In short, I really like it here. It is a very international city and I have found great friends here. The only thing I wish is that I was being paid to do all this research instead of paying to do it. I am taking three classes: Advanced European Union Law, European Tort Law, and Research Methods. The University uses a method called Problem Based Learning. It is individual-driven with very little lecture time. Sometimes that means boring busy-work/home-work questions/problems. Sometimes I feel it is just a big scam so that the professors can bring in more money and not have to take time to teach classes. Most of the class time spent doing student presentations, and one class the professor even let two students assign and prepare the materials for the next class. Also, I missed out on the group work element that was promised in the beginning. We are just doing questions the professors assign. Small classes do not equal group work. Removing the hierarchy and supplanting it by fully using the skills that students with diverse backgrounds from all over Europe bring = actual group work, and actually supported by the studies that University uses to justify the PBL method.
On a side note, to do a proper powerpoint presentation, DO NOT EVER READ THE SLIDES! EVER! NO! BAD! STOP! Don't do it. Powerpoint is for visual stimulation while you present information. The focus should still be on your words and your focus should still be on the audience. Use visuals to demonstrate concepts visually and to outline the major point YOU will be presenting! Yes, YOU are presenting, not the computer. Do not use the slides for lengthy text. It is designed to enhance the presentation, bot to be used as a crutch like a script for those who are nervous. This is made especially worse by the high percentage of non-native English speakers. Ugh.
As you can see from the map above, the city of Maastricht is way, way down in the south of The Netherlands. To orient the readers to the important places in The Netherlands, toward the middle-left you will find Amsterdam, the business capital and seat of the royal family (pop. 765,000). Down and to the left from there you will see the second most important city which is The Hague, which is the political capital of The Netherlands and thus where parliament is. As you can see it is also very close to the North Sea, and so it has very nice beaches as well. There you will find the famous beach of Scheveningen, which is very, very hard to pronounce because there are hard consonant sounds at the beginning on "sch" and on the "g". At the same time, the Dutch "g" which appears in "Scheveningen" is pronounced differently in various parts. For example, it is pronounced much softer in Maastricht and in the Dutch speaking parts of Belgium. It is also pronounced as a soft "g" when it is part of the syllable "ing," leading me to be confused whether it should be hard or soft in the word Scheveningen. Thus, how someone pronounces this word has long been used as a way to tell which part of the country someone was from. It was also quite useful for the resistance to determine who was a German spy during WWII. Now that I think about it, though, I sure hope that it wasn't used by people from the North and the South of The Netherlands to falsely assume each other were spies based on their "incorrect" pronunciation of "Scheveningen." Pics of the beach below.
Moving our eyes from The Hague to the right you will find Utrecht. This is where I studied the last two summers and where Laura currently studies as both an LL.M. research track student and as a Bachelor's student in Dutch law. Utrecht is a very international city with a population of 300,000 in the city and 800,000 in the region. Utrecht was the most northernly outpost of the Roman Empire, and as such is also the dividing line between the Dutch Reformed part of the country to the North, and the Catholic parts to the South. It also has importance in Catholic politics, as it has been the seat of the Archbishop for region since the 7th Century.
Down and to the left from Utrecht you will see Rotterdam (wiki) and Dordrecht (wiki). Rotterdam is the second most populous city in The Netherlands with nearly 600,000 people. It is also the most modern city and considered as a rival of Amsterdam as the most happening city. It had to be completely rebuilt after WII, unlike other Dutch cities, so the architecture and general feel is modern compared to most Dutch cities which are characteristically not modern due to winding canals, narrow crooked streets, and the general difficultly of getting around in a car. Laura and I will go to see the popular band Green Day in Rotterdam this October. For the Anabaptist readers, Dordrecht should be familiar due to the Dordrecht Confession of Faith of 1632 (text and historical importance)
Also important for the Anabaptist readers is the Northern area around Leeuwarden. The region is called Friesland, and it is where Menno Simons lived, and where many Mennonites (or more correctly in Dutch, the Doopsgzinden) today are concentrated. It is also where Laura grew up (after age 13) and where her family still lives. The geography of Friesland, being very flat and full of farmland, reminds me of Kansas or Alberta (except wetter and greener).
So, now we turn our eyes to the South, where we have Maastricht! As you could have guessed based on its geographic proximity, Maastricht has a much larger influence from German and French culture. The Belgium border is visible from my apartment, and French is spoken there.
