attended. Monday was a quite normal day, except for the fact that our lovely Organizational Economics teacher announced a review test for next Thursday, one of the day we would be in Porto. That was a bit of a disappointment, but that test would only count for 4% of the final grade, so it could be worse.

The end

I've been putting this off for way too long, because this will mark the definite and final end of my exchange period.

I wanted to talk about how I felt after leaving South-Korea, and how I feel about the country after a while of adjusting to the life back in the Netherlands.

My friends left the dormitory and the country a day before I left, which is exactly one month ago. We had a goodbye party the evening before, which was very emotional. All the girls cried when we had to part and the entire evening was a little awkward with a 'last-time' atmosphere.
It certainly hasn't gotten much easier for me to get back into the rhythm at home. I purchased a smart phone with the sole purpose of keeping in contact with everyone there. I even made a facebook, a social network which I used to resent, but it is not the same.

I know I'm sounding really melancholic and I can imagine many people will feel as if I am over-reacting, but I can say I made some friends there who I will never forget.

Am I Chinese?

One of the assignments of our exchange is to describe the different stages we experience while being abroad. The first stage being the honeymoon period; arriving here everything is different and all experiences are new and exciting. This was very true for me in the beginning, having hardly slept on the plane I arrived at 7 am in the morning and stayed awake until the early hours of the following day! Mainly due because you arrive in an environment where you need to keep going. One needs to get registered, find your room, explore your surroundings and make new friends. This is especially difficult and exciting when you are in an environment where you do not speak the language and the culture is drastically different from what you are used to.

Arrived in Jönkoping!

Hi all,

Here is my first blog from
Jönkoping, Sweden! I arrived here exactly 1 week ago. Saturday, one week ago, I
flew from Eindhoven to Skavsta, Stockholm. Stockholm Skavsta is a little
airport, 90 minutes to the south/west of Stockholm. The airplane wasn’t very
full so I had three seats only for me. On a very long flight, this would have
been very comfortable. But also for a journey of 1,5 hours, the extra space
was very nice.

The plane arrived on time in Stockholm. When I got out of the plane, I was very surprised because there was snow! I was leaving the Netherlands with rain and arrived here in the snow.

The end of the chapter...

I am writing this blog from my room in a volunteer dorm in Hanoi, Vietnam. I never expected myself being in Hanoi doing a volunteer job in January when I first heard I was going to Singapore. Singapore just comes with many more benefits than only an amazing city to study in. Last two months I travelled around South-East Asia and that was a perfect way to make the exchange an even better, more self-developing and fun experience. My journey started in Vientiane, Laos and the first 2,5 week I was travelling by myself. From strange local buses, eating frog, watching amazing sunsets from my own balcony on the Mekong river for 2 euro’s and wonderful waterfalls to super friendly people, Laos was so so good! I met many nice other backpackers, but I was also impressed by the traditional way the locals live. Laos is very laid-back, so make sure you are not in a rush there. After 10 days I crossed the Cambodian border and went to Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor Wat. In one word: impressive. There are so many temples and they are all so breath-taking that it is impossible to describe it. After Siem Reap I went to the capital, Pnom Penh. I dropped some tears in the S-21 museum and the killing fields, where I got an impression about the Cambodian war. It’s hard to imagine what the people in Cambodia have been through and this day was very tough for me, I was so touched by the stories and it made my love for Cambodia grow even bigger.

Episode 10: Welcome home!

Hello all,

I can tell you I safely arrived back home! So this last blog will be about the last phase of my exchange period: returning home again.

The last days in Madrid I was thinking about what I would like to do again when I would be back in the Netherlands. Of course, I wanted to see my family and friends! I was looking forward to the ‘ordinary’ things like watching TV with my sister or having a tea with my best friend. I was also curious about seeing my home village again, because it is a very small village compared to a world city like Madrid. Furthermore, I was looking forward to taste some Dutch things, such as dark bread for example.

Of course I also thought about the fact that the chance would be quite high that I would experience reverse culture shock, since I was feeling really at ease in the Spanish culture. But what exactly would I miss from Spain? Probably the whole feeling of living on your own in the city center of this beautiful city. Furthermore, the sunny weather, the nice food and of course the many great people I have met during my exchange period.

