Feb
28
This is the second post in a series that will highlight things I’m learning as I go. From the mundane everything to the panic-stricken moments, here’s what I (now) know:
1. Bedbugs are not a big deal here. Someone in my apartment building has bedbugs. She is pretty unconcerned about it, as are my landlords and fellow international students. Only the Americans are completely panicking. I had no idea bedbugs weren’t a dramatic thing around the world!
2. American cheese is called “cheddar” cheese. Cheddar cheese as we know it does not exist here, but American cheese does. Those prepackaged slices that are perfect for grilled cheese are called cheddar cheese here, and are pretty well scoffed at. I love gouda and edam, but they just do not melt well.
3. Statiegeld is the best ever. When you buy bottles of soda here, you are charged fifty cents or so as statiegeld. After you finish your drink, you take it back to the store to be recycled, and you get a coupon for fifty cents off your purchase. I know it’s not really getting money back because it’s money I paid in the first place, but it still feels cool to be rewarded for recycling.
4. Travel can be cheap here–but not how you might expect. Before I came here, a lot of people talked about how affordable plane tickets are and how wonderful the trains are. I guess both are cheap compared to what we pay in the US, but taking buses in Europe is even cheaper. I can take a bus from Utrecht to Germany for 14 euro round trip, and I bought last-minute bus tickets to Brussels round trip for 33 euro. If you eat food from supermarkets instead of eating out while you’re away, you’ll save even more money!
5. Professors decide when to end class. At OU, everyone has the same spring break, and everyone’s finals are the same week. Here, my professors decide when they want class to end and when they want to give finals. My professors this term decided to end class two weeks early, so I have no class from March 30 to April 25. How wild is that?
Feb
21
From Around the World in Katie Days.
This is the first post in a series that will highlight things I’m learning as I go. From the mundane everything to the panic-stricken moments, here’s what I (now) know:
1. No one takes credit cards. I have found exactly one business in Utrecht that takes Mastercard, Visa, or American Express. One. It turns out that for everything else, there’s chipknip, not Mastercard. Chipknips look a lot like debit cards, but they have a gold area on them that looks a lot like a SIM card. You can buy a prepaid one with 10 or 20 euro on them (I’ve found dispensers in the Faculty of Humanities library), or you can open a bank account and get one.
2. Opening a bank account is pretty easy. If you’re going to be here for at least a year, Universiteit Utrecht has an arrangement with Rabobank that seems simple to navigate. If you’ll only be here for a semester, ING bank will let you open an account even before you receive your BSN—the tax number you get when you register with the city. All they require is proof of identity (passport) and proof that you’re enrolled (student ID). Super easy.
3. Filet Americain is raw beef. I know I’ve mentioned this several times before, but I’m still kind of distraught about it. I want to keep other hapless Americans from making my mistakes.
4. Duct tape is called gaffa tape. The Dutch tend to use British words rather than American, so if you’re searching for it, ask for “gaffa” rather than “duct.”
5. They use the metric system. Okay, yeah, I knew to expect Celsius and kilometers, but I somehow missed the part where Europeans measure things in milliliters and liters. If you’re planning to cook some American comfort food, slip a set of measuring spoons in your luggage. You won’t regret it!
Feb
20
Ciao,
This weekend was awesome! Myself and 6 other girls from OUA went to Venice this weekend for Carnevale. It was so much fun. I’ll give you a short run down of all of the things we got to do and see while we were there!
We left on Thursday February 16th after everyone was finished with their classes, and we got to Venice at about 9. We checked into our hotel and went to sleep so we could be rested for exploring Venice on Friday.
On Friday we left the hotel at about 9 and got the main part of Venice shortly after that. It was everything I imagined it would be. The sky was blue, the houses were gorgeous, and the canals were stunning.
Our first destination was the Rialto Bridge, which is the main bridge in Venice. On our way to the bridge we stopped and took a gondola ride!
Me, Katie, Elisandra, and Amanda on the Gondola
After our gondola ride we crossed the bridge and headed over to San Marcos. San Marcos is the major piazza in Venice. In San Marcos there were tourists, people in costume, live music, vendors, and amazing buildings to look at.
Elaborate costumes for Carnevale
Katie and I representing OU in San Marcos!
We wondered around (using the buddy system of course) and took lots of pictures. After that we went to the Doge’s palace, which was elaborate and spectacular. Then we did some shopping and walked around some more, had dinner and went back to the hotel.
