G’day everyone,
Must be time for another instalment of Hayley abroad in the land of cheese.
With great pride, I can announce that I’ve managed to keep a balance and avoid any more broken bones, although a couple of others have gone out in sympathy! You could almost say casts are in fashion at the University of Utrecht. The Dutch healthcare system is loving our contribution.
It has now been approximately 2 months since moving into the Cambridgelaan residence with my “diverse” bunch of roomies, prior to exchange you think you will integrate with a variety of cultures but for me, it is 1 Italian, 1 New Zealander and 5 Aussies. Similar to the plague, we spread everywhere. The residents of Cambridgelaan are all raging social butterflies, so it’ no surprise we’ve been deemed the party location amongst fellow exchange students in Utrecht. If you’re frightened that you’ll be alone on exchange, think again, you’ll be counting your lucky chickens when you actually have a moment of peace!
The accommodation is just out of the city centre but situated right on campus, so practically ideal. Gives me a reason to partake in some daily exercise and show off my fluorescent pink beast of a bike.
My broken foot kept me at bay for the first month, but still managed to embark on a couple of spontaneous getaways, including Belgium and Morocco. Yeah that’s right, we just popped on over to Africa for a casual mid-week adventure.
Next week Iceland is on the agenda. As an apartment, we’re hiring a van and navigating around the country in search of obscene natural beauty and the northern lights. A few more trips are in the pipeline, including; Luxembourg, Poland, Scotland, Manchester, Switzerland, Ireland and Slovenia.
Don’t worry about booking anything prior to arrival, wait until you arrive everyone is as eager to explore as you are! I am pretty certain we had more than 3 trips booked within the first week of meeting each other.
Just to prove I am actually studying over here, the curriculum here is different and I cannot say I am fan, but that’s probably because I am motivated by other stimuli around the place. Currently I am taking two intensive subjects, and they are not a walk in the park. The workload here isn’t a joke. Every week I have some form of assessment for both topics and at times it can be a handful.
But other than that, everything is hunky dory in this neck of the woods and exchange is proving to be a ripper of a time in The Netherlands (Sorry Adelaide)!
Stay tuned for more Dutch adventures!
Groetjes,
Hayley
Hayley Elkins , Bachelor of International Tourism/Bachelor of Languages student, Semester 2 2017 exchange at Utrecht University, the Netherlands
- Read Hayley’s 1st blog post here
