It’s been 2 weeks in Holland and I love it!! I’m learning so much about their culture and how different it is from America. The most common way to get around is on bike. hardly anyone has a car and if they do they don’t use it that much. I live in the city center of Amsterdam(I got super lucky with my homestay) and I bike 15 minutes to class everyday. You have to really get used to aggressive bikers and watch out for trams and cars so you don’t get hit. I was warned that dutch were very straight forward and they called it Dutch Directness. This is very true. People don’t beat around the bush here, they tell it like it is. In a way it’s refreshing because you never have to worry if someone isn’t being honest. My homestay dad is very nice and more friendly than most dutch! He works at a tourist company in Amsterdam because its such a big industry here.
So far I love my program director and the other students! Everyone is so different and diverse so it makes discussions very interesting. We’ve also already learned so much about gender inequality and it’s fascinating to compare it to the states. I’m very excited to dig deeper on these subjects!
The trip to the beach in Egmond, Holland was amazing!!! the restaurants on the beach were so pretty and it was so relaxing to just sit and watch the sunset while eating. The biggest difference was that it was so affordable and not expensive to have that luxury! Now that I’m in the city center of Amsterdam I’m finally learning my way around. I’m hoping that it will start to feel like home soon, but right now I’m just exploring all the side streets and popular areas!
Next week a group of 4 of us are going to Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany and I can’t wait to travel! I’ll let you know how that goes:)
