Right, so classes start Monday. I'm ready. They say our schedules should be complete today but they keep changing them so I guess we'll see. I made a prettified version for you. The blank squares don't apply to me.
They did switch me to the three year track, which is exciting and worrisome at the same time. Means I have to keep on top of things really well, because it supposedly moves at a much quicker pace than the four year track. Understandable, you have to squeeze a four year degree into just three years.
My new class is okay, I don't really dislike any of them. I just don't know any of them, either. My old class seems like they were more friendly, but two days probably isn't long enough to be able to judge that. My new "educational career supervisor" is nice though. We all had to schedule interviews with our ECS so that she could get a feel for how we operate or something. So that if any problems crop up over the year, they kind of have a background on us to understand what's going on. I don't really know... She wanted me to tell her about myself, how I ended up here, what my study habits typically are, how my living situation is, if I plan on getting a job, etc. But she was fairly easy to talk to, and she seemed to think I will have a good handle on my studies this year, so I hope she is right.
As it turns out, the only third language offered in the first year is Spanish, and since I told her I have been studying Spanish for four years (and it is on my high school transcript as well) she didn't think they would let me take beginners Spanish. I will be taking Dutch, advanced French, and then the other electives that are available for anyone not taking a third language. She said I will have an opportunity next year to add in either Russian or Italian. Think I will definitely go for Russian. I don't really mind that I can't take Spanish, I guess. I had already committed to dropping it anyway, before I knew that this program allows you to learn several foreign languages.
The weather has been extremely nice the past few days, so I think tonight or tomorrow I will go to the beach. It was cold and overcast all the week before, I should take advantage of this nice weather. I finally went and fetched my bike from in front of the apartment I was staying at over the summer, so I could try riding out to the beach again. Maybe when I'm not sick anymore though, or my lungs might commit suicide just to spite me... I should probably be worried about the fact that my bike is not currently chained to anything but rather leaning against a tree with the back tire locked to the frame, but I just can't bring myself to really care. It's an old bike. I doubt anyone would be interested in it.
2012-09-08
2012-09-05
:D
On 5/9/2012 9:16, Hietala, J.R.E. wrote:
Dear Angie,I can you can enter the ES3. Your new class is ES3 -1A and your supervisor Marije Minkman.Kind regards,____________________________________________
Jenna Hietala
YESSSS!!!
2012-09-01
Just Pictures
All I have are pictures today. I went to Amsterdam with that InterAccess group after all, but it was pretty boring. Probably a waste of €20 (for the train ticket). I don't really mind though.
Anyway, on the way home I was playing with my phone camera. They're probably not very good because they were all taken in motion, and it's really just the view out of a train, but I personally liked that view, so here you go.
This train tried to ruin my picture. I thought that it had, until I uploaded it and realized it wasn't actually a picture of the blurry side of a passing train. I took this picture for the pretty blue flowers...
Oh. Only place I took a picture in A'dam.
Yay, train tracks and a bit of green.
Station Leiden Centraal... I didn't think I got that one either, apparently my phone's camera is faster than I assumed.
A few buildings of The Hague, from a distance.
My stop, Den Haag Centraal.
I'm sad that this picture came out so blurry...
This one too, although that just makes it look really cool.
Den Haag Centraal, forever under construction. It was when I was here in December, too. That says exit. No it doesn't, it says "uitgang," but it means exit.
Pretty painted pillars.
He has Italian ice cream. With whipped cream. And a bicycle. He's on the tram tracks, too.
That very blurry sign says they are searching for a part time worker. Wish I had my Dutch social security number and school schedule already... I wouldn't mind having that job.
Grocery store. I don't think I've been in this one, I think it's pretty small. There's one that is closer and bigger. Might be worth visiting just to see what they have that's different, though.
Tram tunnel through a building.
Tram. They just put new advertisements on some of the trams (though not this one), the entire things are covered. They're very pretty. Usually it's only tram line 1 though, and this one would be either line 9 or 15. Some of the line 1 trams are blue now. I'd like to know how they put on those giant stickers so perfectly... I think I stuck and unstuck the vinyl sticker to my phone a million times before it was straight.
Big Chinese restaurant, which is always packed... So I bet their food is really good. I'd like to go there...
Bike signal and walking signals... Oh, and you see the traffic signal lights are right at the stop rather than across the intersection. You can also see the bike path crossing to the left of the pedestrian crosswalk...