Saturday, we got up early again and headed back to Venice. We started off with a tour of the Ca’Rezzinico which is a famous Venetian house.
Then we bought a ticket for the water bus, and headed over to the island of Murano. Murano is famous for it’s glass production. On Murano we had lunch, took a tour of the glass museum and did a lot of shopping.
Amazing glass sculpture on Murano
After Murano, we went to Burano. Burano is an even smaller island where fishermen live. What is unique about Burano is that all of the houses are different colors, and the island is also famous for it’s lace production. By the time we left Burano it was getting dark so we went back to the hotel to change and get ready for the evenings festivities. We all got dressed up and put on our Venetian masks. Once were back in Venice we wondered around and admired everyone’s costumes. It was a lot of fun.
On Sunday we came back to Arezzo. It’s funny how much Arezzo feels like home now, and how we were all a little home sick. It was an amazing weekend, and I’m so glad I got to experience it.
Feb
17
This post is from the blog Around the World in Katie Days by Kate who is studying in Utrecht.
How do you study abroad when you’re an introvert?
This is the question I asked myself over and over when I was preparing to go abroad, and it’s the question I’ve been wondering since I showed up here.
Every study abroad forum says roughly the same thing: “Say yes to everything! Go to all of the parties and events thrown for internationals! Do everything you possibly can! Meet so many people!”
I spent my entire freshman year at OU avoiding this exact thing. I don’t like parties. I don’t like crowded places, especially crowded pubs/bars. I need my alone time, and I need a lot of it.
Also, I hate doing things just because someone told me I had to.
When I’m at home, every evening is basically the same: all four of us sit in four different rooms (unless a really good game show is on). Occasionally, someone will yell at someone else, or I will yell an answer to Jeopardy. When I was living in the dorms, my roommate, Christiana, and I could sit together for hours without ever saying a word. This works for me. I’m not lonely or bored or depressed, nor am I socially stunted. I’m happy to go to things I’m interested in and participate in things I love, as is Christiana, as are the members of my family. That’s just how we introverts work.
I get to Europe, and all of sudden this social interaction is supposed to be attractive to me? If I said yes to everything, I’d be in bars with too-loud music, coughing from the smoke, and politely declining beer (which I don’t drink—another strike!). I’d be miserable.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m not sitting alone in my apartment all day. I have lots of friends here, and I’m not crying from homesickness. I’m pretty happy, but I’m not some super cool party person all of a sudden. I’m still me.
So, what do you do if you’re an introvert abroad?
1. Don’t be completely antisocial. I’m friendly to the people in my apartment. I smile at them in the kitchen and halls; I recognize them when I’m not at home. I talk to them when I see them, and I do my fair share of cleaning. This tends to endear you to people.
2. Say yes to the things you can handle. I can’t handle smoky bars, both because I hate them and because I have asthma, so I don’t say yes to those. I don’t like beer, and I don’t want to get drunk, so I don’t say yes to those things. I do say yes to going to clubs where the smoke is manageable, trips to the grocery store with people, to walking to orientation together, to going downtown to the city centre with people. I push my comfort zone sometimes, which I think is important when trying new things, but I know my boundaries and I respect them.
3. Have goals. I like lists. You’ve probably noticed that by now. I especially like to-do lists; I like them so much that I have an app on my MacBook called iProcrastinate. It makes lists for me AND I get to color code them. It’s sort of a dream come true, honestly. I use iProcrastinate to set goals of things I will accomplish each day. For example:
Tuesday—Figure out how to do laundry.
Wednesday—Mail something at the nearest post office. Go to HEMA and buy tape and maybe room or bike decorations. Find the Aldi and buy food.
Thursday—Go to IKEA! Buy a broom and maybe a Swiffer.
Friday—Meet my Dutch mentors.
Saturday—Climb the Domtoren with some of my roommates.
This forces me to, you know, put down the computer and interact with Utrecht. Usually, I do way, way more than I plan. That’s great. Some days, like today, I only accomplish the one thing. Whatever.
I suppose my answer to my question is: you just do it. You stay true to yourself, you do things and see things without abandoning who you are, and you’ll do just fine.
