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

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. 

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!!!

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.