I think it may be difficult sometimes to settle back in my old life, but on the other hand: I feel happy to be with my parents and sister again at this moment! The reason for the difficulty is probably the fact that I developed myself and I thus changed a little, while generally speaking my environment did not change at all.

Mini Balkan Trip aka WOW

Amazing! This was the best final trip I could have made on Erasmus in Hungary. Ever since my last exam all the days have been great, with the trip to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia as the icing on the cake! I cannot thank my great Erasmus friends enough for all they have given and keep on giving me..

Thursday, 12th of January 2012 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest
Oh! Some things I forgot to tell you in my last blog: A week ago, I was on my way to have dinner with Ashley, Matteo and his friends from Italy. Since everyone is always late here, I was waiting on Deak Ter. Just enjoying my view on the beautiful dome of the Basilica, when suddenly three people in bright orange jackets walked up the stairs. The girl looked very familiar and when I heard them talking Dutch, I offered to help them with directions. Turned out this was Diane Valkenburg, here this weekend for the European Championships Speed Skating! Honestly, I had no idea it would take place in Budapest.. After some conversating they started the sightseeing route I recommended them and I decided to go to the ECSS during the weekend.
So, on Saturday me and Marius, who is from Nijmegen, put on our warm coats and established ourselves on the bridge behind Heroes Square. The atmosphere was so nice! Not only because of the beautiful court and fairytale buildings next to it, but mostly because half of the people there were dressed in orange!! Singing Dutch songs and cheering like we always cheer at every sports championship where the Dutch do well. When I took the Spanish the next day, to see Sven Kramer win the 1500 meter, they were so impressed by our enthusiasm and support. It was great to be there!
Also, yesterday Ashley took me to a wonderful chocolate shop near the Basilica, where we decided to choose the Chocolate Fondue. The very first one for both of us! It was a wonderful afternoon, especially because of the great conversations we had about our future, our countries and also just about silly stuff. Nice! Gonna miss her a lot..

5th december!

It’s the day before Sinterklaas, exciting …
To celebrate that, Kelly and I went out for dinner to Vivares 37 again, because it offers very good value for money. Three courses including bread and drinks for 13 euros!

Leaving and returning to Budapest!

Sorry for being so extremely late with this blog. The last weeks have been incredibly great, but also really busy. Lots of visitors, a return to home and also loads of studying.
First of all, I am happy to tell you that I scored the highest grade on five of my courses! My active attitude in class has definitely been worth it. Secondly, again, this is going to be a long, but hopefully fun, blog. So let's start!

Tuesday 6th of December, 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest
It has been a great weekend! After all the preparations for the exams (making summaries, organizing notes, highlighting half of my book), it got rewarded with some great parties a we have here innd some Dutch visitors! Harm, Laurens and Linda were in Budapest and of course we hung out together. Linda was on exchange in Budapest in the fall of 2009, so it was really great to talk about our experiences.

Also, together with them, I finally went to one of the extremely big clubs Budapest! About a thousand people, a wall full of dancing women and hearing 'snuff sounds' while being in the toilet. Well, and obviously great music and all our dance moves!

Other fun things I did this weekend: a visit to a tea house where you would have to climb over and crawl under things to find a cushion to sit on, the Thai massage I got for my birthday, great

talks with AnnMarie at Sugar for her birthday.. and Sinterklaas!! Igen, igen. Together with three other Dutch girls, a German and a Britt we put enormous amounts ofcandy on the table and played the dice-game with all the presents. So much fun to see the Dutch fanaticism catch on to Emma and Lena! Having a bit of a tummy ache now though..

Friday, 9th of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Wow! Wow, wow, wow, wow!! What a great two nights we just had... Okay, it does seem now like exchange is only partying. Do not get me wrong, I have been studying for about sixteen hours in the last two days, but I do not think this is the most interesting story to tell.

