Week4 fun.......

Personal & Cultural

Time is going extremely fast here, this is probably why we were told to make the most of every minute we have here together! Before coming to the Netherlands I honestly thought that I would be missing home a lot and time would pass slowly but this is definitely not the case here and it’s great!

Its carnival week so no class for everyone for an entire week, what shall we do with ourselves? Tuesday was the day to go to Cuijk for carnival celebrations. At 12pm, we all wore our so called costumes (the yellow dungarees & green hair) to central station to find so many people with different ideas of what to wear; it made me wish I put more effort into my costume! Cuijk is a small city but on carnival day, around 20,000 people gather on the streets to celebrate. This was like nothing I’ve experienced before, although Halloween is pretty similar but so many people in one place, laughing and joking around together was great to see. It was like everyone’s worries and cares disappeared for the day. This is a tradition I would like to see introduced into Northern Irish culture, as it seems to be very popular around Europe according to the other Erasmus students here.

With a few more days off, a group of us decided to make the most of it and see a little more of the Netherlands while we could. On Thursday we set off to Maastricht in the south of the country for 2 nights. This was a fantastic time and the city was very different from Nijmegen. It has thin, cobble streets that were typically European to me and so many waffle/sweet stores that had so many different smells flowing down the streets. We went sightseeing both days but the highlight would be the Maastricht underground caves. Although the tour was mainly in Dutch, it was a good experience to spend over an hour underground were the Maastricht people hide from French invaders in the past. We also found a KFC in Maastricht which made a few members of the group very happy!This was also the first time I had to stay in a hostel which was an experience as I could only think on the movie “Hostel” when arriving. Thankfully we made it and I think I could easily stay in a hostel again! On Saturday we made our way into Liege in Belgium by train. Liege was like a ghost town as the streets were very empty and a lot of businesses were closed. It was very difficult to find good English speaking people in this city which was such a contrast to 30 minutes across the border were everyone speaks very good English.

This was a great opportunity to travel the areas within our reach and a good way to get to know more members of the Erasmus group on a personal basis. A great time was had by all and the travelling will continue as everyone’s friendship develops.

Professional Development

As this was carnival week, little studying was done by all. I guess this has developed my appetite for travelling and as it is my goal to leave Northern Ireland when I am older to teach overseas this experience is giving me the confidence to fulfil this goal. I would definitely take these experiences back to my teaching at home, for instance in Diversity through LLW, carnival or general personal experiences from Erasmus could be used in comparison to NI and the differences to the way we adapt ourselves to situations compared to Dutch/European people.

The Netherlands....wk2

Sunday
What an extremely boring day. Nowhere opens on Sundays here so we had nothing to do. Everyone on the 3 floors just chilled out and chatted, was a good excuse to get to know each other more and more. Nicky, Mark and I went for a short cycle in the afternoon to see if aywhere was open and all we found was a small convience store. I guess chocolate and chips would have to do...

Monday
Time to start at the Pabo, the primary teaching centre, today we would hopefully find out our timetable and more information about schools etc. Upon arrival we were greeted by some of the teachers that would be taking us over the course and we had the chance to try dutch waffles...again, the dutch are very proud of their waffles! It is difficult to get milk with tea here...they think it is funny that i continually ask for milk!
At the start of the session we had to introduce ourselves to the group but most of us had the opportunity to already meet eachother living at vossenveld. The introduction games continued such as a post-it note with a name and a drawing that suited us and we had to walk around the room spending about 2min with each person explaining our picture. I drew a cup of tea and wrote with milk beside it! I think everyone now knows i like tea with milk!! A few of the games would be useful to take into the classroom which was a benefit of the session. We received the great news that we would have a presentation to do on friday about the past present and future us. :(
In the afternoon the CIS had prepared a tour/treasure hunt of the college for us to complete in groups. This consisted of an envelope with about 10 pictures of different areas of the college that we had to find and write the room number on to prove we found them. Also each member of the CIS were placed around the building and they had a 'magic' word that created a sentence. "What happens on erasmus stays on Facebook." This was good craic and group 2, my group, won! YEEOO! We won 2 tokens for free drinks on friday night!

