Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas world!

This won't be a particularly long post because not so much has happened these past few weeks. I had my birthday on the 10th and officially became an adult. It didn't feel so special even though its a big number, I sort of felt 18 before I was on paper. It was a great birthday with lots of awesome birthday wishes from my family and friends in The Netherlands and in New Zealand. Thank you to everyone who wised me well! Luckily it was the last day of classes at school for the year so it was a pretty cruisey day!

I had my second test week at school, it went pretty well and I understood A LOT more of the tests (which are in Dutch) than I did first time around, so I'm pretty happy. The Dutch has definitely improved I think (despite all my friends correcting my word order all the time...Thank guys <3 ).

Today is Christmas Day! A few people have asked me what Christmas is like over here. From what I have seen so far, its pretty similar to NZ except it is a bit colder, 13 degrees instead of a swim worthy 25 ish. However it is meant to be about 3-4 odd degrees at this time of year so this is a very warm Christmas for the people in Den Haag! But it is still very much a family time and lots of food and it is very nice :)

This time of the year is also a bit sad for me as I know I have 5 weeks left of my 5 month adventure of a lifetime. I know leaving this amazing country will be hard because I am very much at home here, but it'll be good to see everyone from my New Zealand life again. Bittersweet will be a word I'll use lots these next few weeks to describe the emotions I am having now. But I am glad I have 1 and a bit months left to make amazing memories and have a lot of fun with some of the most amazing people I've ever met. I will honestly miss a lot of people and I hope I'll be able to come back soon and see you all! <3

I hope every one is having a great holiday and making the most of it! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone :) Also, pictures!

1. Church in Delft
2. Me and my host brother out for my birthday dinner (note, I am eating a Kiwi Fruit, NOT a Kiwi ;) )
3. View of the outside of the upper house of the Dutch Parliament
4. A little lake in a park close to where I live

Sinterklaas came to town

Hello world!

These last 3 weeks a lot has happened. My school moved to a new building, I went to Kinderdijk with my family, went to Almere with some exchange students and Sinterklass came to town!

Starting with Kinderdijk, it is the biggest tourist trap in The Netherlands (I think). It's where you go to see a few thing the Dutch are famous for, windmills (19 of them), dikes and tulips in the spring (probably). It was really amazing to see how some Dutch people use to live. One of the mills we went in to and I was really astounded to learn that 15 people lived inside that mill. For a place which really wasn't that big, it would have been a pretty cramped life!It does make me glad to live in the 21st century. Picture below



Now for the last 2 or so years, my school here has been building a new building (so basically a new school as it is a one building school) and last week we had our first day in the new building! Everyone was excited to move as the 'temporary' building wasn't designed to be a school and was a bit small for 700 students. I wasn't as pumped however so I was a bit lost on all the hype, but I can understand now as this new building is really big and I think it is pretty nice compared to the old place which was a bit worse for wear after 2 years of students in it. In saying that, the bell in the new school is VERY loud and the inside is VERY white and has a slight 'office/hospital' feel to it. But apart from that, I think everyone is happy to have moved! Photos below. I'll add some more later



Almere was an excursion that I went on with other exchange students (from my organization) who live in Den Haag, Gouda and from a few other towns surrounding the near The Hauge (which I don't know the names of. My Dutch geography is still a work in progress). What we did was something that wasn't very active but still quite enjoyable. We went outside this artsy place to a nature park of sorts. There we all picked a plant and then took it inside to paint. I actually took this seriously and tried to make a good image of the plant I had. Below is the photo, the only thing which I think that went bad to a degree was the was the stem. But I had a great day and it was good to see lots of people again!



On the 5th of December, Sinterklaas came to my home to bring presents (similar to Santa Claus but Sinterklaas is the original). Sadly we didn't get to see him, but he has a lot of houses to go to ;) ! This is a tradition which many Dutch families celebrate and I found it really gezellig and leuk to experience! It didn't feel like presents are the highlight of the day (which I sort of feel is a big bit about x mas in NZ) but rather for the story behind Sinterklaas's coming to the Netherlands from Spain and the troubles he and the Zwarte Piet have before the 5th and the family atmosphere at home make it really enjoyable and mean a lot more to the people involved. However, maybe that is because I am growing up. Regardless, I really enjoyed that bit of the Dutch culture! The Sint gave me chocolate, and a few Dutch souvenirs which I found really nice!


