Week 2.. and Upcoming Events

Sorry for the delay on this blog!

Room

Now that I have been here for about 3 weeks I am getting used to the room. I have put pictures up on the wall which has made it feel a little homier and it is nice to see familiar faces every so often when I walk into my room.

I really like having my own room because my stuff feels a lot safer. As well the whole shower situation although I was weird at first has turned out to be pretty good, and I haven't run into anyone in the shower so I have not had to worry.



My Messy room.. What a surprise


My Bathroom

School
I have only been to one week of classes, but so far they seem pretty cool. All the professors speak good English so they are easy to understand which is nice, but because it is an English speaking school and they speak English as well we have been informed that anyone who speaks English as their native language is going to be marked harder than the others. I am still in the process right now of figuring which classes I am going to stay in. I have currently enrolled in E-Marketing, B2B Marketing, Business Process Management, Project Dutch Culture and Languages, and Event Management and Business Ethics.
The 2 that I am keeping for sure and am very excited about are Business Ethics, and Event Management which is great because those are the two I am looking forward to the most. Business Ethics so far has been pretty cool, only been to one class but there are two male professors who both seem pretty laid back and funny which makes a subject like ethics a little easier to bear through. Event Management is going to be amazing, we have already been put into groups and I really like mine. I am working with my friends which nice and got the exact event I wanted. I am going to be planning the farewell event for all the exchange students. Our stipulations are all students must come, we must have a few events planned, and organize the whole thing while obtaining two outside sponsors from the dutch system (this part is going to be tricky as we do not speak dutch and will have a harder time communicating.)
The other 4 classes nothing has really happened the professors are nice and we have started to expand on what we are going to learn and group work and stuff but until I know which classes I am going to be staying in I will than be able to expand more on details.

People
Slowly I am starting to hang out with more people. I have still hang out with Sonya all the time but we have started to hang out with a guy named Niklas from Finland all the time as well as classes are moving along more and more people are coming together and talking. I am still finding that people are sticking within their school or country clicks and starting to even doubt if they are going to split but personally since I have found a small group of friends I am okay with that. I have also met and started to hang out with people from Australia, America, Ireland and Hungary..and have started to talk to people from all over the world more and more. Its quite an interesting experience meeting these people learning where they are from seeing their country.


Canada, Finland, Canada, Finland


Friends :)

Canada(Sonya) America (Ryan) Hungary (Brigitta) America (David)

AND ME!

I HAVE GONE TO AMSTERDAM!!
It was very interesting to see explore and be in that type of atmosphere..
Getting to Amsterdam was very complicated because I apparently chose the worst weekend to go.. the trains were not running so I had to take a train one stop get off get on a bus get to the central station get on another bus to take me to a working train in order for me to get to Amsterdam... it took over 3 hours!!!!...and coming home from Amsterdam trains were working but of course it was delayed..Learning quickly the dutch do things on their own time and things are always delayed
When Sonya and I finally made it their we met my friend Emily from the Odette MBA Program
When we got there we decided to go find a hostel to stay in last minute hoping it would be cheaper than the 40 Euro a night that Emily was spending. We ended up finding one for 15 Euro it was close to everything and was actually very nice inside; Ended up all going for an Italian lunch and than split ways to explore the city with the plan to meet up at an ice bar later that night.
Sonya was my guide since she has been there before so we explored pretty much all the main parts of the city. We saw all the canals which are really nice, lots of old buildings on the streets of the canals.
We also saw;

Fashion district
Museum district
and than the I Amsterdam letters. They are a big attraction in Amsterdam!
From there we just did a lot a lot of walking through parks and around different street areas.. saw bridges and statues and the Heineken factory.
Later that night we met Emily and friends at the ice bar..It was really cool. The front of it is like a normal bar where people can be and than the back you get tickets and you go into a bar made out of ice purely ice.They give you a coat and gloves and you go inside and have a drink (you get 2 included with your ticket) good atmosphere with some music... You get a 4D movie about a penguin in the snow and it blows wind at you and it was cold being in ice and having wind blown at you.We did some more walking, walked around the red light district but really its nothing special..personally I think its overrated but that's just me.
By this time Sonya and I wanted to go home so we attempted to find our way which was very interesting at night trying tor read foreign street signs and figure out navigation.. we had a map so kept using that but kinda of confusing at night so that was kinda scary. eventually we asked for help an old man told us which direction to go and we realized we were only like 2 streets over from our hostel anyways.
That's my trip to Amsterdam in a nutshell!