Feb
17
This is the first post in a series that will highlight things I’m learning as I go. From the mundane everything to the panic-stricken moments, here’s what I (now) know:
1. No one takes credit cards. I have found exactly one business in Utrecht that takes Mastercard, Visa, or American Express. One. No grocery store, McDonald’s, or shopping mall takes plastic. I was planning on using my Mastercard debit, so I was very surprised by this! Luckily, debit cards work fine in ATMs.
It turns out that for everything else, there’s chipknip, not Mastercard. Chipknips look a lot like debit cards, but they have a gold area on them that looks a lot like a SIM card. You can buy a prepaid one with 10 or 20 euro on them (I’ve found dispensers in the Faculty of Humanities library), or you can open a bank account and get one.
2. Opening a bank account is pretty easy. If you’re going to be here for at least a year, Universiteit Utrecht has an arrangement with Rabobank that seems simple to navigate. If you’ll only be here for a semester, ING bank will let you open an account even before you receive your BSN—the tax number you get when you register with the city. All they require is proof of identity (passport) and proof that you’re enrolled (student ID). Super easy.
3. Filet Americain is raw beef. I may have mentioned this before, but I’m still kind of distraught about it. I want to keep other hapless Americans from making my mistakes.
4. Duct tape is called gaffa tape. The Dutch tend to use British words rather than American, so if you’re searching for it, ask for “gaffa” rather than “duct.”
5. They use the metric system. Okay, yeah, I knew to expect Celsius and kilometers, but I somehow missed the part where Europeans measure things in milliliters and liters. If you’re planning to cook some American comfort food, slip a set of measuring spoons in your luggage. You won’t regret it!
Feb
16
Hello,
My name is Tyler and I am studying in Arezzo, Italy for the spring 2012 semester. I am going to try and post once a week about all of the fun and exciting things going on here at the OUA campus.
Yesterday, February 15th, Kirk Duclaux’s Art History class and Dr. Stephenson’s music class took a trip to Florence. It was cold, but really wonderful. We went to Santa Croce and saw the tombs of Michelangelo, Machiavelli, and Galileo. We also saw some beautiful art.
Art History Class
We did a lot of walking around Florence, and we got to admire all of the stunning architecture. After class was over we had some free time, so of course some of the girls and I went and did a little shopping. We bought masks for Carnevale and some beautiful scarves. After our trip to Florence we came back to OUA and had a Getting to Know Arezzo class. We discussed religion in Italian culture, and we heard the story of the Madonna Del Conforto. The Madonna Del Conforto is what the Aretini (people from Arezzo) believe saved them from an earthquake back in the 1700′s and ever since then they line up at the Duomo and pay respects on February 15th.
The crowd of people viewing the Madonna Del Conforto inside the Duomo di Arezzo
So after we heard the story we went to the Duomo to see the Madonna. It was a very unique and special experience.
This weekend almost all of the students here are going to Venice for Carnevale! For more information about the history and customs of Carnevale check out this website – http://www.venetianmasksshop.com/history.htm
Feb
14
Classes are in full swing here at Universiteit Utrecht. For international students, that meant we attended two orientations during the first week of February. The first orientation was all about paperwork: paperwork for registering with the city, paperwork for canceling our city registration in July, paperwork for this, that, and the other. I memorized my student ID really quickly!
My friend Jinju and I found something familiar in the international office during orientation!
However, we took a break to listen to a Dutch Studies professor talk about Dutch study culture. It was very enlightening to learn how different Dutch universities are from American ones. Here, it would be offensive (and possibly incorrect) to call your professor Dr. _____. You’re expected to call them either Mevrouw (Mrs.)/Meneer (Mr.) Last Name or by their first name. You’re also not supposed to stick around after class to ask questions because it could potentially interfere with other appointments they have–and yes, they would make appointments for ten minutes after class ends.
One of the biggest differences is the grading system. The Dutch grade on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being the highest grade one could achieve and a 5 being the lowest grade you could get to pass. At first glance, this seems very easily translated to the American scale: a 9 or 10 is an A (a 90 or 100), an 8 is a B (80), a 7 is a C (70), and so on. That’s what I thought when I saw it for the first time.
I was so very, very wrong. The professor explained that the Dutch never, ever give 9s or 10s. 10s are reserved for God, and 9s are reserved for the professor. Rarely and begrudgingly, the Dutch will give an 8, but only if the only means of evaluating are multiple-choice tests and you never missed a question. It turns out that a 7, the grade I thought was a C, is actually a very desirable grade and cause for celebration!