What is really interesting, are the two concerts we visited the last nights. On Wednesday,

to warm up, we visited the A38 boat and the show of the King of Balkan Beats: Shantel! Trumpets, an amazing female singer, jumping around, dancing, water drums, Shantel on the bar.. it was ecstatic! Just insane =D

Then, yesterday night.. the evening Emma, Geran, Annie and me have been waiting for since the beginning of this whole adventure... RIHANNA! Finally! We had heard some disappointing stories from different cities in Europe and obviously she had been very sick two months before, so we were praying the show in Budapest would be of good quality. It was more then that. It was fabulous and just out of the world! After a hour warm-up by no one less then Calvin Harris, the queen of R&B entered the stage!!! So many great costumes, an amazing staging, incredible vocal capacities.. she had it all. She made us laugh when we toasted on Nicki Minaj's birthday (Cheers to that!), cry when she went up in the air singing 'Love the way you lie' and dance our ass of on so many songs, with the fireworks of 'We found love' at the end! Amazing.. just purely amazing.

I am trying to recover now, because in a few hours my lovely friend Lotte is arriving! Cannot wait to finally see her again...

Tuesday, 13th of December 2011 - Corvinus Egyetem, Budapest

I have got only a few more hours left until my first Final Exam here in Budapest, so I will quickly write an update on the weekend with Lotte here in Budapest. It was simply great. She had already visited Linda here in 2009, so the major sightseeing was not necessary anymore. Therefore, we had so much time to just talk to each other and also to let her get to know my friends here, which was very important to me. Some of the people I met here have really conquered a place in my heart, just as Lotte has, and it was great to see them get along so well. We had dinner altogether, bought champagne in White Angel, watched Real Madrid - FC Barcelona and went to Széchenyi Bath. Just a perfect weekend. Now, time for exams!!

Friday, 16th of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Well, that went pretty okay! Did not have enough time to finish my three essays in History exam, but the rest was fine =) Especially, the 'exam' for International Debate, which was watching the movie Team America with a lot of snacks and drinks on the table and the Americans under the table from laughing.

Tomorrow is Geran's birthday, which we are going to celebrate at the concert of David Guetta. Also, tonight I have organized a suprise party for her in Doboz Bar.. so hopefully that will be okay! Now, we will first go to dinner with the two of us.. tapas at Pata Negra!

Sunday, 18th of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

That must have been the best birthday someone has ever had and Geran deserved every bit of that. Okay, the surprise literally 'fell into the water' a bit. Even though she was extremely surprised when about thirty of our friends turned up singing 'Happy Birthday' outside in the street of Doboz, it was supposed to be ínside of Doboz.. However, there was some kind of private party in the bar. How often does that happen? This could not suppress the fun and as a Plan B we went to Pauline's flat party! After a few hours, I went to the next birthday party, which was Adam's. Obviously, I was a few hours later then the rest and that was noticeable. Everyone was exuberant and we had a great time together. Well, until I got three elbows in my face by AnnMarie, an accidental slap in the face from Adam and almost pieces of glass in my eye from a cup falling on the ground. Time to go I guess!

Yesterday night then, we went to the David Guetta concert =D First, we invited the Corvinus girls to come eat pizza all together in our flat before going to HungExpo, where the show would take place. Arriving there, we were not prepared for the three hours we still had to wait until Guetta came.. He was supposed to start at eleven, but waited until a quarter to one. Not nice. However, two minutes after the show started this was all forgotten! What a great energy does this guy have and what a great party it was!! Highlight of the night, to be seen in the picture, the minutes Guetta played to song 'Without You'.. which made us all sentimental: "I will never be the same without you.." and him ending with a light show stating: BUDAPEST ROCKS! Igen!!

Now, we are going to have sushi (again) with Kristine and Emma, to close this birthday weekend in a fairly good manner!

Wednesday, 21st of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

It is now almost over. Well, over.. Of course I have another month left! However, tomorrow me and Geran will fly back for Christmas and so many people will not come back to Budapest.. Therefore, the last three days have been all about saying goodbye. Last hot wine together in Szimpla, last time Morrison's 2, last time dinner together.. Snif, snif ;)

On monday, Emma, Annie, Geran and me went Christmas shopping in order to find the perfect gifts for our loved ones back home. I especially wanted to find something good for my dad, since he it was his birthday that day and I was missing it! Finally, we succeeded! At night, we went for predrinking to Lena, Anais and Yesenia's flat with about twelve girls from Corvinus and afterwards met a lot of other people at Morrison's. It was a great night, which ended with me sleeping in Mona's bed. No, not like that. I forgot my keys and my phone battery died, leading to me in search of a place to stay the night. I considered a small, sweet Chinese/Indian girl to be the best option.

