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.

TIBET!

My girlfriend left on the 14th however I could not rest for long for on the 18^th I had scheduled to go to Tibet. We had only decided to go on this trip on the 7^th, so we had to do a lot of planning! Friends of mine wanted to do this and asked me if I wanted to join, a chance to go to Tibet is a chance I would never let slip away. So I had a lot to do before I could leave the University for nearly two weeks. We managed to get the go-ahead from our teachers after we promised to finish all the homework ahead of time. This meant that the four days I had between Joske leaving and me leaving for Tibet were spend behind books and laptops. We worked extremely hard to finish all our homework two weeks ahead of time but we managed to do it! Finishing of 3 reports and two presentations in time, arranging with our other team members that we would make the reports and they would do the presentations.

The four of us left late at night and entered the train that would take us from Shanghai directly to Lhasa, once again China’s impressive constructions prevail. We had to plan and book our entire tour ahead of time. One has to get this all done and sorted before a visa is issued. Lhasa is located at 3600m and we planned to also visit the Mt. Everest which is located nearly 2km higher at 5400m. The decision to take the train was therefore not taken without careful consideration. The train ride takes 49 hours, nearly a 1000km of the railway is at an altitude of more than 4000 meters, with the highest point of the track at the Tanggula Pass at 5072 meters. The long ride would give us some time to adjust to the altitude; the wagons are pumped with oxygen to make the ride a little more comfortable.

We ate on the train and played cards, reading up on Lhasa in the various information books we brought. We were with four people and we decided to buy second class, hard sleeper seats. This meant we shared our little cabin with 2 Chinese, in our case we got lucky and we shared it with a friendly young couple, who unfortunately did not speak any English. The train ride was long but the scenery made more than up for it, we stopped only a few times and each time we hopped off, sprinting to the food sellers on the train platform to buy some more food for the rest of the journey. However, as soon as we arrived we realized we would have to sit in that train for another 49 hours on the way back, all of a sudden the train ride seemed really long!

Upon our arrival we met our guide who took us to our hotel. In the middle of Lhasa, the first thing we noticed was that any physical effort we undertook was extremely difficult. Breathing is heavy, you are constantly out of breath, it does not matter how fit you are or what your build is. The only people not affected by altitude sickness are the Tibetans, it’s said to be in their genes. That first night was difficult to say the least, all of us hardly slept that night and spent most of the night near the bathroom. We tried to battle the sickness by drinking a lot of water, which is the only real remedy. We drank near to 4 liters of water a day and made sure that we did things slowly.

Taking things slowly was apparently not what our guide had in mind, the first morning we were driven to the Potala Palace. It’s the large monastery in the center of the city build on a hill. It stands tall in this city and is a safe haven for Buddhists from all over the world. Everyday there are believers who circle the entire palace while swinging their prayer sticks. It is impressive to see that even those who have so little are so devoted to their belief. The temple itself is a masterpiece with over a 1000 rooms which house prayer rooms, statues and ‘stupas’ which are tombs in which the monks are buried. There are so many other things to say about this palace but I guess you will just have to travel to Lhasa and find out for yourself.

Apart from the dozens of temples we visited the scenery grabs you as it is so diverse. One moment you are surrounded by lakes and hills and the next moment one is driving through a desert. Some areas of the Himalayas are sheltered from rain all year round and are therefore excluded from rain. We spend a lot of our time in the car, firstly driving over 300km from Lhasa to Sighatse after spending the first two days in Lhasa. It’s a nice drive because we cut through the mountains via valley and also climb over the top of some mountains which results in beautiful views. We visited the Nmatso lake which is the second highest salt water lake in the world at 4720 meters. Arriving at Sighatse later that day we find a local restaurant where we are able to enjoy our first yak steak, which tastes amazing!

The next day we wanted to leave Sighatse again in the early morning to be at the Mt. Everest before the sunset. However on the way to the mountain there are a lot of security stops and checks. Your visa needs to be in order and you need to have the appropriate paperwork. However, our guide had not yet gotten our papers and visas so we had to wait for the police office to open. So after leaving late we tried to get our driver to pick up the speed and hopefully drive over 100km per hour. Unfortunately 102km of the 350km drive was over unpaved, hairpin turned tracks, constantly driving up and down mountains. During these twists and bends we climbed to the highest point I have ever been, 6256 Meters! Due to the low speeds we were driving we unfortunately missed our sunset and had to view it from a distance. We arrived at the Base Camp and drank some sweet milk thee with the locals that are stationed there.

