Alexander Milan

Happy Australia Day!

2012-01-26T19:09:00.000+01:00

A bit of public information for the ones whodidn’t know: today is AustraliaDay!

So Happy Australia Day to everyone, especiallymy two fellow exchange students from (yeah, you guessed it already) Australia,Renee and Tereza.

We’ll be celebratingtonight by going to an Irish (?!) pub…

Teachers and Ties

2012-01-26T18:52:00.005+01:00

Having had my first full week of classes andhaving walked around the Erasmus Universiteit campus a lot, I think there’sdefinitely a noticeable difference between going to university in Denmark andin the Netherlands (and most likely many other places, like the U.S.): the maleteachers wear ties to class!

In Denmark, you never experience a professorwearing a tie to class – never! Only external lecturers, e.g. attorneys, wearties to class.

In the Netherlands, in two of my four classesthe professors wore a tie. One of classes was taught by a woman and in my lastclass the external lecturer, an international lawyer, surprisingly didn’t weara tie.

It would be nice ifprofessors wore ties to class more often in Denmark, at least at law school(the humanities students don’t know what a tie is anyway J). I think it’s cool.

A Recap

2012-01-23T22:43:00.002+01:00

I realized earlier today that it’s been alittle while since my previous blogpost, so perhaps a quick recap of the lastfew days’ events.

Last Tuesday I signed up for classes. Today Ihad my lesson in International and European Sports Law which I’ll get back tolater.

I didn’t do much else on Tuesday, but onWednesday 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 moreof my fellow exchange students. I’ll get back to the campus area in a laterblogpost when I’ve taken some pictures.

On Wednesday, I also opened my Dutch bankaccount 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” countrythan Denmark. I think it’s almost unheard of in Denmark that you can go into abar and be told by the bartender that they don’t accept credit cards, onlycash. In the Netherlands I have to have cash-on-hand all the time; in Denmark Igo for weeks without a single cent in my wallet.

Thursday past by with looking for a bicycle anda 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 bethinking about; it was actual coffee, real coffee!

Also on Thursday, I met with my two Polishfriends, Jan and Piotr. We watched the handball match between Poland andDenmark at the European Handball Championships. Denmark lost. No furthercomments.

Finally came the day I’ve looking forward tofor 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 anincreasingly female education, apparently. Nothing wrong with that, though. I enjoyit tremendously. But back to the point: five of my fellow law exchange studentsare men – the rest are female – in a 4:1 ratio, my guess would be.

Everyone I got a chance to talk to was veryexcited about classes starting and which classes to follow. I met new peoplefrom Singapore, Australia, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Scotland, Canada,Austria and more.

Although I believe it’s always exciting to meetnew people and make new friends, you do hear an awful lot of names. I couldn’tremember half of the names. But Facebook many times turns out to be a friend ofa sort. Many, if not all of us, are now connected on Facebook which makes it somuch easier (at least for me) to remember people’s names.

The weekend was spent partly in Leiden, a townabout 30 minutes north of Rotterdam by train. One of my best friends fromDenmark, Morten, lives there. He’s also on exchange at the law school there. Itwas nice to see and talk to him again, and it’s even more nice to have someonelike one of your best friends close to you going through and experiencing thesame things, at least partially, as yourself.

Morten also visited me in Rotterdam. It was hisfirst visit to the city but we didn’t do much of a tour – the weather wasterrible compared to the days leading up to Sunday. Instead we planned our tripto Normandy in end March; a plan that almost certainly will mean a (hopefully) enjoyablereunion with the Belgian town of Mons close to the French border – a town Ilast visited with my parents in 2002.

And today, Monday, I had my first lesson in Internationaland European Sports Law. As I had hoped, it’s an interesting class which I knowI’m going to like to attend. The professor, dr. Siekmann, is one of the leadingscholars within Sports Law today, which somewhat makes up for his almost incomprehensibleEnglish. (When even a native English-speaking student tells you he couldn’tunderstand, 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-handbike 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 newmodel:

It’s really nice to drive on and once I get toknow it even better, I think the likelihood of me bringing it back home toDenmark in June is growing. Otherwise, it’ll be sold.

Till next blogpost, totziens!

Classes (quarter 1 of 2)

2012-01-17T13:00:00.000+01:00

Today,I’ve signed up for my classes in the first of two quarters at the ErasmusUniversiteit Rotterdam School of Law.

I’vechosen four classes this quarter: International and European Sports Law, InternationalEconomic Law, Maritime Casualties, and Commercial Litigation.

About International and European Sports Law

This class provides an overview of the major themes inthe field of international and European sports law (capita selecta).

In particular, within the context of this legal field, the focus is onproviding insight into the problems, such as the increased tension and frictionwith general international (and national) legal standards, and the possiblesolutions for these.

About International Economic Law

The goal of this class is to provide students withknowledge of and insight into international economic law.