Tuesday, we went to the Hospital in the Rock, which was a secret military hospital and nuclear bunker in Budapest from the Second World War on. Very interesting and especially impressive to see all the pictures of destruction in the city we now adore so much. Later that afternoon, we went to Airi to finally make ginger bread together. At night, there was the now (in)famous EILC Flat crawl, which was basically a pub crawl in flats. Everyone prepared a special drink/shot, ranging from vodka jelly to B52's. The start was a little slow, but eventually we had so much fun! I will always remember this night as one of the perfect endings to a wonderful semester!

Then, at 4 o'clock in the morning, we had to drop Annie, who had been living with us for the last week, off at the taxi. For me, this was very hard. Annie comes from Oregon, USA (yes, just above California) and the chances of me seeing her in the coming years are just very small. It is very hard to say goodbye to people you have become very close to, even when you have prepared yourself for it from the start of the semester. This afternoon, it was Emma's turn. Had a final lunch together with the three of us and then escorted her to the train. This is by far my least favorite part about Erasmus....

Tonight, we are going to have one last dinner with the EILC people (Geran is also not coming back after Christmas) and have drinks with our university friends afterwards =) Then, tomorrow, I will finally see my family again!!!

Thursday, 29th of December 2011 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Christmas is definitely more special when you have been away for 4,5 months! On Thursday, after oversleeping, hurrying to catch our plane and clearly seeing the Budapest Danube area from the air, we arrived at Eindhoven Airport! By the way, it was really funny to once more experience the difference between me and Geran. Her way of remaining calm is to act as if everything is normal and there is nothing special going on. My way, is to name everything we do and to make sure I fully take in every step. "Last time we close the door together. Last time we take this tram together. Two hours until we will land. Three hours until we will be in our parents' house." Haha, so I tried to remain silent and Geran tried to remain sane ;)

Then, in Eindhoven, my brothers were waiting there, each with a rose in their hands, and also my parents were there! So sweet! Geran and I said goodbye and then we drove off to Schaijk. When arriving home, my mom had prepared my requested dinner, we walked through our village (wow, you can see in between the buildings here!) and we mostly just hung out on the couch. Next day, I took my bike (!!) and went to my uncle and aunts. Lovely to see everyone again. It is strange how normal that is.

I have to admit, this holiday at home has mostly been about eating. Christmas dinner with university friends, Christmas dinner with my family, Christmas dinner with my old flatmates, Christmas dinner with my friends from high school.. Basically six days of eating! Who cares, it was so great to be back!!!

Now, I returned to Budapest. However, not alone! My brother and his friend have come with me to celebrate New Year's Eve in this wonderful city. So, now I am turning off the computer and I am going to pick them up from the airport shuttle bus they took!

Tuesday, 3rd of January 2012 - Liszt Ferenc Ter, Budapest

Totally in love with this city again!! This is not infatuation, I think this is pure love!
The weekend with my brother, Stijn, and his friend, Teun, was really great. Better than expected actually, also for them. They were surprised by all the great architecture there is here, the vibrant atmosphere and the overall beauty of the city.

We visited (if ever going to Budapest you could use the following as tips for your travel:) the Castle District on Buda side, St. Stephen's Basilica, the Operahouse, the Central Market Hall, Corvinus University, Margit Island, Heroes Square, City Park, Széchenyi Bath, the House of Terror and Gellert Hill at sunset. We had lunches and dinners at For Sale, Soul Cafe, Thai Buddha Étterem, Hummus Bar, Langos and Pariszi Department Store. We partied at Szimpla, Corvintetö and Merlin.

It was so much fun hanging out with my brother for these days after missing him for all these months. We talked and laughed so much. It was really great having them over! Also, New Year's Eve was great! A little different then in the Netherlands; less fireworks, more children with trumpets.. but great to experience this night here! Looooooooooooooove Budapest!!