Our rooms consisted of 2 beds and 4 covers but that night was still the most unbearable and horrific night I have ever endured! The Base Camp is at an altitude of roughly 5300 meters. The windows are single layered and some of the tiles in the window are missing so the only protection you have from outside is a thin curtain. We wore all of our clothes while sleeping but still we were freezing! However, it wasn’t so much the cold that really got to us; the altitude sickness was far and far worse. We all suffered from intense headaches, upset stomachs and restlessness. Because we were desperate to make sure we did not miss the sunrise, we decided to wake up at 6 and leave the camp at 6:30.

We were all awake for pretty much the whole night, constantly hoping our phones would indicate that it was close to 6 so we could put this night before us. When this was finally the case we re-screwed the light bulb in place to illuminate the cold rooms. Our water which we had brought with us and kept with us next to our beds had frozen, indicating that the temperatures in the room had gotten below 0. Outside the temperature had dropped far below that and reached -25 degrees! When we went outside and got in the car to drive to the furthest point it was still pitch black outside. We waited in the car for the sunrise to start and as soon as the tips of surrounding mountains became vaguely visible we started on our journey to get closer to the Everest.

We left the safety and relative warmth of the car and walked roughly 2km towards the mountain. We had to climb small ‘hills’ which are rock barges that make the area behind it inaccessible for cars. Once on the highest point of the valley we were in, we waited for the sun to rise. Temperatures rose only ever so slightly and it was freezing cold, roughIy -15 to -10 degrees, I was wearing short and long thermo underwear both bottoms and tops, together 2 long polos and 2 sweaters and a jacket. Over my long thermo underwear I wore sweatpants and over that normal jeans. Then two pairs of ski socks and two pairs of gloves, in combination with mountain boots purchased at the fake market in Shanghai and a beanie. Wearing this entire still provided little to no protection to the cold that you are exposed to on the mountain. By the time we were on the location where we wanted to view the sunrise it was 8 o’clock. The sun was not even close to passing over the tips of the surrounding mountains. We had forgotten that we were positioned in a valley and therefore had to wait for the sun to get higher in the sky before we would have been able to see it. So after roughly half an hour of waiting we decided that we would head back! One of the girls that were with us suffers from bad blood circulation and is naturally a lot colder than the rest. Her fingers and face was starting to turn blue so this was a clear indication that we were in over our heads and not prepared to face these temperatures. It would have been unhealthy to stay at that altitude without the proper clothing. Heading back to the car the sun was still not visible. We made the right decision to go back in time, and we still got to see the sunrise from the pitch black to the morning light casted on the largest mountain on earth.

After the cold morning we visited some more monasteries and started our journey back to Sighatse and the day after we drove back to Lhasa. Arriving there late in the evening to finally have the first good night’s rest we’ve had in days. With the Everest at 5300m and our hotel in Sighatse at roughly 4000m it was nice to be back in Lhasa at ‘only’ 3600m. After this nice rest we traveled to the Ganden Monastery, it is located on the top of a mountain range and overlooks a valley, a truly magnificent sight! We observed the high monk chanting and teaching to his fellow believers and gotten a private tour of the place from an English spoken monk.

The following day we headed down to the Samye Monastery. To get there you have to cut through the desert. The monastery is one of the most special ones as it was one of the oldest in Tibet. Up to earlier this year foreigners were not allowed in the temple! The highlight of the temple is the depiction of the 14^th Dalai Lama. This is strictly forbidden in Tibet but there is one portrait of him which is allowed by the Chinese rulers. After the tour we enjoyed some more sweet thee on the porch of a local restaurant, and we watched as the packs of stray dogs walk through the empty streets in the deserted area. We returned home to Lhasa for our last meal in, yak steak of course!

Following morning we headed to the post office for some post cards, then buying a lot of supplies for the train ride back. We had to share a 6 person cabin with 7 people seeing as one of the bunks was being shared by a couple who would take turns in who gets to sleep. The way back was a lot less exciting as we had expected. A lot of reading and listening to music, with regards to food and drinks the way back was slightly more challenging. Seeing as after a few stops a large military platoon boarded the train and claimed all the food and beer!