The process of globalization, which has recentlyattracted much public debate, is evolving around various international economicinstitutions such as the WTO, the IMF and the European Union.

About Maritime Casualties

This class examines the complex legal relations andliabilities which arise when a ship at sea is in distress and/or suffers amaritime casualty.

An overview of the many international legalinstruments which (may) apply to various aspects of a maritime casualty will becovered. It addresses the various mechanisms designed to prevent maritimecasualties and marine pollution from occurring by raising the technical andsafety standards of and on board of ships.

About Commercial Litigation

Subjects which will be coveredin this class are principles of civil procedure, evidence and remedies. The aimis to provide students with the comparative perspective of a legal practitionerinvolved in commercial litigation internationally and to provide in-depthknowledge of how selected topics of civil procedure law are dealt with in aselected group of level systems.

The Intro Weekend

2012-01-16T17:15:00.001+01:00

In thepreceding weekend I went to the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) IntroductionWeekend. The group of about 100 exchange and master’s students were takenaround Rotterdam.

On Fridaynight, we met at Café BED which is where the ESN have had their famous Tuesdayparties until now. The place is moving to another location. After that we wentto a restaurant on the main shopping street, Lijnbaan (pronounced: lainbaan, Ithink), before taking a pub crawl.

Saturday,I spent the day with my parents before they left for the airport to go back toDenmark. Later, however, I met up with the ESN group at a very nice placecalled Locus Publicus which is quite close to where I live. We went on to havedinner at an Italian restaurant called Happy Italy.

At HappyItaly, my table had to wait a very looonnnggg time for our pizzas. In fact, oneof us had to wait two hours for his pizza. When he got his pizza they servedthe rest of us dessert. Completely unacceptable – and they didn’t understandwhy we didn’t tip them!

Afterdinner, a smaller group of us went to two bars and had drinks and beers beforethe party continued at a café close to the harbor.

Sunday wasa very relaxing day. We all met for lunch at noon before going on taking a boatride in the port of Rotterdam. The weather was, like the rest of the weekend,absolutely beautiful which made the impressions even better.

The boatride ended and we walked to the cinema to watch the 2011 British espionagemovie “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (read more).Very interesting movie – but some parts of the movie was in Hungarian and sinceI didn’t understand the Dutch subtitles it was a little difficult to keep up.

The dayended with a dinner buffet and finally a visit to a brand new place calledBIRD. Certainly a place I can recommend. Nice music, mostly jazz. Polite staff.Good beer!

Lookingback at the intro weekend it was a fantastic time, including meeting a lot ofnew great and interesting people from countries such as Poland, the UnitedStates, Canada, Norway and Finland.

The intro weekend wasdefinitely a success.

A Journey Begins

2012-01-13T12:11:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday, January 11, I left Copenhagen andDenmark – the safe environment I call home – and flew to Rotterdam in theNetherlands to embark on a 6-month journey of studying at the ErasmusUniversiteit.

Frankly, I’m very nervous about it all.Although my parents are with me these first, few days, I know that I’m on myown as of Saturday afternoon. My parents won’t be one hour away. I won’t havemost of my closest friends nearby. I won’t have a safe environment anymore.

For the first time I have to REALLY live bymyself!

That might be a lifelong dream for some people– and it is for me, too – but actually being in the middle of it all, being inRotterdam on my own, is almost frightening.

I arrived with my parents in Rotterdam two daysago. Adding to me being nervous, the manager of the building where my apartmentis located didn’t show up to bring me my keys at 7:00 pm as agreed. When wewere going back to my parents’ hotel, the building manager called me and toldme he’s in the hospital. He had had a heart failure and won’t be out ofhospital until one or two more weeks. Just my luck!

After having stayed at a hotel for the night,my dad and I went to the housing agency. We got the keys, I got compensationfor my hotel expenses, and we thought everything would work out and thetroubles were over. We all went to the building: the front door key worked, themailbox key worked, my apartment door key worked – and then the door wouldn’topen. It turned out the housing agency had forgotten to give me the last keyfor the second lock in my apartment door. Just my luck!

They sent a very helpful man, Hugo, with thekey for the second lock, and the door to my apartment opened. I was finallyable to get into my apartment. Except for a few things not working, e.g. theinternet router (essential, amigos, essential!), everything’s fine. Theapartment is on the ground floor – let’s see that works out…

The fact of the matter is that I’m so happy tohave had my parents with me the first days in Rotterdam. It’s difficult todescribe in words how much I appreciate their help. I actually don’t know whatI should’ve done without them!

I’ve spent my first night in the apartment.There are a lot of new noises and sounds, as well as the cars and scootersdriving right outside the window, to get use to. But I’m thinking it’ll normalto me within days or weeks, right?

Today, the intro weekend for all exchangestudents of all faculties at the university begins. I’ll get back to you onthat – and try to stay sober.

Have a nice weekend! Tot ziens!