A Recap

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!