One of the city parking garages, right across the street from my apartment... If you walk behind it on that street right there to the right, you're in Chinatown.
.end PhotoDump
Anyway, on the way home I was playing with my phone camera. They're probably not very good because they were all taken in motion, and it's really just the view out of a train, but I personally liked that view, so here you go.
This train tried to ruin my picture. I thought that it had, until I uploaded it and realized it wasn't actually a picture of the blurry side of a passing train. I took this picture for the pretty blue flowers...
Oh. Only place I took a picture in A'dam.
Yay, train tracks and a bit of green.
Station Leiden Centraal... I didn't think I got that one either, apparently my phone's camera is faster than I assumed.
A few buildings of The Hague, from a distance.
My stop, Den Haag Centraal.
I'm sad that this picture came out so blurry...
This one too, although that just makes it look really cool.
Den Haag Centraal, forever under construction. It was when I was here in December, too. That says exit. No it doesn't, it says "uitgang," but it means exit.
Pretty painted pillars.
He has Italian ice cream. With whipped cream. And a bicycle. He's on the tram tracks, too.
That very blurry sign says they are searching for a part time worker. Wish I had my Dutch social security number and school schedule already... I wouldn't mind having that job.
Grocery store. I don't think I've been in this one, I think it's pretty small. There's one that is closer and bigger. Might be worth visiting just to see what they have that's different, though.
Tram tunnel through a building.
Tram. They just put new advertisements on some of the trams (though not this one), the entire things are covered. They're very pretty. Usually it's only tram line 1 though, and this one would be either line 9 or 15. Some of the line 1 trams are blue now. I'd like to know how they put on those giant stickers so perfectly... I think I stuck and unstuck the vinyl sticker to my phone a million times before it was straight.
Big Chinese restaurant, which is always packed... So I bet their food is really good. I'd like to go there...
Bike signal and walking signals... Oh, and you see the traffic signal lights are right at the stop rather than across the intersection. You can also see the bike path crossing to the left of the pedestrian crosswalk...
One of the city parking garages, right across the street from my apartment... If you walk behind it on that street right there to the right, you're in Chinatown.
.end PhotoDump
2012-08-31
School, Week 1
Okay, so I haven't written in the last week. I was trying to come up with something interesting to write. Since I failed to come up with anything, I'll just write a lame blog post like I always do. It doesn't seem that anyone ever really minds. (Though it also doesn't seem that a lot of people read this anymore. I miss when I used to get comments. What ever happened to that?)
Okay, let's see. Monday was my first day of introduction, followed by Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course my roommates started Wednesday and then had things all day Thursday and Friday. But we all start classes on September 10th so I guess we do come together at some point.
They kind of split us off into our classes. but then apparently they didn't like the way they arranged the classes and they intend to change it, so the people that we've been getting to know this week won't be our classmates after all. I guess that's fine. I haven't really made any friends yet. There is one English girl who it turns out shares the back courtyard with me, she lives in one of the apartments one street over. We've been talking a bit, I guess. The rest of my class is Dutch (mostly girls) and they of course stick to speaking Dutch whenever they possibly can, so it kind of automatically excludes Jessie (the English girl) and me.
Aside from the fact that they intend to switch around the classes, I'm trying to see if my high school diploma is good enough for me to move to the three year track instead of the four year track. I would love to be able to graduate in three years rather than four, it would be much cheaper and well obviously, take less time. I talked to someone in the European Studies office and she said she would put in a request to the enrollment center to re-examine my high school diploma and see if I qualify to switch. I'm not entirely sure what would qualify someone to switch. I'm wondering if my diploma has to be vwo-equivalent, in which case I have no idea if they will approve me. I'm sure the college courses I took in high school will definitely help, plus the fact that I maintained good grades throughout high school... Fingers crossed. I really want to be switched over.
So if I switch to the three year track it means I have to pick my specialization after the first year instead of after the second year (either private sector or public sector. I don't know what to choose yet). It also means that the optional study abroad year is second year rather than third year (only optional for international students, mandatory for Dutch students). I have to decide whether or not I want to do it, it might be good for me and you never know, it could end up being relatively cheap or at least equivalent costs to what I'm already paying to live and attend school here. The three year track just moves a bit faster than the four year track, apparently they try to cram as much information as they can into your first year so that the next two years move at about the same pace as the last two years for four year students. Confusing.
