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Rekindling the City Spark: A Guide to Returning to Dam After the Christmas Break
By Hannah Castenskiold, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Netherlands After spending nearly six months travelling away from home, I finally returned back home for the Christmas holidays, gleefully met by family, friends and more importantly, my dog. It was a precious three weeks to relax, rest and catch up with everyone, following one of my most memorable and adventurous years so far. Yet it made returning to Amsterdam feel almost daunting and I found myself unsure whether I had booked my plane back too early.
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Adjusting To The Dutch Academic System: The Way To An Easier Life
By Hannah Wheeler, Vrije Universiteit, Netherlands When preparing to go to the Netherlands, I didn’t think much about how the dutch academic system would be different. My mind was preoccupied with thoughts about housing, friends and Covid. Now that I’ve been studying in the Netherlands for 8 months I wanted to share some tips to help deal with the different academic style.
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Roeterseiland Campus – University of Amsterdam
The University of Amsterdam has four campuses located around the city. As I study social sciences I am located at Roeterseiland campus which is located just East of the city centre, in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam.
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How to finesse your way through study abroad in Amsterdam (broke student edition)
Living and studying abroad is already expensive, and unless you’re able to get a part-time job/paid internship alongside your university contact hours (which are 5x that of Manchester’s), having fun while still maintaining a sustainable living situation can be tricky. I had heard that Amsterdam was an expensive city before I got here so I was ready to spend mindfully in an attempt to budget but I failed within the first two weeks of getting here. I found it too easy to get caught up in spending on little things and forget that a few euros here and there adds up really quickly. Writing this post has made me beyond…
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Zwarte Piet/ Black Pete
By Frazer Randalls (Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands) Hi, so I’ve written a short journalistic styled opinion article on a hot topic in the Netherlands. The issue is around a tradition which involves white people black facing. Any comments or feedback is more than welcome, let me know what you think. Over the last few decades there has been the rise in what can be described as unintentional racism and even ‘hipster racism’. Unintentional racism is exactly that, racism that is both unintentionally racist and unintended to cause offence. Hipster racism is the idea that we are so far past blatant outbursts of racism and racist attitudes, that we can…
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Assessment and teaching style at the UvA
By Frazer Randalls (Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands) In general, assessment at the University of Amsterdam is more constant with midterms and then finals with the ability to do a compensation exam. A compensation exam is like a retake of the course, but includes everything from the course; something you want to avoid. Having exams more frequently but less intense is, of course, beneficial in the sense that there is less to prepare for. However, it also means that you have to cope with having a lot on your plate more often, which can be stressful. At Manchester there is a more gradual build-up to the intense stress of exams,…
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A hitchhikers guide to Berlin
By Frazer Randalls (Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands) This isn’t so much as a guide but an interesting story for me nevertheless. Our journey (me and my flatmate) to Berlin started at a bleak 6am by Amsterdam South Station. Here we met with the organisers (International Student Network) whose instructions consisted of the direction of Berlin and a mere “Good luck”… Boycotting our initial attempts to get picked up in the pitch-black, we took to the train in order to make some headway. Not getting very far, the hitch-hiking began. This is Zwarte Piet, a Dutch Christmas tradition. Zwarte Piet or Black Pete, is a helper of Santa Claus, but…
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My first few weeks in Amsterdam
By Frazer Randalls (Universiteit van Amsterdam, The Netherlands) So I’ve bought my bike, a must-have living in Amsterdam. It took me a week to find, scouting about the many markets for a cheap bike that still had both wheels. So when I found mine, a golden shambles of a bike, I snapped it up for just €40, a bargain! However, on cycling my bike home the pedal broke off and I discovered the brakes didn’t work. Next time I think I’ll be test riding it… As far as the university is concerned, it has taken me a while to get used to locations of the many different buildings that are…
A study abroad journal by students, for students.
