Universiteit Utrecht

The university was very cooperative in finding me an appartment. I really enjoyed the place where I stayed because I had the opportunity to meet up with other students that also lived in the halls of residence I stayed. It was fully equipt and was also fairly spacious. The only drawback was the cost. I considered paying €410 per month expensive. But then again that may be only me I will let you be the judge of that!

In utrecht you cannot miss going to the Mich O'Connels. It is an irish pub where all international students meet up every Tuesday. It is a must if you want to get to meet some people! Utrecht has a very organised Erasmus Student Network (http://www.esn-utrecht.nl). It is an organisation responsible for getting the Erasmus exchange students to aquanted to Utrecht, Holland and the dutch way of life in general. In order to accomplish this it organises all sorts of events where exchange students get the opportunity to meet each other. Some events I participated in was a trip to Amsterdam, a volleyball tournament at night and rowing in the dutch canals to name just a few! I would say that the key is to join the activities that the Erasmus Student Network organises! Clubs and cafes i will not bother to name cause I think it is the company you have with you that makes the difference!

Dutch for me seemed like a very difficult language. It took me more than a month only to start getting the pronounciation correct. However, in the Netherlands, everybody speaks english... (well most people do). You need to know dutch if you want to get a decent job though. If I wanted to find a job in my sector I had to know dutch if not I had to know 3 foreign languages! Oh, there are also a few jobs for speakers of the german language. Overall you do not need to speek the Dutch language in the Netherlands.

Do not close up to yourself. Try to open yourself and accept a different culture to the one you are used to. If not you will only manage to put a negative phychology on yourself and you will get homesick very quickly!

Get a strippen card to travel with buses. If you travel a lot get a monthly pass.