I know a lot of people probably want to know what "European Studies" even is. The biggest focus is on languages. After that, it's a lot of division between learning about European economics, politics, culture, etc. Maybe not the most exciting thing, but it will definitely be far more useful to me than just studying every little aspect of the French language (and little else) in the U.S. would have been. Plus this program allows you to study multiple languages at once, so I can take advanced French, beginning Dutch, and another language on which I have yet to decide. More than likely it will be Spanish (and they don't let you do two advanced languages at once so I'd have to start at the beginning) because I don't think there is any other option but if they switch me to the three year track I'll have to find out, because then I'll have to start that second choice right away (in the four year track you don't start the second language until the second year). Someone mentioned Mandarin and Russian...
The beginning Dutch course is only available the first semester unfortunately. I guess after that they expect you to have learned enough to just get by and you don't need any more. Dutch is a difficult language and it's not widely used, so I can understand why they would think you don't need to learn much of it. It doesn't matter, I still want to learn to speak it more than just one semester will give me. I'm good at absorbing and self-teaching though, so I think after a semester I'll have a good enough head start to continue on my own.
It's the last day of August; I'm sitting on the balcony and my feet are freezing and my arms are freezing, though I'm wearing a jacket; the sun is out and the sky is a pretty blue. Yes, it's fairly cold here but I enjoy it. The university has this international student organization called InterAccess and they're doing an Amsterdam trip some time next week, I may or may not go depending on if I'm feeling up to it. I haven't decided.
And... I think tonight for dinner I will make pasta. With broccoli and onion. And cheese. Yep, sounds good to me.
Okay, let's see. Monday was my first day of introduction, followed by Tuesday and Wednesday. Of course my roommates started Wednesday and then had things all day Thursday and Friday. But we all start classes on September 10th so I guess we do come together at some point.
They kind of split us off into our classes. but then apparently they didn't like the way they arranged the classes and they intend to change it, so the people that we've been getting to know this week won't be our classmates after all. I guess that's fine. I haven't really made any friends yet. There is one English girl who it turns out shares the back courtyard with me, she lives in one of the apartments one street over. We've been talking a bit, I guess. The rest of my class is Dutch (mostly girls) and they of course stick to speaking Dutch whenever they possibly can, so it kind of automatically excludes Jessie (the English girl) and me.
Aside from the fact that they intend to switch around the classes, I'm trying to see if my high school diploma is good enough for me to move to the three year track instead of the four year track. I would love to be able to graduate in three years rather than four, it would be much cheaper and well obviously, take less time. I talked to someone in the European Studies office and she said she would put in a request to the enrollment center to re-examine my high school diploma and see if I qualify to switch. I'm not entirely sure what would qualify someone to switch. I'm wondering if my diploma has to be vwo-equivalent, in which case I have no idea if they will approve me. I'm sure the college courses I took in high school will definitely help, plus the fact that I maintained good grades throughout high school... Fingers crossed. I really want to be switched over.
So if I switch to the three year track it means I have to pick my specialization after the first year instead of after the second year (either private sector or public sector. I don't know what to choose yet). It also means that the optional study abroad year is second year rather than third year (only optional for international students, mandatory for Dutch students). I have to decide whether or not I want to do it, it might be good for me and you never know, it could end up being relatively cheap or at least equivalent costs to what I'm already paying to live and attend school here. The three year track just moves a bit faster than the four year track, apparently they try to cram as much information as they can into your first year so that the next two years move at about the same pace as the last two years for four year students. Confusing.
I know a lot of people probably want to know what "European Studies" even is. The biggest focus is on languages. After that, it's a lot of division between learning about European economics, politics, culture, etc. Maybe not the most exciting thing, but it will definitely be far more useful to me than just studying every little aspect of the French language (and little else) in the U.S. would have been. Plus this program allows you to study multiple languages at once, so I can take advanced French, beginning Dutch, and another language on which I have yet to decide. More than likely it will be Spanish (and they don't let you do two advanced languages at once so I'd have to start at the beginning) because I don't think there is any other option but if they switch me to the three year track I'll have to find out, because then I'll have to start that second choice right away (in the four year track you don't start the second language until the second year). Someone mentioned Mandarin and Russian...