Thursday, 12th of January 2012 - Liszt Ferenc Ter Budapest

The last two weeks of my Erasmus Exchange have started, which is a very double feeling. On the one hand it makes me very sad and on the other hand it makes me very enthusiastic and excited to make the most out of it! So I am focusing on that last part =D
The past week I have made my last exam and mostly spent hanging out with my friends here. Nothing too special, just dinners and drinks, but for me that is now the most important. I am going to miss them so much that I do not want to waste a minute not being with them. This does not mean we are not going to do cultural stuff anymore, on the contrary! Tomorrow we leave to Bosnia & Herzegovina!! Eduardo, Silvia, Ania, Pauline, Eddy and me will take the train in the morning and eleven hours later we will arrive in Sarajevo. We will stay here for two days and then go to Mostar. I will probably come back with Eddy on Tuesday, the others will continue the journey through the rest of the Balkans. Another reason why Budapest is so great; because of its central location it is so easy and cheap to travel. It gives great opportunities, which I think I have and will continue to exploit to the fullest! Bosnia here we come!!!

Hong Kong

My trip to Hong Kong I had planned well in advance, I had arranged to be there when my uncle would also be there so he could show me around the city where he has stationed his company and one of his factories. I fly to Hong Kong for roughly 90 euro’s each way which for European standards can be considered reasonably cheap! Arriving in Hong Kong you immediately notice the cleanliness of the place. They are extremely cautious of infection and bacteria, there are signs everywhere: indicating the amount of times the conveyer belt is disinfected per day, the fine for spitting in public (as the Chinese often do) and the fine for littering. The city is clean and calm for Shanghai and Beijing standards, people wait in line, no one pushes or shoves. People are polite and say thank you and beckon you to go in front. Everyone is in harmony and it does not matter which nationality, race, age or gender you are.

Good memories

Two weeks ago my great Erasmus semester was over. The Student Village was already empty, my friends had already left and I was ready to go home and to see my family and friends again. Still I wished I could stay and I'm sure I will go back there for a holiday to visit friends. For now it's over and time for my last blog. 

In the beginning of my semester I was longing for Dutch food sometimes. Speculaas, Sinterklaas candy, the bread etc. The last week I was only thinking about what Finnish food I could bring home and I didn’t feel at all like eating Dutch food. However, I was looking forward to riding my own bike on very good bicycle roads without any pedestrians walking in the way and to feel the fresh cold wind. Somehow I felt like it was not windy at in Finland and I even lived at the seaside. The last couple of weeks was hanging out with friends, arranging all administrative stuff and visiting the most special places in Turku for the last time.

Language barrier in the UK?

So, in one week I will be leaving to Glasgow to study there for one semester! I'm currently in my Bachelor Business Administration and I will follow three electives there, namely: Portfolio Analysis, Financial Analysis, and Corporate treasury & International Risk management.

What can I expect? When talking to people about leaving to Glasgow I always get similar reactions: "Massive drinkers" , ''You have to buy a Kilt!'' ''You know those guys fry mars bars!?" ''Scotland is noting like England!''. So I am really looking forward and have a hard time figuring out what to expect from Glaswegians and the culture.

Cortes (cuts)

Cuts where the main theme during the holidays here in Portugal. I have not felt the Christmas feeling. Sometimes I saw a Santa Claus or I heard some christmas music but with 18 degrees it was not wat christmas has to be. Furthermore, I surfed with christmas, 'yes' that is possible in Lisbon. To be honest, I can not recommend to stay in Lisbon during christmas. Every erasmus student was flying back and forth. I felt a little bit lonely and that is not what it should be during christmas. Nevertheless I had three christmas dinners: one Polish, one German and a Dutch dinner. We sang christmas songs in different languages which was pretty funny. I liked the Dutch christmas dinner the most. We didn't speak English at all, pretty confident for once. But the Lisbon municipality cutted on the christmas decoration. Last year the city spent 2 million euros, this year 150.000. No christmas trees at all, all the Portuguese were complaining.

exams

Hello,

It is now the 9th of January, I just finished my second exam, Operations management. I thought it was quite easy. 30 multiple choise questions which were provided before and 4 open question which were also easy.