Orange mood. Exchange at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
I have a one way ticket in my hands: Moscow - Amsterdam, 28 January 2019, my exchange semester begins. Carrying a thick stack of documents and two suitcases, I left Schiphol airport in Amsterdam and went on a journey of six long months.
The Netherlands won my heart from the first day. Despite the cold, dank weather, I was met everywhere by incredibly warm people - at the station, in the administration of the University, in the dormitory. The first orientation week was vital to collect the starter pack of the Dutch student, which included a bicycle, a water bottle and a cloth bag for the store. This is what I had to get used to, and what I brought back with me to Moscow. The need for these things is obvious. The whole Netherlands can be circled by bike, because the red bike path runs through the whole country from North to South and from West to East and leads to where there is no road for cars. The Dutch are very athletic, they take care of the environment, try to use a minimum amount of plastic and sort the garbage. Water can be collected from the tap. But that's not all about them, of course.
During the first days of my shelf in the fridge was empty because I could not go to the store until 6 PM. Here is a feature of the Dutch - they work from 9 to 6 and do not intend to stay at work a second more. Because of this, they spend a lot of time with the family or doing their hobbies. I gradually got into their rhythm and learned to observe this work-life balance (and in my case study-travel-party balance).
The exchange semester in the Netherlands gave me many opportunities to study, travel and meet new people. Thus, at the weekends I had been travelling to the neighbouring cities (and taking into account the size of the Netherlands, all the cities can be considered as neighbouring), and sometimes the countries, had caught cheap tickets for Ryanair and Flixbus or just had been walking around Nijmegen. The Netherlands is a country of contrasts, where quiet cozy towns with channels like Haarlem and big noisy port cities like Rotterdam coexist. One day it may blow a hurricane with rain, and the next day, the warm spring sun looks out of the small clouds. The North sea is as beautiful in its own way as long sandy beaches, endless green fields and rivers and canals cutting across the country.
I traveled a lot, but I didn't forget to look at the Facebook page with events in Nijmegen. I caught a carnival in Maastricht, a King's Day and a few other national holidays. That is where the mood colour is orange! On the facades of houses flags of the Netherlands were hung with an orange stripe - the Royal color. People dressed in national colours and went to the city center to celebrate. Student organisation of foreign students organised many parties where you could meet a variety of people from around the world. I used to roller-skate in our campus yard because the University threw a Radboud by night party right at the University, and there was one of the teachers at the DJ's desk.
For this atmosphere I fell in love with Radboud. Teachers have always been interested in my extracurricular life. With one we discussed my course work for HSE, with another my trip to Luxembourg. Of course, it also came directly to the study. I had five courses, each of which taught me something completely new. The very first, Business ethics - that I can pass the exam in English. Marketing - that I can work on a project in a group of me and seven Dutch students. Business analysis for responsible organisations - that I can understand complex terms and master a computer program in English. Sustainable entrepreneurship - that I can write scientific texts in English. Finally, Business English - that I can learn at the same level with native English speakers.
I spent long hours in the library reading articles and textbooks. A little less time I spent in the gym, which was in the next building. I always liked to study with my friends first, and then go dancing to Latin American hits on zumba together or to master the downward-facing dog on yoga. The whole system of education is built around the independence of students. There is a big project and an exam for a semester, and then you distribute your time and effort to pass the task before the deadline. I came to the seminars only if I had questions about the course materials. The same system taught me to spend my free time not watching YouTube, but doing hobbies and communicating with other students.
Everyone knows Danish hygge and Swedish lagom, and the Netherlands has its own concept of comfort - gezellig - "an atmosphere, which allows good times to happen". Gezellig is when, after a long journey, you brew hot tea in the evening and sit in the kitchen chatting with your neighbours. Gezellig is when it's dark outside and it's pouring cold rain, and you wrap yourself in a warm blanket and prepare for classes. Gezellig is when in 30 degrees of heat you collect a container of fruit and go to the local beach to swim in the river and read the book "Why the Dutch are different" (written by Ben Coates), trying to get to know these mysterious Dutch.
There were also days when no gezellig could save me from apathy. There have been downs - and not only figuratively, but also from the bike. There were resits. But all these made the impressions of this long semester only brighter.
My exchange semester taught me not to be afraid of anything and to be as open as possible to new experiences.
Moscow – Amsterdam – Moscow. And how much there was between the two flights!