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Published: January 12th 2011
Welkom
Delfts Blauw kopje met Nederlandse dropAfter having watched the French film, L'auberge Espagnol, I decided I wanted to go on an Erasmus exchange!
I chose Breda as my first choice of study because I would like to improve my Dutch language skills and experience living the Dutch culture, indulging in Dutch traditions from cycling, ice-skating, panekoeken, carnival, tulip fields etc. Holland also houses my most inspirational fashion designers, Viktor and Rolf and I will be taking a minor in Scenography which is a cross over between graphics and theatre design. According to UNICEF, Dutch children are the happiest in Europe so I hope to learn more about the Dutch approach on child development to support my current interest on 'Play' explored within my practice.
So after much sweat and tears from sorting and organising the exchange, I finally arrived in Breda last night! I have a room above a restaurant in the city center, about 20 meters from the Grote Kerk and a 10 minute cycle ride to university, St Joost. I had to climb up 6 flight of steep steps to reach my appartment, shared with one other student. His name is Max and he studies Tourism. I received a warm welcome from my
new housemate with a glass of ice-tea -a Dutch favourite! It seems most students here go home every weekend to their parents to have their clothes washed and to see their friends. This makes me wonder whether students here approach university with more serious intentions of studying and working hard. My room looks more like a diner and sitting room than a bedroom, so it feels a bit cut off, but I have every intention to socialise with my new housemate when he is not away!
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Simi
non-member comment
Studying in Breda
Hello! I was looking for travel blogs for my studies and found your blog by coincident. I am studying tourism as well here in Breda at the NHTV. It is funny to see how foreigners describe Dutch people and about their first experiences here. To give an answer on your questions it is indeed true that most of the Dutch students go home during the weekends. This is very unfortunate for the ones who stay because in the beginning it can be very boring in Breda if you don't know many people. I think you might be shocked when you notice the working attitude here when it comes to studying. Dutch are usually pretty lazy and are striving for a 5.5 and not for the full 10 points they can get for an assignment. In my studies I notice that foreign students from Germany and France usually get way higher marks because their attitude is much better. I can only say this for my own studies of course but keep in mind that Breda is a good city to party! Hope you will have a lot of fun here during your exchange ;)