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!! :)