It's
been more than 1 month since I arrived the little town Groningen in the very
North of Netherlands for my Erasmus exchange with two full luggage of
curiosity, energy, and readiness for my new adventure. I can still remember the
adrenalin and excitement rising throughout my mind as soon as my flight landed
from Helsinki to Amsterdam, where I took my first NS train ever to Groningen
station. I was luckily welcomed and picked up by 2 Romanian students from Hanze
University, who went with me the whole way to my hostel where I stayed
temporarily for few days before moving in to my official apartment.
The first
month was like in a rollercoaster for me as I can neither remember how many
papers I have filled nor how many people I have talked to. So far the
experience has been amazing! It would take forever to talk about it but here
are the main nice things I want to list down about student life in Groningen:
1.
The people
Its
not where you go that matters, it’s the people around you!
Having
lived in Vietnam-Finland-Poland, been to many places and met different kinds of
people worldwide, yet I could not have been less surprised by Dutch people.
They are amazingly open-minded and straightforward. People come talk to you and
to make friends without hesitation as if they have known you before. I think is
it not only because the Duchies speak almost perfect English but also because
of the openness in their personality that you can recognize at the first
moments. Yet they are too loud and intimidating sometimes J At school I can freely
talk to my teacher or ask personal questions as a friend, which I would have never
done in Vietnam or Finland, where people are more reserved.
I never expected to find these
people who study, share a room, travel, work with me and hopefully would become
friends of my life for long time onwards. The more I go around, talk to people
and learn from different cultures, the littler but richer I feel.
2.
Travelling – from Groningen to the Netherlands
Small
city as Groningen may seem, I believe I did not see all of it. Must-visit
places have been to are Grote Markt, Martini Tower, Vismarkts, Groningen
Museum, Chinese Garden, Prinsentuin, Color Building near our campus, etc. I am
especially in love with the small canals here and there, which reminds me of
beautiful Amsterdam.
It
is easy to travel from Groningen to other cities of Netherlands such as
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Den Haag, Maastricht, etc. Last week was my very
first Couchsurfing experience with a Dutch host in Rotterdam, which was
amazing! Don’t forget to try this J
ESN also organize many trips to nearby countries such as Germany (hitchikising)
and Belgium, which I found attractive but expensive. So I went on my own to Belgium and France with train, car-pooling, and hitchhiking.
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| ERAMUS BRIDGE IN ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS |
3.
The parties – Groningen is the city of bars and clubs
In
Groningen, people party 2-4 times a week. ESN usually organize fun theme
parties, which I usually do not miss because I love dressing up and face
painting. It is not hard to look for good parties and find friends you have not
met for ages on what we call ‘The Bar-street’.
I am not the kind of person who is into getting wasted or high, but
meeting friends of friends and sharing good conversations with them. I am happy
here I can afford doing pub-crawls and drinking cocktails when I am in the mood
every now and then. Everything in Groningen seems to be student-friendly
charged, which is hard to find in Helsinki.
4.
Food, markets and restaurants
Simple
but excellent! This is how I would describe Dutch people as well as Dutch
cuisine. My first few weeks were spared for trying so many Dutch foods for the
first time in my life: kroket. stroofwaflle, poffertjes, frikandel, cheese
waffle, hering, gouda cheese, etc. These can be easily found in the street
markets (Grote Markt and Vismarkt) or super markets (Albert Hejn, Jumbo, Lidle,
Spar). For bigger meals I have tried Andijviestamppot met spekjes and slavink
made by my Dutch-Chinese girl in Amsterdam, which is simple to make and taste
satisfactory. It is also not so hard to have a nice dinner in a restaurant in
Groningen, as many of them are served with good quality and reasonable price or
discounts for students. All you need to do is ask a Dutch student for
suggestion!
5.
Accommodation - student house
I
live in Kraneweg 4, one of the smallest but not less crazy and fun student
house near the city center, compared to other bigger residences with hundreds
of student living there. I found it easy to get along with my lovely roommate
from Hungary and neighbors from Czech, Poland, China, Germany, Belgium, etc.
Although studying in different programs, we would often party, cooking dinner
or simply chill out together after hangover days. I feel like a family here!
6.
School
I
may sound like a nerd when mentioning that I love school, but I can’t deny the
fact that we have awesome teachers and classmates. The marketing program I am
pursuing is practical for my future work as a marketer or blogger. We work in
international team for a big project researching on a Dutch product in foreign
market. I enjoy sometimes just having a chat with my teacher and schoolmates
about different cultures and places in the Netherlands.
7.
Sports and other
With
only 59 Euros per year or 39 euros per semester you can afford ACLO student
membership and join different types of sports (Basketball, Tennis, Squash,
Soccer, Climbing, Martial Art, body training, all kinds of dancing, etc) to
keep your head less stressful and active enough for the parties after long
classes. I am enrolling for hip-hop dance and pole-dancing classes this coming
period as I have always been addicted to dancing meanwhile living in Vietnam
and Finland.
That’s
my story so far. What do you like most as a student in Groningen, (if not
alcohol)?