Tibet was all in all a wonderful once in a lifetime experience! It was not a ‘fun’ holiday because most time was spend in cars and observing temples. But it was an eye opener to see the wonders of the Everest and the landscape that surrounds it. Meeting the local Tibetans as well as the Chinese that now share this land after 1959. Due to the position that I am currently in I cannot go into more detail on how this relationship is going but in short the Tibetans are being suppressed to a certain extent. However, it must be said that the Chinese are investing a lot of money and resources into improving the county with regards to quality of life, infrastructure and wealth. However, their methods can sometimes be questionable.

The last one..

For my final blog, I thought it would be a fun idea to give some conclusions, and recommendations for everyone that considers going on exchange in Stockholm in general. So, here goes!

- Going on exchange is an incredible experience. You meet so many people, make a lot of good friends, get to see another city thoroughly and get the chance to study in a completely different institution. However, some people tend to romanticize the going on exchange a little too much. There are also things that are less pleasant. I’ve heard quite a lot of people getting lonely on exchange. Even though there are numerous opportunities to meet new people, there is always the chance that you do not find people you really have a connection with, and since there is no family or friends to keep you company; it can be quite a lonely place. Luckily for me this is completely not the case, where I have made friends for life and met plenty of other acquaintances.

- Missing family and friends from home can also be quite tough. Especially when you have a girlfriend at home (like I do), you sometimes would like to go home for a while. It is not such a big problem when you go on exchange to Stockholm for example, since people can visit you easily and often. However, the story becomes different when you go to, say, Jakarta. Definitely something to consider when you think of going away.

- Time for some typically Swedish points. I personally have had very positive experiences with Swedish people; they are kind, if what a little preserved, and are always prepared to help you out. Other exchange students have experienced similarly, but there are also people that find them arrogant and too introvert. Especially people from southern Europe and South America. But that’s just a difference in culture I guess.

- Stockholm University is a fantastic institution to study at. The old campus is beautiful, lying in a preserved nature park. Furthermore, the concept of doing courses one by one after each other has numerous advantages. Also, the quality of teaching was astonishing; Very good teachers and professors, and I have the feeling I learned an extraordinary lot about business the last semester. A slight con is that they do not have a very big amount of undergraduate courses in business in English, but luckily I could find courses that were very supplementary for my studies. I think the university is highly recommendable!

- I’m completely in love with Stockholm as a city! The city is so incredibly beautiful and atmospheric, and has literally everything to offer! Furthermore, I am a big fan of the posh and pompous style of most parts of the city, as well as the water that seems to flow everywhere. The city is fantastic to shop for clothes, and has more museums that someone can possibly visit in a semester. It is also an incredibly romantic city, and therefore I can recommend everyone to visit it with their loved ones. It´s a truly remarkable city!

- After this complete hailing of the city, there must also be some cons for Sweden of course. For one, don´t expect to nice weather up here in the north. Although rainfall is not as often as in the Netherlands, the weather can get very cold, and it can be quite windy. Also, the fact that it gets dark at 14:30 in the winter is still something I cannot get used to. And the biggest ‘problem’ is that it is an expensive city to live in. Expect to easily spend 800 euro’s a month for your basic expenses (living, food, going out, clothing), and then we’re not talking about extensive spending! Add the fact that you are on exchange and will probably do a lot of trips, and you get quite a heavy spending spree for one semester. Although I don’t think this should be something that keeps people from going here on exchange, it is definitely something to take into account.

Also, since this is the last blog, it might be interesting to write something about how I feel about going back. Of course it is self-evident that I look forward to seeing my girlfriend, my family and my friends again on a more regular basis. One of the things I really look forward to is to not have to spend the amounts of money I spend now just to live. It will be fantastic to be able to buy a beer for a couple of euro´s, or to go to a supermarket and simply buy everything I feel like buying.

There are many things I will miss here though. I feel like I’ve bonded quite a lot with the people I’ve met here, and it will be strange not to see them for so long. I hope I will be able to visit some of them! Also, I will miss the kanelbullar! Urban and I have eaten massive amounts of them in the last couple of months, and it will feel like rehab when I will get back.

