Day 5 – new faces, lots of rain

Decided I needed to jot down what happened these past few days after reading an article about how your memory becomes more inaccurate as time goes by. Eek!

So here’s a recap of what happened these past few days:

[Day 3]

- Mary Alice, my roommate, was really kind and took the time to show me around some of the places in town, like Lijnbaarn and Meent (the shopping centres). Surprisingly it’s very easy to walk! Or maybe that shouldn’t be much of a surprise, considering how the country is so small.
- It was at Lijnbaarn where I picked up the cheapest cellphone I could find at Vodafone (35 euros including 10 euro prepaid credits). Compared to my other phones it’s pretty… crappy looking. It’s very small, and the screen is super small. But apparently it gets good reception. Given my whole debacle with the iPhone and crap I didn’t think I deserved to get another expensive phone.
- M.A. and I went to the supermarket afterwards. It sort of reminded me of a cross between IKEA, Safeway and the colour orange. We bought salmon for like, 7 Euros. Eek. But we had a good supper between us afterwards.
- Right after we came out of the market, it rained like NO TOMORROW. Since Lijnbaarn is an open space we had to wait for the rain to stop at the side before we walked back home. We should’ve known it would rain like this, as the day before also had a thunderstorm.
- We made salmon with cream cheese. Mmm.
- Later at 8pm I went to Rotown to meet with some other exchange students in the student group I’d joined. Rotown is a very popular bar among students as it houses a lot of local talent and big names. We chatted over culture differences over beer (mmm Heineken) and wine. There were about 10 people, more than I had anticipated, from all over: a couple Australians, a German, a handful of Italians, a couple Norwegians, and one from Belgium. Oh, and one Canadian. Ha. It was fun, especially listening to the Australian talk about how everything is so “cheap” here compared to home. Lol.
- Took the metro from Eendenscheplein or whatever the hell it’s called to Oostplein and walked home in the wind for the rest of the way. So. Bloody. Windy.

—–

[Day 4]

- Introduction to the school day!
- Met a few of the graphic design students and a couple in advertising during an introductory meeting. It was a relief being able to know my timetable FINALLY (literally the day before school like WTF). I saw some other students who came from Beijing. They seemed very reserved, and sounded like one of them rehearsed her introductory speech. Lol. But who wouldn’t anyway, especially if English is your second language.
- Only one of the other students is in my “group”. Unlike in ECU (well except for foundation), the classes are separated into groups, meaning that students from that group stay together in the rest of their classes, starting from first year. So that was a bit of a let down.
- For our minors, we had to choose between Cultural Diversity or Typography as those are free, graphic design related and taught in English. Personally I don’t really care for either but my typography skills are quite lacking so it might be useful to take that course. Plus, the other one is taught by my graphic design tutor and I don’t want to see his face all the time. [Note: When I'd registered for exchange I had to fill out the learning agreement, but I guess that all went to the trash. So much for getting AdCom! I saw it coming though.]
- After getting some paperwork figured out we went on a tour of the Blaak building, the one that used to be a bank. I was so surprised at how many corridors there were! The looks are really deceiving. In that small building they were able to fit in a huge computer lab (that looked REALLY nice btw), two print rooms (one for letter press, the other for other printing techniques such as silkscreen and intaglio), two photo studios (one analog, which can be used freely, the other digital which is new and a little harder to come by), a library, an arts supply store, a printing/large format printing place, etc. I guess since it used to be a bank there naturally need a lot of places to hide… money.
- Speaking of money, another downside is that the school doesn’t use cash! They pay everything with a “check card”. I’m starting to find the country’s obsession with chip cards a bit annoying. [Note: not only does public transport use a "chipkaart", but the city also uses a "chipknip" to pay for things, much like a credit card. Except more annoying for people outside of the city. I still don't know if my credit card doesn't work here or if buying my train ticket was just one anomaly.]
- After the tour and introduction we were free to go home. I decided I needed to refill my chipkaart and the only place I knew was at Rotterdam Centraal station, because I did that the very first day I came. So I biked there in spite of the wind and refilled it with 20 euros. I now have about 26 on my card; in so far I’ve used 6 euros these past few days of occasional transit use, so I think that’ll suffice for the time being.
- I decided I was hungry so I bought a “turkse pizza” for 1.95 euros in a donair place at the station. It was rolled and I was hungry so it tasted good.
- Biked home (I think I’m starting to know my way around, despite not knowing the street names besides Boezemzeg, Oostplein and Goudensppealkdfdfaf…) and it rained like a bitch again. By the time I came home I was completely drenched, head to toe. So I spent the rest of the night watching ItsKingsleyBitch’s videos and anticipating the next day…