Hostel




Canals












Ice Bar


Ahh Clogs!






Den Hagg
We had one last nice day in the Netherlands so Sonya and I were smart and made our way to the Beach. If you travel about an hour and a half on the train you come to a town called Den Hagg where the North Sea is and we lied on the beach ALL DAY! It was amazing it was sandy and sunny warm and just beautiful.. One of the best days in the Netherlands so far for sure!


Walk to the Beach


Walk to the Beach


Walk to the Beach

Hotel in front of the Beach


BEACH




LAST SUNNY DAY!

Travelling
While being in Europe I plan on travelling Almost every weekend!
Italy (Been booked for Oct 25th, our week off we are going on our week off all through Italy)
England
Spain
Germany (twice)
France(THIS WEEKEND)

Greece
Prague
Sweden
These are being planned based on time and price!

Coming Up

As seen from above this weekend we are taking a trip to Paris there is about 15 people going and we are renting 3 cars. We are going to drive the full way which is funny because its only about 3-4 hours which is the same distance I drive from Windsor to Toronto. We are going to be stopping in some small towns along the way and making our way to Paris France where I will be Meeting Tom from Odette as well who is studying in France. I am looking forward to it very much and will post all details when I get back along with some pictures :)

Hard Parts

So it has been almost 3 weeks and being away from home there are certain things that I miss.

I really miss my boyfriend. It has only been 3 weeks but it defiantly feels a lot longer than that. We talk a lot which is nice to stay in touch and keep him updated on whats going on in each others lives but that is a definite adjustment being made.

As well as him I miss my family and friends. Its not like just being away at school and you can go visit whenever you are a country away and there is an expensive Ocean in between so you really just have to get used to it.

I miss Canadian food!!! I eat so many sandwiches here because they don't have the proper cooking stuff and it is not that easy to read or understand their menus especially when I am a picky eater.


I MISS THE SUNSHINE!!!!!!

Anyways... Sorry again for the delay on this blog and for future blogs they should be posted every Wednesday, during the week I will be able to comment on school as it has happened and weekend trips every week

:)


Mickey

Finishing Off the First Week

Today August 25 2011 was the last day of the official orientation introduction with all the exchange students.
There is so much that has happened and so much I have noticed that I will try to remember it all.

School
The Arnhem School of Business is actually a really nice place. When walking to school I get to walk across a river and through a nice little park with a pond in the middle which leads me right out to HAN University. From my residence at Honigkamp it takes me about 10 minutes or less to get to school. The nice thing about my residence is I am a 5 minute walk across the street from the shopping center which has groceries, clothes and pretty much all your needs, and from there it is about another 5 minute walk to get to school which will be nice when the weather gets cooler.
Something I found cool about the inside of the school was THEY HAVE ESCALATORS, its a school that has about 3 floors, and they have escalators. I thought that was very funny especially since you always hear about dutch people being active since they all live on bikes.
I didn't see to much within the school yet we only got a quick tour so that update will come later, but the rooms seem nice, fairly large, and everything around the school is kept clean.
Another cool thing I noticed about the school was the fact that their buildings connected through an indoor bridge. So getting from the business building to the engineering building for example you don't have to go outside which is very nice considering how much rain they actually do get.
As for the actual school information that will have to come at a later date as I get my class schedule tomorrow. I am hoping for Fridays or Mondays or even both off but we shall see how that goes. As well the issue that I am dealing with when it comes to classes is their semester timing. Unfortunately their semester does not end until Jan 23 which is when the Odette semester has already begun and I need to be back for that. Apparently Arnhem says they cannot do anything about it, but I have heard previously that students were able to come back in time somehow. As of right now my options are talking to the professors and seeing if they will let me write my exams early, or picking all classes that don't have exams.
Oh and last but not least about school.......YOU ONLY NEED FOUR CLASSES TO TRANSFER BACK TO WINDSOR AS FIVE!!!! YAY!!
I have to say though the weirdest thing about this whole experience at this moment is feeling like you are in first year all over again. I don't know anybody, I'm in a foreign place and adapting is quite interesting.
                                  -More update on school to come next week when I actually start