Tuesday
My day got off to a bad start, being tired and whilst cycling my chain decided to come off, several times by the time i reached my destination! I thght the day could only get better!
Class time and it started with Math. I havent studied Math since yr12 and have never enjoyed it. I was disappointed that i now had to attend math class again! It was ok when there but the hour and half went really slow. We had to try and solve problems and then explain how we arrived at the answer. This was a good exercise as it made me think about getting the answer but being able to explain it in a way that students could understand if they got it wrong. Too bad my answer was wrong! lol
We had philosophy in the afternoon! Thankfully this was more enjoyable but i have never studied philosophy or thought about it so it was interesting to sit and listen to everyone else. By the end we had a class discussion which put what we were learning into action!
Overall i have to say my first day at uni here wasnt great and i didnt enjoy it as much as i thght i was going to!
That night we had a flat party and then a few of us went out to an international bar which was great! we met others there and we drank and danced my bad day away! This was alot of fun and thankfuly we got a lift home that had nothing to do with a bike!

Wednesday
Day off! Lie in! Chillin! Great!
In the afternoon it was time to fix my bike and thankfully it was free of charge! Some of us went into town for a look around and pancakes! The pancakes were definately the highlight of my day.
That evening we just all sat and watched tv and chatting about the night before!

Thursday
Music class! This was alot of fun and reminded me of being back in primary school! We learnt about the dutch music system in schools and we had to think about music in our countries. We got to sing a few different songs as a group which was hilarious! We learnt a little song that we can take to placement as a lesson. At the end we had a quiz of 10 introductions to different songs and we had to guess what the song or artist was! Music was good as we had the opportunity to think about how we would teach music in the classroom such as sound, writing or movement.
Dutch culture was next and this was really good also. For the hour and half we divided into 3 groups with at least one person from every country in it. We had a quiz on dutch culture and we were surprisingly good for not knowing very much about the culture.
That afternoon we had Childrens Rights. This was very interesting as i have never really thought about the rights of the child or even my rights as a person. We watched sort clips on several of the rights which did put things into perspective! It was interesting to learn about several rights and how rights can be catagorised.
That night a few of the group decided to hit the town which was good craic. We went to a few different bars and Burger King at 3am! Everywhere opens so late here!

Friday
Presentation was cancelled, thankfully!
We had diversity, so we had the discuss the different ways, in pairs, how to greet eachother in our home countries. Alot of places were very similar which was interesting but it was good to find out differences from other countries such as spain or poland. We had to think of a word or phrase that best suited our country which was difficult but i used 'No Surrender' as this, i thought, was a good phrase that suited the history of our country!
Friday night we had a flat party and everyone went back to the Pabo Bar. It was only 1 euro per drink so we all made the most of it. Everyone becomes so relaxed here, including some members of staff.

Saturday
It was a relaxing day, a few of us went to the shops for some food and chilled out most of the afternoon and we met the other irish girls that just arrived! It was good to hear a familiar accent again! That night we went to flat8 for a party and then into town to Van Buren. This was a great night, everyone has really bonded well and the banter between everyone was great! We all danced and met loads of new people from other countries as a few people had friends staying.

It is so hard to believe we have been here for 2 weeks already! Time is really flying past but the experience is great! Everyone is getting along really well and it feels like home now! Apart from the first day due to a bad start, the course seems to be quite interesting and will be an eye opener for me!

The Netherlands so far....wk1

Sunday

Getting up on Sunday morning was really nerve-racking. I didn't feel 100% and could have quite easily said I was not going to go anymore. Driving to the airport was scary but the nerves started to settle which gave me more confidence. We flew out of belfast international airport at 3.20pm. The flight was good with plenty of banter between everyone which made the outlook on the next four months look good! It was really cold when we arrived in Amsterdam and we then had to walk through one of the largest airports to find the train station to get a train to Nijmegen central. We were met at the station by 2 members of the CIS and they brought us to Vossenveld, our accommodation. This was not what i expected at all, i didnt know how to feel about it when i first arrived!

Monday

It is tour to the west day and the nerves had returned as i was about to spend the next 3 days with 14 complete strangers from several different parts of Europe. we left vossenveld at 9.00am to get the train to Den Haag to check into the hostel. 12 other students decided to embark on the tour also, students from belguim, sweden, finland, spain, poland and of course me from NI! I am extremely glad that i decided i would go on the tour even though i was going alone as this was the perfect opportunity to meet new people on my course or those living on other levels of vossenveld. This gave the push to be more outgoing and not rely on other people to meet new students. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and believe i have gained more confidence in meeting new people from this tour.

