I realized earlier today that it’s been a
little while since my previous blogpost, so perhaps a quick recap of the last
few days’ events.
Last Tuesday I signed up for classes. Today I
had my lesson in International and European Sports Law which I’ll get back to
later.
I didn’t do much else on Tuesday, but on
Wednesday I went on a campus tour where I met more law students. Up until Wednesday,
I had only met two other law students, so it was definitely nice to meet more
of my fellow exchange students. I’ll get back to the campus area in a later
blogpost when I’ve taken some pictures.
On Wednesday, I also opened my Dutch bank
account so I won’t have to pay enormous bank fees when I need cash-on-hand. In general,
the Netherlands is – contrary to Denmark – much more a “pay-with-cash” country
than Denmark. I think it’s almost unheard of in Denmark that you can go into a
bar and be told by the bartender that they don’t accept credit cards, only
cash. In the Netherlands I have to have cash-on-hand all the time; in Denmark I
go for weeks without a single cent in my wallet.
Thursday past by with looking for a bicycle and
a coffee break with some fellow students at the Erasmus Sports Café on campus.
I forgot my camera, but there’s one more come Thursday, so pictures then. And,
probably beating someone to it, no – it’s NOT the kind of coffee you might be
thinking about; it was actual coffee, real coffee!
Also on Thursday, I met with my two Polish
friends, Jan and Piotr. We watched the handball match between Poland and
Denmark at the European Handball Championships. Denmark lost. No further
comments.
Finally came the day I’ve looking forward to
for quite some time. Friday was introduction day for the new exchange students,
including me, at the Faculty of Law.
I quickly realized that law is becoming an
increasingly female education, apparently. Nothing wrong with that, though. I enjoy
it tremendously. But back to the point: five of my fellow law exchange students
are men – the rest are female – in a 4:1 ratio, my guess would be.
Everyone I got a chance to talk to was very
excited about classes starting and which classes to follow. I met new people
from Singapore, Australia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Scotland, Canada,
Austria and more.
Although I believe it’s always exciting to meet
new people and make new friends, you do hear an awful lot of names. I couldn’t
remember half of the names. But Facebook many times turns out to be a friend of
a sort. Many, if not all of us, are now connected on Facebook which makes it so
much easier (at least for me) to remember people’s names.
The weekend was spent partly in Leiden, a town
about 30 minutes north of Rotterdam by train. One of my best friends from
Denmark, Morten, lives there. He’s also on exchange at the law school there. It
was nice to see and talk to him again, and it’s even more nice to have someone
like one of your best friends close to you going through and experiencing the
same things, at least partially, as yourself.
Morten also visited me in Rotterdam. It was his
first visit to the city but we didn’t do much of a tour – the weather was
terrible compared to the days leading up to Sunday. Instead we planned our trip
to Normandy in end March; a plan that almost certainly will mean a (hopefully) enjoyable
reunion with the Belgian town of Mons close to the French border – a town I
last visited with my parents in 2002.
And today, Monday, I had my first lesson in International
and European Sports Law. As I had hoped, it’s an interesting class which I know
I’m going to like to attend. The professor, dr. Siekmann, is one of the leading
scholars within Sports Law today, which somewhat makes up for his almost incomprehensible
English. (When even a native English-speaking student tells you he couldn’t
understand, I’ve got the right to make that statement!)
Lastly, I did eventually find myself a bicycle.
I would’ve settled for a second-hand model, but since the cheapest second-hand
bike I could find was set at a price of €100, which wasn’t in a good condition,
and the price level generally was around €150, I decided to buy a brand new
model:
It’s really nice to drive on and once I get to
know it even better, I think the likelihood of me bringing it back home to
Denmark in June is growing. Otherwise, it’ll be sold.
Till next blogpost, tot
ziens!