Hello from Holland!! I have been in the Netherlands for a few weeks now and am really getting a feel for the European culture. We arrived on August 24th which was a week before classes started. Exchange students that had been at U of L in the spring met up with us and helped us to the DUWO office and our apartment. It was such a tremendous help! We got moved in and all went out for dinner in the city center. The city center is so neat with its old and new buildings. There is tons of shopping and restaurants! A few days later we went to the beach to spend the afternoon. It was so much fun! There is a pier with bungee jumping and a casino and shopping.
On Thursday of our first week we had IBMS orientation. All the exchange students got together and the teachers gave us a tour of the school and the city. It was very nice. We walked through the Parliament and where the Queen works each day. The next day we all went back to the school to set up our class schedules, which took some effort! The class set up for exchange students can be rather complicated and still 3 weeks in takes some getting use to. That Saturday the Inter Access program took the exchange students to Amsterdam where we had a boat tour of the city and went to the festival. It was a great way to get to know other exchange students. I have met so many great new friends from all over the world!!
The following week classes started and they went pretty smoothly. Most everything is online and all the teachers understand our position and are very lenient with us. That weekend a few friends and I took a weekend trip to Hamburg, Germany. It was beautiful! We had an amazing weekend and got to see many landmarks and churches.
This past weekend a few of the exchange students and I went to Delft which is a small town about 15 minutes by train from The Hague. It was open monument day so we were able to go into the town hall, Water Company building, and several churches free of charge! There was a large festival in the square and plenty of things to see.
We are having a great time here in The Hague! I will be posting pictures soon and writing more about our life here in the Netherlands!