Introduction Week
So for the past week all the exchange students have been together with a group of dutch students who are in the event management class and they have been putting on events for the exchange students to get to know the school and the city. In my honest opinion even though I have had fun, the organization of these events were kind of weak.
Tuesday- School Orientation; we got some information about the school, and a tour of the school. The School orientation was all the information that we already knew reading the package if you did which most did. It was somewhat good for learning about other things such as how to get a gym membership or the fact that our student cards are delayed but in general there was not much information to actually help me on my first day. The good thing about the orientation was defiantly getting to know who some of the faculty was because as exchange students we are going to be dealing with them on a daily basis with classes, and transfers and questions so that was a better part.
As for the school tour, they really did not show us that much or explain how to get to the places. The nice thing about the Arnhem School of Business is it looks to be all around the same area, but tomorrow (Friday) I am defiantly going to have to get my schedule and give myself my own tour to find my classrooms.

On our tour, we did see the other HAN students and their introductions which was actually kind of funny... all the faculties at some point dance in the middle of the school...

Wednesday-This was a long long busy day but probably the best of them all..Our schedule was a tour of the city center, dinner, and than pub crawl.
In Arnhem they have their main city center which would be like their downtown area. Its AWESOME. In this area its like a big shopping mall outdoors. Its a lot of old buildings, so many shopping stores (so far I have been good and not gone clothes shopping...well see how long I can last)
The City was very nice lots of old buildings and pretty much all your shopping needs. They have everything from H&M, Guess, Adidas to more shoe stores than you can ever imagine.

After the tour of the city we went to an Italian place to eat...I had spaghetti and meat sauce and man was it good compared to the rest of the food I have been seeing in Arnhem.
We than had about 4 hours of time to ourselves where people went back to their rooms to get ready for the night.
Now throughout this week there has been no formal introduction from one student to another saying their names and where they are from which I thought would have been a nice ice breaker at the beginning....but by that night after the tour of the city and going to the bars together that is when everybody got to know one another.
We went to three bars, the cavern which was in a basement, bloopers which was half outside, and Aspen Valley which was more like a nightclub. This was when everyone loosened up and you started to meet more people on the exchange. It was a very fun night but a very long day..
Thursday- This was very poor planning on the introduction groups fault. The plan of today was to all meet at 10:30 to take a tour of their soccer field or sports dome.... Being out the night before late many students did not make it to this tour....whoops
After the tour all exchange students were set up with a dutch buddy. This is where you get a student who goes to the school but lives in Holland to be your guide for the rest of the semester. They are there to answer questions, take you out, and help you with you everyday needs. My buddy's name is Ricky and he lives in Nijmegen, Netherlands which is about half an hour outside of Arnhem.

The downfalls of the week and the organization was their instructions. If they told us to meet at a place for a specific time they did not explain it clearly. So when we had to get a bus station we were not told what bus or anything like that and that fact that everything is in dutch did not help. All in all it was a good week, some lack or organization and I think they should have done a better job of introduction of the exchange students but eventually it all worked out and we had fun.


Friends
It took a little bit and the process is still going but I am started to make friends slowly. The first friend I made ironically is from Canada. Her name is Sonya and she is from Edmonton Alberta... I have also met people from England, Austria, Ireland, Spain, The United States, Finland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic... There are many more and slowly I will meet them all as well as become actual friends with more people.
The hardest thing making friends at the moment, is a lot of people on exchange come with other people from their school and like like all of our human nature its more comforting to be with something familiar than looking for something new. So right now I find a lot of those people are sticking together but I think as time passes and classes start it will become easier.