Coming up next week I have another test week at school! Every exam/test over here really matter for students and I can feel the stress some people have when it comes to the ones coming up. It was noticeable last time we had a week like this as well but I didn't understand it as much. But I understand it a lot better now so I don't take it personally (some people seem to get more edgy as well around this time but I can completely get it). While these don't tests don't matter for me as my grades don't count for anything, I have the self given challenge of getting better marks this time round than last time. Which will hopefully tell me if I have improved my dutch or not! (I think it has improved a lot).

Anyway that is all for now. This will be my last post while I am 17 years old as this Thursday is my 18th birthday. If I am honest, I'm not completely hyped for this one (even though it is a big number both here and in NZ)...I'm not sure why but I hope it is a great day anyway!

But that isn't so important :) Tot later!

This is probably the most boring post

Greetings!

Well it's been another 2 weeks and I feel like my time here is accelerating to an end. The days are melting together. I've been here for almost 3 months now and I am feeling a bit sad knowing I'll have to come home. While it will be great to see my  New Zealand friends again, I am going to miss all my dutch friends and this country. I have really come to feel at home here in this country with these people. Host family, friends at school, other exchange students. I will look back on this part of my life and remember the amazing life I had here with no regrets.

It is easier to leave the life I spent 17 years making for 5 and a half months than to leave the life I made in 5 and a half months forever

But I'm trying to put those thoughts aside because I still have another 2 and a half months here!

So anyway, deep and meaningful stuff over, I have had a few complaints from people saying I don't post enough about what I'm doing, show enough photos of what I'm doing or not talk to people enough. And fair enough. I don't post that many photos on this blog (and none on facebook, I should change that), I only do 1 post every 2 weeks if I remember and I don't talk to many people in NZ because of the time difference and there is so much else that fills my day up here and I am too tired to talk to Nzers in the evening because I need the sleep. So to kinda solve these problems, I'm thinking I should make a vlog every week just quickly going over and showing what I have done what I have done that week? Any ideas please let me know :)

Moving on again, these last 2 weeks, I haven't done to to much! Been ice skating, went for a bike ride to Amsterdam, hanging out with mates and not getting getting enough sleep!

Ice Skating was great. I managed to not fall over whilst moving on the ice or cause a huge hazard to other skaters who can skate well. I went with a couple of other exchange students and had a great time. Hopefully it gets really cold this winter and the canals and lakes will freeze so I can go skating on them, because that would be cool!

The bike ride I went n was with my host dad. We went from Den Haag to Amsterdam port along the coast, then back south to Haarlem. Then we went back to Den Haag on the train. I really enjoyed the day. We biked about a total of 60 odd km and I got to see lots of the dutch western coast which was 'heel mooi'. It also gave my host dad and I to have a good bonding time with each other, and a chance to talk about life and anything that interested us.

School has been school. Learning Dutch, doing maths a lot and enjoying time with friends. We are moving in to the new building soon though (2 weeks I think) so that is exciting most people here. I must admit, I am looking forward to it but I can't completely feel the same as everyone else with the new building. But I haven't waited 2 years for it. When we move I'll take lots of photos and post them. From what I can see from the outside, it looks amazing

New post in a few weeks. Till then, hope your life is going good :)

p.s. I know I need to take more photos

The last 4 weeks (sorry for that)

Hi all!!

Firstly I need to apologize for not making this post earlier, a few people have commented on my lack of a new post so sorry for that!
I've done a lot this past month. I have been to Amsterdam for the day with a bunch of other exchange students, had a couple of tests at school and a week of holidays which I spent down in Limburg with my host family and been to Zeeland! But firstly, Amsterdam


