Saturday, September 24, 2011: Maastricht, Netherlands
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| Johanna and I in front of 'de bloemen molen' |
Hello again, and please accept my apologies for yet another blogging hiatus. Unfortunately, I have not had the time, patience or internet access in the last two weeks to sit down and blog, but I promise to share all the details of the happenings here in this post!
Yesterday I finished my first two weeks of classes in Maastricht. I mentioned previously that I am enrolled in two courses for the first period of the semester,
Human Resources and
Work Psychology. Both started on the same day two weeks ago with introduction lectures back to back (in the same room!). It was a lot of class, but informative about the coming weeks.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I have tutorials, which are smaller groups of 10 students in which we have Problem-based Learning (PBL) sessions. We spend the first half of the session having the post-discussion for the first problem, and the latter portion engaging in the pre-discussion for the next problem. Its been an interesting system and a bit challenging to adapt to. You really have to orient your self-studies a particular way so that you are prepared for each session and can contribute sufficiently. Its really what you make of it!
But I have enjoyed the program so far. I like the people in my tutorial groups, and everyone I have met in the Masters specialization is really nice too. There are about 50 people in the program, so its sizable, but not huge! Its challenging, but not as much work as I thought it would be. I am in class for about ten hours/week and try to do 25-30 hours outside of class. I'm pretty much treating school like my full time job. And having some fun in between.
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| View of Maastricht from atop the hill |
Besides school, I have been adjusting well to life in Maastricht. I'm enjoying outings in the city with friends, Thursday night dinners at the student chaplaincy and daily shopping trips to the Albert Heijn. Yesterday I tried my hand at cooking Indian for the house (recipe compliments of Nishant Jain :). Dinner was yummy yummy and I baked pumpkin muffins for dessert. As usual with baking in the Netherlands, the muffins turned out 'interesting' to say the least. But they taste yummy and my housemates have enjoyed them! Its nice to have a taste of fall.
Speaking of fall, today's weather is reminiscent of fall in Florida. Its cool and crisp outisde and the sun has been shining ALL DAY! This is truly revolutionary :)
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| Squeezing in the crevices |
I am supposed to go hiking tomorrow with some friends so that we can enjoy the beautiful weather which is supposed to hold out until then (knock on wood). Last weekend was decent weather too. And I enjoyed it in the company of the girl I am sub-renting from. She is doing her internship in Germany for the semester, but came to Maastricht last weekend to see the housemates and her boyfriend who studies here. She invited me to tour Maastricht with her on Saturday, and we decided to visit the Maastricht caves.
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| Charcoal drawing in the caves |
The caves were a really cool experience (literally!). It was 11C in the caves, and the only lights/warmth we had was the lanterns carried by our guide. We enjoyed the hour-long tour through the underground labrynth and listened with interest to the tales of the Roman who first made the caves, and later the Limburg people who used the caverns for many things, including mining, hiding from war enemies and hiding treasured good (like the Night Watch) from invaders. US soldiers also visited the caves in the second world war. The Maastricht caves have a reall unique history and were very interesting to tour. Anyone who comes to visit the city should defniitely go and see them!
So it has been an eventful last couple of weeks! Tonight we will BBQ at the house and enjoy a relaxing evening with the housemates. And Monday begins another week of classes!
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