Mickeys Adventures
So for those of you who don't know me very well my sense or direction is HORRIBLE! And this is where my adventures begin. On the first day or Orientation we were supposed to meet at the school....well of course I got lost :)
So as I said earlier the actual walk from my house to my school is about 10 minutes, but of course on this day it took me about half an hour. I walked passed the street I was supposed to turn on and realized this when I saw lots of horse and had never seen them before on my first tour of the streets. I than turned around and attempted to walk in the right direction. Now I am a person who when I need help I have no problem asking but man is this hard in a foreign country. All the signs are in dutch and when you try to ask a person for help many don't speak English and understand what you are asking....eventually I did find an older woman who understood small English and figured out HAN University and pointed me in the right direction but if I was lost  in the city or something more unfamiliar it is going to be interesting to try and get home. Than when I finally made it to the school I got lost in the school. Of course I start on the same day as every other dutch student and thus there was so many people I got lost. Oh Well, something for me to write about on this blog. Eventually after walking into every building and hanging around strangers someone directed me to the Arnhem school of Business where I found my fellow exchange students.

Arnhem/Netherlands
Okay so things I have noticed and found interesting while being in Arnhem for a week
-Their water taps go opposite ways, the cold turns one way and the hot turns another :s why?
-***This is what I have heard**** Netherlands is half the size of Vancouver Island and has 16 million people
         - That being said, for having 16 million people you would never know this. The streets are not filled with people all the time. There are a lot more cards than I expected but I guess that comes with the size of the population, and as the rumors are true there are SO MANY BIKES....EVERYWHERE.
-The Netherlands has a tax rate of 50%!!! WOW... We complain in Canada that our taxes are to high but man is that a high tax rate. It sucks as well because all the euro prices look comparable to Canada for example a movie is 19.99 euro, but when you do the conversion its actually more expensive because the dollar is so high. It will be nice to travel to other countries where items will be cheaper (than I can really shop)
As well I have to say, for having taxes of 50% and a population of 16 Million the city is so clean. There is no litter, rivers and ponds everywhere, lots of trees nice old buildings just a well kept city all in all.
- In Canada we drink coffee like its nothing. Most people on average drink a medium or large and think nothing of it. Here they have 2 sizes, small and large, and they ALL drink small. ( and they are very small ) so when I got a large hot chocolate the dutch ladies in the school were staring at me and saying look at that large coffee (from what I picked up they were speaking)
-They don't really eat breakfast here, when you try to look for eggs or a muffin they really are not that  easy to come by.
-Grocery stores here are pretty normal and decently priced. They have fresh bakeries everywhere and regular food as well as dutch food. Its a little harder to shop in because I cant read what some of the stuff is and what is in it and I am a picky eater.

Food
So far I have learned the two foods dutch people LOVE. One would be french fries topped with mayonnaise. They LOVE this and it is everywhere.
As well there is an item called the Kronket... Still not exactly sure what this is but its some sort of mushy beef breaded and deep fried...I haven't tried yet but eventually will and let you know how it is.
Eating out here is hard because as I said I am a picky eater and I cannot understand any of the menus. It is going to take a lot of getting used to but at the same time, I will probably eat out less and not want to spend money so I wont gain weight :)

Last but not least Tips
These are some things I have so far learned and should inform you about if coming to the Netherlands
IT ALWAYS RAINS-----ALWAYS REMEMBER YOUR UMBRELLA
Bring a smaller suitcase, carrying large ones around are annoying

Sorry for the length of this Blog. I have been keeping notes on things I wanted to mention and it started to pile up!
Enjoy :)

Mickey

City Center

Lots and Lots of Bikes

River in the City, leads all the way to Switzerland

 Oldest Church in Arnhem

Church Again

Apparently no matter where you go there will always be an Apple Store

First European Beer

 Arnhem School of Business

New Friends :)

