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Maastricht Adventures – The Netherlands
As the locals would say: hoi hoi! Going on an exchange is
something I have always wanted to do and deciding to go to
Maastricht was the best decision I could have made. The place,
the people and the experiences to be had were absolutely
amazing and I would recommend it to anyone. Here’s just a short
glimpse of the adventures I had over my 5 months in the
Netherlands.
Getting prepared
For such an organised person, deciding where to go
and sorting out my application was pretty spontaneous
and a bit last minute. If you’re not that big on
researching either, don’t fret because even though a
lot is up to you to figure out (where to go, what
courses are on offer, booking flights and
accommodation, etc.) a lot of support is given to you by
the Uni. Thankfully Shannon from student recruitment was super
helpful and made the whole process a lot easier and stress free.
There were several steps I had to go through before I was given the
all clear. I had to decide and apply for where I wanted to go and
what courses I wanted to do, have my application okayed by
Waikato Uni, who then put through a nomination for me at
Maastricht University’s School of Business and Economics. My
grades and the fact that I was in my second year made me a
good candidate and pretty soon my application was
accepted and I was booking flights and accommodation.
I booked flights through STA who were able to get me
some great deals and I found my accommodation
through a student
website called
Maastricht
Housing. Paying a
lot of money at
the beginning was
pretty daunting
but looking back, it was money well spent. I was lucky
enough to receive a Waikato Management School
International Exchange Scholarship which knocked
$2,500 off the final bill which was really helpful.
Figuring out which papers I could take which fit my degree was extremely important as I
wanted the papers I took to count. I had to research the papers on offer and hope that my
course convenors would agree to credit them – which thankfully they did. To the right is a
photo of one of my lecture halls in Maastricht (very different to Waikato!).
Love at first sight
Flying in to Amsterdam and catching the train to Maastricht, I remember thinking: “wow this
is crazy!” Maastricht is absolutely beautiful and I was in love with the place from the very first
moment. The first two weeks spent living in a new country are incredibly exciting and
extremely overwhelming at the same time. The key is to be open to
everything and make sure you don’t hide in your room Skyping 24/7.
Living in a building full of exchange students meant we were all in
the same boat wanting to have fun and meet new people. My 20th
birthday was on my first weekend and previously I had been worried
I would spend it alone. Turns out I couldn’t have asked for a better
place or bigger group of new friends to make my night one to
remember!
I arrived a few days before orientation week to get settled
in before Uni started. There were heaps of dinners and
parties organised by Uni clubs for us to get a better look
at student life in Maastricht. This included the passport
party where a fellow Kiwi and I painted our faces in All
Black colours to represent some NZ pride. There were
also traditional Dutch dinners, pub crawls and city
tours which were an awesome way to get orientated.
First on the list of things to do was buy a bike – a
must-have in the Netherlands. I asked around and
eventually bought a
second hand bike which
became my most prized possession on
exchange – I would’ve been lost without it.
Uni orientation was very similar to that of first
year O’week – lots of free stuff and intro
lectures, the tutors were all very helpful and
there were plenty of clubs and Facebook
groups to join to ask questions. Maastricht
University uses a very interesting teaching
style called Problem Based Learning
(PBL) which I would recommend
researching before you
decide to go. Basically it’s all about self-teaching and
group development. There are no lectures (apart from a
few guest presentations), only tutorials of about 10-13
people. I actually enjoyed this way of learning because
I prefer in-class discussions to lectures but it did require
a lot of extra work (reading) out of class which was a bit
stressful at times.
Discovering Europe
Travelling in Europe can be super cheap and easy as
everything is so close together. The first trip I made was
to Amsterdam with a group called Way2Go who
organise a number of student trips throughout the year.
Amsterdam was a busy and exciting city where we saw
some awesome things including the ‘I-Am-sterdam’
monument, the Heineken brewery, Anne Frank’s
house and too many canals to count.
My next trip was a weekend with an old family friend
in Berlin. It was lovely to spend some family time in
an actual house, eating real home-cooked meals. It
was the weekend of the Berlin Marathon so we
spent some time exploring the
city, watching the runners and
enjoying the live music.
I have always
wanted to go to Ireland and when we spotted some
ridiculously cheap flights to Dublin a group of
us jumped at the opportunity. The city had a
unique charm about it and the accents and
live music was to die for. We explored the
castles and enjoyed plenty of Guinness and
cider – I would recommend this trip to anyone
thinking of going to Europe.
After having been there in 2011, I was
determined to go back to one of my
most favourite cities in Europe; Paris. I travelled with
two other friends by night bus and we spent the weekend being
typically French – drinking coffee, eating croissants and climbing
to the top of the Eiffel tower.
A couple of my close friends were Belgian so we decided to
make a family trip to Belgium – just
a short train ride away. We picked
up one of their cars and made day
trips to Brussels, Bruges and
Ghent. It was awesome to be in a
car for a change and spending the
weekend with a group of my closest friends was
really special.
My last big trip was to Prague with Way2Go. I loved this city so
much and we were able to spend 4 days and 5 nights here.
Travelling with such a massive group was really cool as I could
mingle with lots of new people I hadn’t had a chance to meet at
other events. My favourite part was
visiting the Lennon wall and climbing to
the top of the clock tower to see the
most amazing view of the city. We did
the famous Prague pub crawl which
was an awesome night and ended in a
five-story club; the biggest in Central Europe.
The food
As almost everything we did revolved around food I thought it only
fitting to make a special mention of how amazing it was. My friends and I made frequent bike
runs to the Vrythof square where we would eat ice-cream or waffles at 9pm. This became a
tradition as did countless coffee and vlaai (Dutch for cake) dates with the girls. Wherever we
travelled we tried all sorts of traditional food including Belgium fritz (fries) and chocolate,
croissants, goulash and more.
One of my favourite things to do was visit the local market to buy heaps of
fresh fruit and veges. At the end of December, Maastricht became home to a beautiful
Christmas market which was always full of delicious
food and various Christmas stalls and rides. We had a
lot of lovely evenings spent here after our exams were
all done.
If you want to know more about this awesome
opportunity or want to keep reading about Maastricht in
particular, feel free to have a read of my blog at
kiwiinclogs.wordpress.com.
Thanks and good luck!