We travelled into Dilf as we had some sights to see. While in Dilf we went to the grave of William Orange, an historic figure for protestants in NI and the reason we celebrate the 12th of July. During lunch the group went for lunch together in an italian restaurant which was good as i expected people to break into little groups so this gave us another opportunity to get to know eachother. IN the afternoon we went to the Vermeer Art Museum which i found extremely boring, i am not into art that much, especially when it isnt interactive for the viewers at all. I did learn about Vermeer however, such as his painting about ''girl with the pearl earring'' and how he used light in such a unique way that made his paintings famous.

That night the group went to a beech, yes a beach in the Netherlands in January in sub-zero tempertures!!! It was extremely cold and the sand was frozen but it was a laugh! We walked down to the waters edge and along the peer which was enclosed, thankfully. The leaders then treated everyone to a warm hot chocolate with whipped cream and cookies! This made everyone forget about the cold for a short period at least!

Tuesday

After a group breakfast we had the Cit Hunt activity in groups. This was a good way to talk to individual members of the group that you may not have spent much time with on monday. IN groups we had to go to certain 'hotspots' in Den Haag and answer questions about the city. With a black & white map we set off into the freezing cold, worse than Monday at the beach to study the questions and sites around Haag. We had the opportunity to learn about the city and each other. I think we were lucky we had a group member that could speak dutch! We were able to see one of the last remaining panorama paintings in the Netherlands, which was really interesting and different from anything i had seen before in an art museum.

After lunch we went to another museum, Esher but this time i enjoyed the experience unlike yesturday. The museum had an interactive level and unusual drawings. At the end we had a group picture taken in an illusion which was a good memory of the tour!

After the activity we had time to explore the city a little more and have free time for ourselves. That evening we went to the hostel bar for a few beverages and a bit of banter! It was a relaxing evening for everyone in the heat beside the bar!

Wednesday

It was time to head back to Nijmegen but not before one last stop at a modern art museum in Arnhem. This was not a good experience for many members of the group. It was very boring and i had no connection to any of the displays. We arrived back at vossenveld around 3pm in time to head to Lidl for shopping. It was time to be lazy after a few busy days of touring! We had a flat night in!

Thursday

After a well deserved lie in, it was time to sort out transport for the duration of our stay so a few of us went into the city of Nijmegen to buy bikes! We walked for nearly 2hours to find it and it took us about 30minutes to get home on the bike, what a good investment!

Friday

Our first day in the HAN University. We arrived at 1030 to have tea and waffles, a very popular dutch treat. This was the first time everyone that had arrived was brought together so we had a few new faces in the group, but not everyone was here yet. We had presentations from a few main people in the university that we will pass over the next few months. Lunch was again provided by the university, the dutch people were ensuring that everyone was feeling at home and being very generuous to the group throughout the entire first week. We had a tour of the HAN main building but this is not were the TET course will be taught to us. The university was very modern and up-to-date in design compared to stranmillis!

It wouldnt be a teaching course without some form of group presentation so we divided into groups and had to create a poster of the groups similarities and differences. We teamed up with the girls from Brighton uni to show the group the similarities ad differences between the UK and NI. This again was good opportunity to get to know these students as they were not on the tour. There was alot of banter during the task and we all gelled really well, giving team UK and headstart on erasmus!

At 4pm the university allowed us to go to the bar in the uni building and have free drinks for an hour along with dutch foods. This was the best part of the day as everyone was relaxing and mingling which was good for only being together a few days or even one day for some of the group. After the CIS took the group to Pabo student bar where the fun continued. It was alot of fun being with the group, everyone was getting on extremely well and asking questions about eachother and playing table football, dancing or playing other games. It was alot of fun and a good way to spend our first friday evening together!

Saturday

It was an early start for everyone, with a group breakfast in the city centre. We had to travel by bus this time as we were going to a football match later. After breakfast we had a city tour challenge in groups but we had to read through a story of the history of nijmegen and go to certain areas in the city and take a picture of the area with a member of the group in the picture as evidence of being there.

That evening a few members of the group decided to go to an NEC Nijmegen football match. Although i am not a football follower i thought that i would join as erasmus is about tying new things and learning new aspects of yourself. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience of a footy match in a stadium rather than on TV. The atmosphere of the fans, especially when NEC scored on the 93rd minute of the game was fantastic!

It has been a fantastic week, much better than i thought it could have been for being week1. This is an experience so far that i am glad i have made the choice to embark on as i feel it will benefit me both personally and professionally!