Spain, Canada, Austria and Brazil

Sonya and I

First Official Day

After 5 months of preparation I have finally made it to the Netherlands....
To begin through my journeys, it is officially 8 12 pm in Arnhem Netherlands and man has it been a long journey.
I left August 21 at 6 15 Pm. My plane was delayed boarding as well as taking off and we did not actually leave until about 645pm... It was a 6 hour flight which surprisingly is not bad it did go by quickly.
I flew with Sunwing/Arkefly and had a pretty good seat. upgraded and was aloud 70 pounds which surprisingly somehow I managed to stay under yay me.. got there got on the flight and had an absence amount of legroom as I was sitting in the emergency exit seat which was nice. Downfall of the plane was they did not show a movie so the lady that sat next to me and I shared a movie on her laptop, but unfortunately for me in that process somehow my camera got lost out of my bag and now is somewhere lost on a plane :( I am in the process of trying to get it back but chances are probably slim and I am very very sad about this... figures my first day and I lose my camera... Defiantly something I would do. I have made a file with the airport and contacted the airline to try and get it back but I will probably tomorrow go and buy a new one so I can post pictures with my upcoming  blogs :)

Preparation Advice....
Pack many times and check weight
MAKE A LIST
Keep all bags closed
DO NOT LEAVE TO LAST MINUTE- I did this and had final things to do in the airport like call cellphone company and fix MasterCard as I could not remember the Pin- Make sure all things are in check before leaving
SLEEP
SLEEP
Bring lots of food

Arnhem Netherlands
Okay enough with the flight and boring stuff onto what the trip has been like so far and my surroundings.
When getting off the plane, I had to make my way to train station to meet with my fellow introduction students. This was fairly easy as signs in the airport are in English and easy to follow. The train itself was pretty cool you had to push a button to open the door which is different than here. When on the train the aisles were very small which was very interesting watching  a little girl try and maneuver a bag bigger than her through them luckily dutch people seem to be very very nice and have no problem helping you :)
While on the train the scenery was pretty interesting... not really unlike some areas of Toronto you would see a lot of graffiti on buildings and a lot of run down buildings.. to be honest the train view was nothing special.
Advice when travelling ask for lots of help cause I def did not understand the stops and had to make sure I got off on the right one so asking for help they are usually able to tell you where to go and when it will be coming up.
Since getting off the train I have met with some Introduction students who were there to guide me to my room... very nice people and met a fellow Canadian from Alberta. They than took us to the living main house called Vivarie which we signed our lease contract and paid the rest of our tab... Advice, if you can manage to avoid sending a transfer and paying while here I defiantly would because you never know with wire transfers.

Residence
I am staying at Honingkamp... It is about a 5 minute walk to a small but decent shopping mall and about a 10 minute walk to school... I will let you know how that goes
I am by myself in a room which is nice I was provided with a desk a bed with a sheet on it no pillow or blanket, a closet, a toilet and a sink... that is all.... it  is small but alright.
downfalls that I am not used to and should be pretty weird getting used to is having to share a common kitchen and a common shower room (anyone that has ever stayed in a normal residence this will be nothing for you) but for me this is going to be very new, and I have a feeling the showers are coed which is kind of weird but I guess we will see how that goes
I have a small balcony off my room which is nice... Other than that the room is very simple

Differences
Pretty much it has been a long long day, Arnhem is 6 hours ahead of Canada and the Jet lag has defiantly come into play. I left at 615 pm and arrived at 740 am.... Slept for a little but you can only sleep so much on a plane they are not comfortable.. by the time I got everything done and into my room it was about 1pm my time... I than got a little tour and went to the market to get some food.... wow was that weird.
I am a picky eater and I CANT READ THE MENUS AHHHHHH!!!! that being said people are very nice and A LOT speak English so they were able to help me out, I ended up getting a chicken sandwich which was pretty good but man some of the stuff I could see people ordering was very interesting..... We shall see how it goes the 4 months I am here and the new stuff I try. Cant be much worse or different than trying guinea pig in Peru

That is all I can think to write for today but I will write again next week and fill you in on the week in Arnhem, Orientation, and my class schedule (hopefully how I want it)

Mickey Bidlofsky