[Day 5]

- First day of school! Woke up at 7:30, left the house at 8:40. Once again I biked and I realized just how fat I am in the inside. I was sweating so profusely! It was actually ridiculous.
- First class was graphic design, or grafisch ontwerp(en) as they like to call it. [Note: The "en" suffix indicates that the word is plural, as does "s"] It was a bit disappointing to see that only one other exchange student was present, and that was the one I’d met yesterday, a girl from Helsinki who looks like she’s 14 but is actually 24. Glad to see she’s as short as I am.
- First impression of my teacher: he looks pretty young, and thus makes it surprising that he’s already the Head of Graphic Design even only after three years of teaching. At ECU, the associate professors are practically in their 50s-60s. He seems a lot more comfortable speaking in Dutch, because he always pauses to search for words when speaking in English. :\ Some of the other students are also the same way, which makes me feel even more bad for my Dutch illiteracy.
- We had introductions in English, where I learned and forgot many names at the same time. Some have studied at other universities prior, a couple come straight from high school, etc. What’s striking is that the class has very distinct cliques (eg. the boys together with the boys, the girls chatting like birds in a cluster of their own) just like ECU and high school. I guess some habits apply to all humans beings after all.
- After a very boring presentation on the teacher’s past works (it looked nice but nonetheless was quite long), we were supposed to watch a film called “Rip: A Remix Manifesto” as it relates to the next assignment (a traditional poster and a “visual reaction”). However, the power went out so we were excused for the rest of the morning.
- Deciding to make full use of our time, the girl from Helsinki (Paulina) and I went to get our check cards as we were unable to the previous day. Except, the power was out so we couldn’t get our cards in the end. Damn it.
- Without a check cards, we couldn’t eat lunch, so we went to the closest supermarket. I paid 2.30 euros for a disgusting chicken Caesar sandwich. :\
- When we walked back to the academy, we noticed that everyone was forming a cluster outside. We later learned that because of the power outage, the staff and crew evacuated everyone outside. Like wtf? You’d think it was an actual emergency, like a fire or something. Paulina agreed with my disbelief.
- The next class was something called “text”, which is supposed to involve CV/resume/cover letter writing and all that jazz. I think it’s pretty pointless, given that this is stuff you learn in high school.
- Apparently, people in Europe don’t care about being on time, unlike certain Canadian institutions who dock 5% off of your final grade for being late twice. >:\
- Just before class started, I had a short conversation with a guy (who had earlier recognized us as the international students) named Timothy. Turns out he did exchange at Mass Art in Boston, MA last year and needed to do another semester to make up for what he’d missed. Also, his friend came to ECU last year as well. I recognized his name from the exchange blog but I’d never met him in person. All in all he was very sweet and offered to translate for me if I didn’t understand anything.
- For the rest of the class we had to connect all the tables, make ourselves name tags and arrange ourselves like some seance. Turns out we were about to do this conversation exercise where one person asks a question to another person in the room in front of the whole class, and these questions had to invite conversation and insight into the person being asked. Questions like “if the house was burning what would you take with you” or “what was your favourite childhood toy”, etc. It was all very awkward and nerve wracking, and these feelings were amplified when the teacher would interrupt at points to either critique our questions (“that’s not a very good question, what else can you ask?”) or ask us why we asked those specific questions, etc. Plus, I had to hold the urge to pee for the entire time. :\
- Because no one wanted to go first (haha) Timothy got the ball rolling. Then after he asked the question the person he asked had to ask another random person, etc etc. By the questions they asked it looked like they were picking on things that they’d already knew about the person.
- Also, as time went on it was clear to me now that not everyone liked to speak English (the whole exercise was in English btw). Timothy had told me this earlier, that even when the kids don’t speak English very well they all need to give up Dutch just to accommodate one exchange student. .___. (Oh, don’t I feel the burden now…)
- As it turns out I ended up being last. -___- My question was about what made me choose graphic design and I sort of rambled a bit. The teacher didn’t seem to mind. Lol.
- Also coincidentally, I had to ask Timothy the last question. Mine was “what is your definition for success”. The teacher seemed to be impressed. Lol.
- Second to last, we did some exercise where we were split into groups and had to describe a picture for the other group to draw. Been there done that; moral was, good communication is essential and not everything can be described with just words.
- Lastly, our assignment for the next week was to compile 20 excerpts of text from different sources. I don’t really understand the point, but whatever.

Annnnnnnd that’s about it! I think I’ve hit it all. Pictures may be edited in later. For now, you’ll just have to draw it from my words.

[P.S: I have a giant zit right next to my eyebrow and it's so damn annoying. D:<]

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