Sarah Pazik

Since classes started, I’ve been trying to keep mental note of how Dutch people tend to act in day to day life. In many ways, I’ve found the people in Amsterdam to be rather similar to those in U.S. cities; some are polite, some are rude, some rush to their next destination, and some take their time. However, one difference that has stood out to me, especially when I’m at school, is the way they tend to dress. On an American college campus, it seems very typical to wear sweatpants, leggings, sweatshirts, etc. to class. Here, however, I have yet to see one Dutch person dressed in sweatpants at school. People wear trousers and jeans with nice shoes or sneakers. I feel oddly exposed as an American when I wear leggings and a hoodie to class. 

Sticking to this theme of the importance of appearances, I’ve also noticed that the streets, subways, and public restrooms here are also kept much cleaner than they are, for example, in New York. We took a weekend trip to Rotterdam (the second largest city in the Netherlands) last week, and we saw a city worker actually vacuuming the sidewalk. That is definitely not something I have ever seen in the U.S. Even the couple of McDonald’s I’ve been in have been much nicer than the ones I’m used to. Also, you almost always have to pay between 50 cents and a euro to use a public bathroom, which must be because of how much labor goes into keeping them all clean. This was a difference I honestly did not expect, and I never really noticed how dirty some bathrooms, and even streets, are in the U.S. until I saw how clean they are here. 

I think, overall, people in The Netherlands have a much higher standard for cleanliness and appearances. Between vacuuming the streets and always looking presentable, it seems as though much more effort is put into keeping things looking and feeling nice. As I travel to other cities and countries, I hope to find out if these differences tend to hold true all throughout Europe, or just in big Dutch cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam. 

I have officially been through a week of classes at Vrije Universiteit, and it has definitely been an adjustment to get used to the classroom structure in Amsterdam. During orientation, they had told us that classes here tend to be much more independent than classes in the US. Having had no experience in any classes other than US ones, I assumed this was an exaggeration. I thought my studies at Colby had been fairly independent, with not much “hand holding” from professors, as they put it. However, after my first week of classes, I can confidently say I was wrong. Here, it is really up to you how you want to treat each of your courses. If you don’t want to go to any lectures or tutorials, that is completely acceptable, as the only truly required part of most courses is the final exam. So, as long as you pass the exam, even if you never attend a class, you can still say you took and passed that class. Learning also relies heavily on the books we are assigned to read, while the lecture only covers big ideas. This is definitely going to take some getting used to, since at home the learning comes mainly from the lecture, which is supplemented by the books. 

At orientation they also let us know that the general attitude of Dutch students is much less competitive than what we may be used to in the US, since they don’t place importance on numerical measurements of success such as a GPA. They said that many Dutch students are looking to pass their courses, not necessarily get straight A’s, which does seem to be true about some Dutch students. There seems to be less stress and panic about everything being done perfectly, which honestly seems to be a healthier learning environment. You are completely in control of how you want to learn, and rather than comparing yourself to your peers, there is a larger sense of community. People are more willing to help each other pass without the nagging stress of a GPA that determines your success. 

It is also such a different experience being in a room of students who are learning in English, but converse with their friends in Dutch. Almost every day a Dutch student will try speaking to me in Dutch (which is definitely encouraging me to take my Dutch Language class much more seriously). I spoke with one student in my Accounting class who grew up in Japan and moved to The Netherlands for school, but never learned Dutch. He said it gets tough being surrounded by everyone speaking Dutch, and he felt left out for it. I can see how that could get difficult as a full time student, rather than just a single semester study abroad student like myself, because I too was surprised that some students, even in the English lectures, would raise their hands and ask the professor questions in Dutch. It’s much different from what I’m used to, since I now can almost never understand the conversations happening around me. I didn’t expect the language barrier to play such a big role in my academic life, if at all, since I am taking classes taught in English, but it definitely has been having an impact, which I think is a good thing. I decided to study abroad to experience a completely new learning environment, and I got just that. 

Despite a few stressful and unfortunate moments this week, such as mistakenly being placed into a class taught only in Dutch and momentarily getting stuck in a revolving door in an academic building, my first week of classes has gone well, and I’m excited to see how the rest of the semester will go.

Four days ago I said goodbye to my parents at the airport in Newark, New Jersey to go get on a 7 hour and 20 minute flight to Amsterdam. Between my fear of flying and my lack of experience alone in cities, especially foreign cities, I was nervous, despite everyone telling me I was about to have the time of my life. 

Now, three days into orientation, and I’m starting to warm up to the city already. I had a veggie burger and a beer with all of the Semester in Amsterdam students tonight, and even knew how to take the metro back to the Student Hotel without the GPS. Orientation has been very helpful in getting us used to all of the unfamiliar parts of living in Amsterdam, such as the metro and biking rules, as well as Dutch culture and how Dutch students tend to treat their studies. 

The metro is definitely a notable difference between Amsterdam and US cities like New York or Boston. The metro is clean, easy to use, and very modern. One of my biggest fears coming here was getting lost in the metro system, as I’ve admittedly done that in New York City before, but now that is the least of my worries. 

Also, I always knew Amsterdam was known for its biking. Even when looking up pictures of Amsterdam before coming, I was amazed by the amount of bikes I saw in every picture. However, I don’t think anything could have prepared me for the amount of bikes I have seen. They have entire parking lots full of bikes, double decker bike racks, and the bikes are really treated as a part of the road, with designated street lights and everything. I love how accessible the whole city is, whether by foot or bike or metro. This is something that I am definitely not used to, coming from the suburbs of Connecticut as well as an isolated college campus in the middle of a small town in Maine. 

I’m very excited to start classes on Monday and see how different they are from those in the US. During orientation, they explained many differences we should expect to encounter in our classes, but I’m interested to see how it plays out. 

I also officially move into my room for the semester tomorrow after staying in a hotel room for 3 nights, which will hopefully make this city start to feel more like home.