The beginning Dutch course is only available the first semester unfortunately. I guess after that they expect you to have learned enough to just get by and you don't need any more. Dutch is a difficult language and it's not widely used, so I can understand why they would think you don't need to learn much of it. It doesn't matter, I still want to learn to speak it more than just one semester will give me. I'm good at absorbing and self-teaching though, so I think after a semester I'll have a good enough head start to continue on my own.
It's the last day of August; I'm sitting on the balcony and my feet are freezing and my arms are freezing, though I'm wearing a jacket; the sun is out and the sky is a pretty blue. Yes, it's fairly cold here but I enjoy it. The university has this international student organization called InterAccess and they're doing an Amsterdam trip some time next week, I may or may not go depending on if I'm feeling up to it. I haven't decided.
And... I think tonight for dinner I will make pasta. With broccoli and onion. And cheese. Yep, sounds good to me.
2012-08-26
Untitled
Sitting on the balcony tonight, enjoying the night and the fresh air. I look up and there's the moon, it looked so cool. I know, bad cell phone pictures never give anything justice but I don't really care. It's been raining and kind of chill all day, which I don't mind but Sara hates. She says it's around 35° back in Italy right now and it's just too cold here for her. Usually it's anywhere between 20° and ~26° during the day, and as low as 15° at night. I was thinking she was looking a bit bored lately, today she told me she can't wait for school to start so she has something to do. I have to agree. Sitting around the apartment all the time is a bit boring. I go for walks. It doesn't solve all problems, but it is at least better than doing nothing. Next hurdle to conquer: Don't buy food every time I leave the house. While I love living right downtown for various reasons, it's not a good thing that every time I leave the apartment I have to walk by restaurants and all tons of great smelling food (I'm one street over from Chinatown, even). It's all too tempting to just buy some food. Yesterday and today I did a smart thing and ate before I left the apartment. That proved rather successful.
So I've done basically nothing for the past two days and still my mood has been better than it was previously so I guess whatever I've been doing, I will continue to do.
Plus my first day of introduction at school is tomorrow!
2012-08-25
It's Inherited
Did you know there are people who are afraid of the ocean? I can't imagine. I love the water. I love walking on the beach for hours with nothing to do but listen to the water. It sings to me, and I could never get tired of the way water sounds.
I'm pretty sure I get it from that lady who always wanted to stop and put her feet in every river and stream we passed during our long road trips.
That said, I went to the beach yesterday. Surprise! Actually, yesterday I walked further than I've ever walked along the beach and I was exhausted and sore when I got home.
I walked out to this harbor inlet. Then I walked all the way out to the end. I did try walking on those enormous cement blocks for a while (where can I get me one of those?) but some of them were pretty far apart, and the holes between them are pretty deep. I freaked out and had to get back on the path.
There were guys fishing out there. I thought maybe my daddy would like that. These guys all gave me funny looks as I passed by. I guess maybe not a lot of people wander out to the end of their fishing spot like that. Or maybe just not a lot of females?
They were posing for me. I'm certain of it.
Not sure I will ever stop taking pictures of seashells on the beach. There are so many of them. (Looks like I got my shadow in there too.) I do, however, get tired of walking on enormous piles of them that hide under the water. Ouch.
One more picture because that seagull is adorable.
I'm pretty sure I get it from that lady who always wanted to stop and put her feet in every river and stream we passed during our long road trips.
That said, I went to the beach yesterday. Surprise! Actually, yesterday I walked further than I've ever walked along the beach and I was exhausted and sore when I got home.
I walked out to this harbor inlet. Then I walked all the way out to the end. I did try walking on those enormous cement blocks for a while (where can I get me one of those?) but some of them were pretty far apart, and the holes between them are pretty deep. I freaked out and had to get back on the path.
There were guys fishing out there. I thought maybe my daddy would like that. These guys all gave me funny looks as I passed by. I guess maybe not a lot of people wander out to the end of their fishing spot like that. Or maybe just not a lot of females?
They were posing for me. I'm certain of it.
Not sure I will ever stop taking pictures of seashells on the beach. There are so many of them. (Looks like I got my shadow in there too.) I do, however, get tired of walking on enormous piles of them that hide under the water. Ouch.
One more picture because that seagull is adorable.
2012-08-23
Enter Roommate Number Two
So do you want to hear the good news first, or the funny news?
You took too long to answer so now I get to choose.