Another change is the length of classes. Here, you take four classes in the period from January to June, but you don’t take all four at once. Most people take two classes from Feb. 6 to the beginning of April (the dates vary based on which college you’re in) and two classes from April 23 to June 30.
Classes also meet for much longer than the three hours a week they do in America. My Brazilian Film class meets from 9 to 10:45 on Mondays and from 9 to 1 on Wednesdays; my Dutch Present-day Society class meets for a similar amount of time on Wednesdays and Fridays. That’s a long time to be in class! Luckily, we have at least one five-minute break during each meeting time. Sharp-eyed readers will note that that means no classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I spend those days either studying or recovering from my hours and hours in class!
Kate
Feb
9
Some interesting blog posts about FOOD from OU students abroad.
Food and hospitality in Russia
Feb
7
5. There’s always someone who comes into class late, apologizing loudly even though it really would be better if they just sat down quietly. If you have a class somewhere far away, like Sarkeys or Catlet, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re perpetually lost like me, you know you are this person.
4. The teacher spends the first day of class reading the syllabus, and everyone sits silently, hoping class will get out early. “Do you have any questions? Come on, I know you MUST have some questions!”
3. They have serious coffee addictions. I kid you not, there is a ten-minute break in every class so we can get our caffeine fix. It does not matter how long the class is–four hours or one–there is a break.
2. They yell at you if you get in the bike lane. Granted, Dutch bike lanes are more widespread and well-defined than our lane on the South Oval, but if you accidentally step in one for a fraction of a second, someone will start yelling. No one will ever slow down for you. Ever.
1. They never, ever wear orange to class. Now that’s a rule I can get behind!
Feb
3
Hallo from Utrecht! After 11 hours up in the air, I am finally in my new home in central Holland (and yes, everyone here does call it Holland–they look at you so oddly if you say The Netherlands!).
About half an hour from Amsterdam, Utrecht is a gorgeous town with many old churches, canals, and buildings. I realized today that Utrecht University is more than 200 years older than OU–how crazy is that? Almost every building I’ve seen is older than America.
The Utrecht area has about 600,000 inhabitants, but it feels much smaller. Because I don’t have a bike yet, I’ve been walking everywhere, and I’ve been amazed at how quickly I can get from place to place.
Today, I attended orientation at my faculty, the Faculty of Humanities. Faculties here are the same as colleges at OU, but each faculty has its own campus. Most students only attend one faculty with no general education requirements. This is definitely a good thing–can you imagine walking from Sarkeys to the National Weather Center two or three times a day? That’s about how far apart each campus is.
The main campus is called De Uithof (pronounced eyt-off), and it has green spaces like a traditional American campus. Other campuses, such as humanities, look nothing like a traditional campus. They look much more like houses in a neighborhood than campus buildings. However, no campus is very showy. There’s no Seedsower statue or flashing Gaylord dome here!
The Faculty of Humanities is very close to my apartment here, which was great when it started snowing today!
Here’s the view from my back porch when I woke up at 9 a.m. It had just started snowing.
It snowed so much! It was still snowing when we went on a walking tour of the city center. We were absolutely freezing and kept slipping on the cobblestone streets. I couldn’t help thinking that if this was happening at OU, I would have already gotten a phone call from President Boren canceling today and tomorrow’s activities! The Dutch just toughed it out, though. Lots of people still rode their bikes as the snow was falling.
After the tour, my roommates and I walked back to our apartment. Two Koreans, a Turk, and a Texan all agree: this weather is too cold! We stopped by a grocery store on the way home to warm up (and to pick up a few essentials like Oreos!).
This is the view from my back porch around 3:30 p.m. As you can see, it snowed quite a bit! It’s now 6:30 p.m., and the snow is still coming down. Every time someone comes into the apartment, they’re complaining bitterly about the snow. We’re mostly warm-blooded people: from Spain, Korea, Texas, California, Tennessee, Turkey, and Australia, and we are just not used to this!
However cold it might be, I have to say that I am already absolutely loving Utrecht. Many Dutchies have promised the weather is unseasonably cold and that we won’t see very much more snow, though they are very excited at the possibility of the rivers up north freezing so they can have a speed skating competition.
My feet are cold, but I am alright with the sudden winter weather. The city is even more beautiful with a layer of snow–as long as I can look at it from inside and not out!
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