Amsterdam was amazing. It's such a big city with lots of traffic/congestion which gave it a really awesome atmosphere. We went on a canal cruise and despite that sounding boring, it really wasn't. It was great to see the capital for a non-ordinary angle. Those cannels have a lot of history which was great to learn about (because history is cool). We also had a chance to walk around the city and see some of the sites. All the buildings there are very impressive and lots of them are from the 'Golden Age' of the Netherlands which was about 17th Century. I thought that they were very large, which is non that normal for Dutch buildings as there isn't much space in this country per person. So to see these really old, massive buildings was a bit of a shock. Now a number of people will be wondering if I went to a Coffee Shop . The answer is yes I did. We had to actually go looking for one because I had really no idea where they all are. But I didn't actually go inside said Coffee Shop so sorry to all those who are now disappointed

It would be good to note now that due to me not checking something quite as thoroughly as I thought I had, I lost all my photos from Amsterdam. I only had a few videos which I took, so here is one

The test week I had at school was pretty cruisey in terms of tests I had to do. I had 2 Maths tests, an English test and a Physics test. Now as you'd expect, the tests were in Dutch. So that pretty much made everything (except the English test) really hard. But I got a 5.1 for one of my Maths tests, and I didn't understand about half the test so I'm pretty happy with my mark. I got a 8.4 (I think) and a 9 for English which gave me overall mark of 8.6 which is really good. My other maths and physics marks are best left unsaid. But I can't really complain about them because I didn't understand the majority of the tests

My holiday in Limburg was amazing. Limburg (for those of you who don't know) is the southern most region of the Netherlands. It boarders both Germany and Belgium. It is a really old part of the country (in terms of history) and it has wanted at times to be part of Germany and Belgium instead of the Netherlands. But that is a different story (my history on the subject is also pretty bad). While in Limburg I went to Maastrict. It is a really cool city, lots of old buildings in the city which have really nice architectures. I'm not 100% sure but some may date back to Roman times. I also saw parts of an old castle which once was Maastrict in the middle ages. It's impressive what those people were able to do back in the day without hydraulics and modern machinery! They also have lots of old churches down there which are really impressive and one I went in to had been converted in to a book store which I thought was a great use of an old building. Something else I was able to do on my holiday was go biking underground. Basically in Limburg there has been large scale mining in years gone by (and still some now) and as a result there is a huge network of tunnels underground and you can go biking there. I'm glad I was wearing a helmet otherwise I would have a lot of bruise on my head
While I was down near the rest of continental Europe, I also went to Belgium and Germany! I didn't get to see much of Belgium because we just drove through it but we went to Aachen in Germany for one evening to have dinner and have a look around. I love that about Europe, everything is so close and you can go to another country easily. We actually got lost going to Germany on the start of our holiday, but anyway ;) That's Europe though

Photos of the trip are below. The last 2 ones are from Aachen. The rest are from the Limburg area of The Netherlands, in no particular order

More recently, last weekend I went to Zeeland. Now as I'm sure all Kiwis know, New Zealand was first  discovered by Europeans in the 17th century and the discoverer was Abel Tasman (a Dutch guy). He named the entire country after a province in the Netherlands (Zeeland). After going to both places, I can see the resemblance somewhat. The sea is everywhere and the plants on the coast are similar to the ones at Golden Bay (where Tasman first went in NZ). Anyway history lesson over as you already know it all (unless you are someone from my school reading this then you probably didn't even know who Abel Tasman was until now. Feel free to ask me more about NZ history if you see me around :) ). Some photos of Zeeland are below

Anyway that's all from me for the moment. I will try a lot harder to post every 2 weeks, I'm sorry I haven't been doing that very well recently

To everyone in NZ, hope you all had great last days at school and I hope exams go well

To everyone in the Netherlands, I hope you are getting use to my accent and to me. I am loving my time in this country and thanks everyone for being so great to me (holistically). Also please speak more dutch to me, but speak slower! It sounds like you mush 3 or so words together so I think it is just one word I don't know! I want to learn your language but it is one of the hardest things I have ever done, so it takes a lot of time and effort

To all my other friends in other countries, Hi! Hope you are all going well and life in your countries is good!

Tot later!

Andrew - A kiwi in The Netherlands

Dutch people

Hey!!!

