A Morning in Amsterdam
Dag! I have been in the Netherlands now for just under three weeks, and in class at the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) for two weeks. When I was thinking about studying abroad, I was curious about the living situations, education style, and university setting of various programs. To de-mystify this, I will explain a little bit about my day-to-day life thus far in Amsterdam!
For the first three days of my program during orientation, all of the students were staying in a hostel. Then, we moved into permanent housing. I am living in The Student Hotel Central, which is essentially a dorm for students from various universities.
Here is my room before I moved in and unpacked:
On my floor, there is a communal kitchen that is shared between ten different students, all of whom are international. This has been a great opportunity for me to get to know students my age from around the world, cook together, and hang out! For breakfast, I cook for myself in this kitchen before class.
The most popular form of transportation in the Netherlands is - you guessed it - biking! I have learned to bike EVERYWHERE! Though I sometimes still have to pull out my phone to check Google Maps, Amsterdam is very navigable. After I wake up in the morning and eat breakfast, I usually hop on my bike to head to the UvA. Here I am biking to class:
While riding to class and walking around the UvA, the views are BEAUTIFUL! I ride along one of Amsterdam's many canals. Below is a picture, which is unfortunately blurry because I took it while biking!
And of course, one of the best parts of my day is a slice of appeltaart.