The good news is that my other roommate showed up today. She's a very nice girl from Spain, on a first impression I think she speaks very good English. I think she said her name was Alicia, but she has an accent from Spain and I'm not very familiar with that accent so I guess I will have to recheck on that. (It sounded like Aleethia or something but if I remember correctly, with a Spanish accent all of the S sounds turn to TH sounds. Don't quote me on that.) She is 19 years old (will be 20 next month) and she will be here for the entire year.
The funny news? Well, she walked in the door and said, hi I'm your new roommate but... I have the single room. So I take her to the single room where Sara is, we knock on the door and have a little discussion. They were both very reasonable about it, but I told them that in my personal opinion, Alicia is correct and she has the single room. Sara was not entirely happy with that but she moved all of her stuff to the double room and let Alicia move into the single.
The evidence? I went and got my key, and tried it in the door to the single room. Apparently all three keys work for both rooms. Then, the rooms are numbered. The single room has a 1 on it, my room has a 2 and a 3. The little tags that came on our keys have A, B and C. Mine is B. Sara has C and Alicia has A. It seemed to me that A would correspond with 1. Last, Sara said she is paying €355 for her room, and Alicia said she is paying €400. I am also paying €355 a month. Seems reasonable that a person with their own room would have higher rent than the persons sharing a room.
I think Alicia's mother drove her up from Spain, as she was with her when she arrived and she stayed to help her get unpacked, then they left the apartment. I think that's very sweet, I wish my mommy could have brought me too. That wouldn't make much sense though. While we waited for Sara to get all of her stuff out of the single room, I stood outside with the two of them and we talked a bit. Alicia said she studied French for 4 years but never really caught on to that, she has been studying Italian for the last year and she has been learning English since she was very young. I'm glad, because I don't know if I could deal with living with two people who have a very limited grasp on any of the languages I can speak.
They also asked me where I was from, followed up by how I ended up all the way over here. And I told them about my semester in France, and my cancelled semester in Spain, and why I decided that university in Europe would be better. They appeared to think it was interesting but maybe they were just faking it.
So, I am happy with my roommates. And even though Sara wants to go talk to DUWO about the fact that she thought she was getting a room by herself, I think everything will be just fine.
You took too long to answer so now I get to choose.
The good news is that my other roommate showed up today. She's a very nice girl from Spain, on a first impression I think she speaks very good English. I think she said her name was Alicia, but she has an accent from Spain and I'm not very familiar with that accent so I guess I will have to recheck on that. (It sounded like Aleethia or something but if I remember correctly, with a Spanish accent all of the S sounds turn to TH sounds. Don't quote me on that.) She is 19 years old (will be 20 next month) and she will be here for the entire year.
The funny news? Well, she walked in the door and said, hi I'm your new roommate but... I have the single room. So I take her to the single room where Sara is, we knock on the door and have a little discussion. They were both very reasonable about it, but I told them that in my personal opinion, Alicia is correct and she has the single room. Sara was not entirely happy with that but she moved all of her stuff to the double room and let Alicia move into the single.
The evidence? I went and got my key, and tried it in the door to the single room. Apparently all three keys work for both rooms. Then, the rooms are numbered. The single room has a 1 on it, my room has a 2 and a 3. The little tags that came on our keys have A, B and C. Mine is B. Sara has C and Alicia has A. It seemed to me that A would correspond with 1. Last, Sara said she is paying €355 for her room, and Alicia said she is paying €400. I am also paying €355 a month. Seems reasonable that a person with their own room would have higher rent than the persons sharing a room.
I think Alicia's mother drove her up from Spain, as she was with her when she arrived and she stayed to help her get unpacked, then they left the apartment. I think that's very sweet, I wish my mommy could have brought me too. That wouldn't make much sense though. While we waited for Sara to get all of her stuff out of the single room, I stood outside with the two of them and we talked a bit. Alicia said she studied French for 4 years but never really caught on to that, she has been studying Italian for the last year and she has been learning English since she was very young. I'm glad, because I don't know if I could deal with living with two people who have a very limited grasp on any of the languages I can speak.
They also asked me where I was from, followed up by how I ended up all the way over here. And I told them about my semester in France, and my cancelled semester in Spain, and why I decided that university in Europe would be better. They appeared to think it was interesting but maybe they were just faking it.
So, I am happy with my roommates. And even though Sara wants to go talk to DUWO about the fact that she thought she was getting a room by herself, I think everything will be just fine.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)