I think this exchange will help me in my future career, since I truly have the feeling that I have developed myself in many ways. I have become more social, a much better presenter, and a better writer, among many other things. I hope to apply these competences in other works that will hopefully help my career path!

Lastly, I want to thank the exchange team for making this possible for me. It has been an epic journey, and a true life experience, and I am still very honored to be able to do an exchange like this!

Parents gone again ...

This week were the last days that my parents were here, so I would enjoy those days very much!

Monday the 28th I first had classes, but afterwards I went to spend to afternoon with my parents. They visited the ‘new’ part of Madrid that morning, which is between Nuevos Ministerios and Chamartín.

Back to Holland and back to Madrid

It is Thurday night , the 22nd/23th of December, 2 am. I made some bread and walked with Jasper to the bus at O’donnel. This is just 2 kilometres from our apartment but with a suitcase missing one wheel this was a terrible walk. I didn’t care and was only thinking about seeing my dog again. From O ‘donnel I took the bus to the Airport. We were of course far to early , as we arrived at 4 o clock and our plane would leave at 6.45 am. I still don’t know how I amused myself but at 6.30 we could go in the plane and because of the ice on the wings of the plane we had a delay of half an hour. Nevertheless we arrived 15 minutes earlier as planned. I took the train to Helmond to pick up my dog. As a surprise my dad came to the train station with my dog I missed so much. Then I took the train to Tilburg, the dad of Jasper picked us up from the station and made a very nice Dutch lunch for us. After I had to go to the doctor. My stomach couldn’t handle the Spanish food. That night we had a very nice dinner with the whole family of Jasper. I was very nice to tell them about our experience.

Episode 9: December!

Hola!

I think it is time for a new blog about my life here in Madrid! While people in the Netherlands were busy with the celebration of “Sinterklaas” during the first half of December, I was not bored either. With four exams, some presentations and some final reports to do, it was a period of studying. However, I had enough time to do great things too of course! For example, the 2^nd of December I really liked: first two friends came to my place to eat paella, then we went to a party at a friend-of-a-friend’s place, after which we partied in Club Moondance. Other fun activities were: having dinner at tapas restaurant Lateral, visiting the Christmas markets, going to lounge bars, visiting the zoo of Madrid, eating ice creams at Llao Llao and watching “El Clásico” (Real Madrid – Barcelona) with flat mates.

During the second half of December, I started to realize things were coming to an end: making exams, saying goodbye to people who already went home before Christmas, and of course: Christmas and New Year’s Eve. About the exams I cannot tell a lot: I have the feeling I passed them all, but I don’t know any grades so far.

Saying goodbye is of course not the best part, but it has a positive side too. When people realize their good time in Madrid is almost over, they start to enjoy even more, and I join them! That’s why we: ordered that too big ice-cream at Llao Llao, organized a last Mexican dinner with our “Club of 6”, went to Starbucks more often, had a great Christmas dinner with my team, had a nice birthday party, went to different Christmas markets and partied once again all together at Star Studio. However, one of the most beautiful experiences was the “Inauguración de Navidad”: an amazing light- and firework show on the Palacio de Cibeles (see foto). It might sound strange, but it felt like a symbolic end of our Erasmus time!

And then, finally, I was together with my family again! My parents and sister visited me during Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which I enjoyed a lot!!! Of course I showed them the hotspots, but very ‘usual’ things too, like my room and how I walk to the supermarket. I saw new things too since we went inside the Palacio Real, El Escorial (a big monastery) and the stadium of Atlético Madrid. Furthermore, we celebrated New Year’s Eve like real Spaniards. The idea is that at 12 o’clock you eat a grape on each clock stroke, because that will bring you luck. We tried our best: we have eaten 12 grapes at 12 o’clock, near Puerta del Sol, and drank champagne. Okay, that we were not sure whether it was 12 o’clock, that one of the grapes fell in my jacket (of course I have eaten this one too), and that we used some more time than was allowed: I don’t care. It was an unforgettable moment and we enjoyed it a lot. That’s what it is all about!

Well, the upcoming 11 days are my last days in Madrid. I will do a lot of things for the last time. I will have 2 new flat mates too and I need to write some papers etc. Again, I will not be bored. Oh, and Epiphany is a big celebration here in Madrid, so I will check that out too of course!

Dear readers, my next and last blog will follow in a week or so!

Adios!