Universiteit Leiden

The housing at the univeristy was in itself. In comparison to the London prices that I paid at home I found the price reasonable and good value for money, although this wasn;t the case for other students who had would pay less at the home univeristy. However, the main problem was the organisation of allocating housing and enabling students to address any problems. Students would apply for housing through the univeristy's international office but was allocated by another body, SLS. If there were any problems, which I had at the beginning when I was only given accommodation two days before my arrival (and for some friends they didn't even have accommodation after they arrived), I was thrown between the two bodies who were fairly disprganised. For the first semester I was given accommodation at the Hooigracht which was undergoing renovations and so our rent was reduced as a result. Although the accommodation was not particularly nice it was fine because I wa spaying low rent. however the major problems happened was when we had to move to new accommodation, although we ended up the new Hugo De grootstraat, which turned out to be for our benefit, we still ahd to pay admin fees and wait a long time to be allocated rooms. This was despite the fact that we had to move because of SLS and the renovations going on at the Hooi. Overall the housing itself was fine and being in student accommodation with other inetrnational students made my experience all the better. it was ojly the organisation of it that made my arrival a little stressful.

rail cards

Olivier is by far the best place in the city. It's a Belgian beer café, with a very chilled environment. It's easy to find international students as well as locals, business people and all kind of different people. Einstein's is the student bar per si, this is where ISN (International student association) arranges all it's parties and events. It's the best place to meet people in the first days in the city. Lemmy's is another good place to go. They also serve Belgian beer, only at better prices than Olivier.

The weather is not the best one, there are however in-house activities that make up for it. People are friendly in general. Problems are difficult to resolve due to inflexibility and burocracy. It's a potentially expensive country, but very central and with many travelling opportunities and good prices.