Greetings from Den Haag,

 

A few months into my European excursion, I love the Netherlands. Everything is a new adventure and the diverse people I’ve met are amazing. IBMS (the business school at Den Haag) proudly boasts a ratio of 30% Dutch students and 70% other nationalities. So far I’ve met Czech, Russian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, German, and the list goes on. It’s eye opening to exchange language, culture and build new friendships with other international students. On top of all the new cultural experiences; I’ve also had a chance to travel and visit sites that I normally only read about. Study abroad is definitely an enriching opportunity.

 

            Here in Holland, I’m adjusting to the culture and have found lots of small obstacles to grow from. For example, grocery shopping can be exciting.  Sometimes I find myself looking at the pictures on cartons and scanning for familiar words to help me get the correct food. I’ve also adjusted to the awesome public transit and biking in Holland. Here very few people drive automobiles and even less seem to obey traffic laws that we have in the U.S. But walking is always a good option and the trams are really convenient once you learn the hotspots. Another adjustment is the weather. It rains a lot more here and can get extremely windy, so my jacket has gotten some good use.

 

            As far as class is concerned its definitely different than U.S. Classes. Here they are usually once a week , except for project groups, which have a lecture and a group session(each once a week). I also love how laid-back most of my classes are. For example, in one of my lectures a student raised his hand and asked the professor if we could take a coffee break. Which is would have been absurd at the University of Louisville, but here the professor actually obliged. It’s normal to have a 5 or 10 minute coffee break intermission in most of my classes. Also, I wish there were more homework, quizzes, or tests in many of my classes. At U of L the homework and quizzes help give me a barometer of how well I understand the material; here; often your only grade is the final. My finance class, for example, had an exam over numerous chapters and determined my entire grade in the class when we had only met for 6 lectures.

 

            On to the real reason people study abroad, though, travel. As you’ve obviously read, living in a new place can have a few setbacks. But these are vastly outweighed by my awesome, once in a lifetime travel experiences. Whether I travel to somewhere far across Europe or just somewhere else in Holland there is always something neat to see.

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            Our first travel experience was to Dublin. (Travel Trip: Ryan Air has many cheap inter-European flights and makes traveling pretty affordable). Upon arrival our group was pretty wiped but heck we were on the Emerald Isle. How many 20 year olds can say they have been to Ireland? So we all agreed we couldn’t go exploring on an empty stomach and stopped at a local café.  I guess I remember the breakfast pretty well because I was famished and the food was soooo good. This wasn’t without exception, though. We all got big breakfast platters and some even came with pudding. MMMM…right? WRONG! Pudding is actually a sorta gritty looking circular sausage like food (I didn’t have the heart to try it) that we consists of blood and assortment of various meat fillers. After refueling we set out on a New Europe tour to see the city.(Travel Tip: New Europe offers many free tours in large  European cities and is an excellent way to see the local landmarks at a cheap price. tipping the guides is recommended). Our guide enlightened us on Ireland’s turbulent history and guided us to many cool sites. Highlights included Trinity University, local cathedrals and sites of numerous famous political revolts. Once the tour finished we did a little exploring of our own. An interesting stop was the Kilmainham Gaol (jail) which had housed many of Ireland’s most infamous and influential figures. We learned about famous executions and got to see how prisoners lived first hand. In Dublin we also visited the Guinness brewery and attended pub crawl, the beer(especially Guinness)  is not to be missed. But, my favorite part of Ireland was our trip to Kilkenny.  Here, we saw the real Ireland; rolling green hills, castles, and ruins of old.  It was a trip into nature with trails into the woods, quaint wooden bridges over trickling streams, and lots of amazing views of the countryside. This trip really united the group and opened my eyes to the landscapes and culture outside the US.

 

            That’s all for Blog  #1, but with classes winding down I hope to upload lots of pictures soon and tell about some of the other wonderful places I’ve since visited.

 

Brian Mattingly