So another 2 weeks (ish) have passed since my last post. Time over here seems to go so much faster than it does in New Zealand. If you are an exchange student, make the most of every second. It will all be over sooner than you know :(

Anyway in this post I'm going to talk a bit about how I see the Dutch people

Firstly, in general they are really tolerant/patient and helpful. Most people at my school are really happy to help me with learning Dutch/translating Dutch in class and outside class. They are tolerant when I get things wrong inside and outside school as well, there are so many things about Dutch life I don't know about (those un written rules). My friends here are simply the best because of this. I'd be lost without their help

Dutch people are also young at heart. Last weekend I was at wedding and after the dinner, there was dancing. Now usually I'd expect the parents of the newly wed to be in to different music to the newly wed, who in turn would be in to different music of teenagers like me (the couple are in their 30s ish) But no, we all danced to Beyoncé at the same time. I was really surprised by the but it was heel luek (very fun/good)!

The Dutch also are very meticulous with their planning. They always seem to have planned their lives down to each small detail. While this is nice as you know what's happening and when, it can get tedious at times because as a kiwi I'm like 'she'll be right' all the time with everything which is just so different from this country. But its just a different culture and I ma getting use to it :)


That's about all for now. Enjoy the photos!

Update on life and monuments day

Hoi!

Well this it has been a whole 4 weeks since I landed in the Netherlands. Everything in my life is becoming more normal now. I am getting in to the rythem of biking to school, going to classes, listening to a lot of dutch and trying to speak as much as I can. I understand the school work here better now. In Physics and Chemistry the difficultly is the same as L2, which makes sense as I am in 'year 12' as such here. My maths classes are made up from students from VWO 5 and 6 (y12 & 13) and the maths is VERY hard (I think). Some work I am doing now is compromised of log equations/questions which I've never seen before. At least I'll learn something! English here is quite easy, so that is a nice break class. Eco and Dutch I don't understand so I don't really know how they are to NZ, I'd guess about the same though.

My home life is getting more normal and natural as well. My host family is very helpful with everything, language especially. They are quite patient with me and always help me with pronunciation and grammar, which I do struggle with! But I can feel like am learning something which is one of the best feelings ever. It took a while to get use to some of the Dutch foods but I like the chocolate sprinkles on bread in the morning, lots of potatoes and a lot of dairy products (which are so cheep over here).

Last Saturday in The Netherlands was Monuments Day. Basically it is a day where lots historical buildings dating from the middle ages are open to the public. Photos from that are below :)

I'm having an amazing time here and time is slipping by so fast. However I will try to post more soon!
Until them, dag!

Hello!!

Hello New Zealand!!

I have been in the Netherlands for about 2 weeks now and I can say that this is the most challenging thing I have ever done. School has been a challenge with meeting lots of new people, speaking and listening to a lot of dutch ever day. If you are going to go on a exchange, learn the lingo as much as you can before you go!! It will help more than you know.

Over here in school I do Dutch, English, Physics, Chemistry, Economics, Maths x3 and PE. From first impressions, school over here seems about the same difficulty as in New Zealand so far, but everything is in dutch so it's hard to tell. What I am doing currently is about the equivalent to NCEA L1/L2 over here I feel (based off a couple of subjects I understand like Chemistry and Physics). I go to Zandvliet College and I am in the 5th (out of 6) year of VVO which is the highest level of schooling you can get in the Netherlands. I have a full week at school coming up and I am looking forward to meeting even more people and learning even more dutch!

Over here I have been doing is a lot of biking. Everyone over here has a bike and it isn't uncommon for people to have 3 bikes. Below is a photo of all the bikes at The Hauge Central Station.

I have also biked to a beach in The Hauge which is so nice! It was a nice and sunny day and the water was quite nice after I got use to it. (photo down left). It took my host family and I about 30-40 minutes to get there by bike. Despite what I thought before I cam here, this country isn't perfectly flat! While there aren't any real hills, they do have a few shallow ups and downs on their roads and landscape and they are definitely noticeable!!

Well I can't think of what else I can say so this is all for now and I'll write again soon!

About this blog

Hi there!!

My name is Andrew and I am on a 5 month exchange in The Netherlands with NZIIU (an exchange provider in NZ). In this blog I'll be talking about the difficulties of being an exchange student, my life here and what sort of things the dutch get up to

Enjoy!! :)