The program that I am in is an English-language program, and it is a European-focused program The same is true for Maastricht University as a whole, which recently officially changed its name from the Dutch "Universiteit Maastricht," to the English "Maastricht University." Thus, out of my friends who I hang out with, I am the most Dutch. There are typically over half French people, at least one German, at least one British person, and at least one U.S. citizen (me).
Maastricht is also more Catholic. Being both more Catholic and more French, there is more of a focus on cafe culture and eating. As for eating, the meals at restaurants are more than twice as big than in Utrecht. As for cafes, when I get kicked out of the library at 10PM every night there are still people sitting outside the cafes enjoying drinks. I see lots of old couples strolling hand-in-hand. Jeremy Rifkin, and many others who have compared European and U.S. culture, have noted much more strolling and more casual feel to Europe. Whereas the Dutch people as a whole tend to be a very prompt and industrious people (for example, the Dutch Court system is far faster than all the rest of Europe and nearly as fast as in the U.S.), Maastricht fits the broader generalizations of the European lifestyle as slower-paced.
It is less of a student city as well. When we went out Saturday night, the pubs were full of middle-aged single women. The second week I was there, all the rage was about this yearly food festival. People came in large groups, dressed very well, with their own photographers and chauffeurs so that everyone would know they are important. This demonstrates that Maastricht is much less of a student-focused city than Utrecht.
One of the distinctive things about the United States that European visitors notice is the expansive sky. I grew up in Kansas, where that is especially true. Many, including myself, can feel very cramped in the cities. However, at the same time, I find it very relaxing to come home after a long day of studying and research in the library and enjoy and view of the city from my balcony. The mental tension of not getting everything done that day that I wished I had, and the physical tension from a ten minute bike ride home on an empty stomach seem to melt away.
Down and to the left from Utrecht you will see Rotterdam (wiki) and Dordrecht (wiki). Rotterdam is the second most populous city in The Netherlands with nearly 600,000 people. It is also the most modern city and considered as a rival of Amsterdam as the most happening city. It had to be completely rebuilt after WII, unlike other Dutch cities, so the architecture and general feel is modern compared to most Dutch cities which are characteristically not modern due to winding canals, narrow crooked streets, and the general difficultly of getting around in a car. Laura and I will go to see the popular band Green Day in Rotterdam this October. For the Anabaptist readers, Dordrecht should be familiar due to the Dordrecht Confession of Faith of 1632 (text and historical importance)
Also important for the Anabaptist readers is the Northern area around Leeuwarden. The region is called Friesland, and it is where Menno Simons lived, and where many Mennonites (or more correctly in Dutch, the Doopsgzinden) today are concentrated. It is also where Laura grew up (after age 13) and where her family still lives. The geography of Friesland, being very flat and full of farmland, reminds me of Kansas or Alberta (except wetter and greener).
So, now we turn our eyes to the South, where we have Maastricht! As you could have guessed based on its geographic proximity, Maastricht has a much larger influence from German and French culture. The Belgium border is visible from my apartment, and French is spoken there.
The program that I am in is an English-language program, and it is a European-focused program The same is true for Maastricht University as a whole, which recently officially changed its name from the Dutch "Universiteit Maastricht," to the English "Maastricht University." Thus, out of my friends who I hang out with, I am the most Dutch. There are typically over half French people, at least one German, at least one British person, and at least one U.S. citizen (me).
Maastricht is also more Catholic. Being both more Catholic and more French, there is more of a focus on cafe culture and eating. As for eating, the meals at restaurants are more than twice as big than in Utrecht. As for cafes, when I get kicked out of the library at 10PM every night there are still people sitting outside the cafes enjoying drinks. I see lots of old couples strolling hand-in-hand. Jeremy Rifkin, and many others who have compared European and U.S. culture, have noted much more strolling and more casual feel to Europe. Whereas the Dutch people as a whole tend to be a very prompt and industrious people (for example, the Dutch Court system is far faster than all the rest of Europe and nearly as fast as in the U.S.), Maastricht fits the broader generalizations of the European lifestyle as slower-paced.
It is less of a student city as well. When we went out Saturday night, the pubs were full of middle-aged single women. The second week I was there, all the rage was about this yearly food festival. People came in large groups, dressed very well, with their own photographers and chauffeurs so that everyone would know they are important. This demonstrates that Maastricht is much less of a student-focused city than Utrecht.
One of the distinctive things about the United States that European visitors notice is the expansive sky. I grew up in Kansas, where that is especially true. Many, including myself, can feel very cramped in the cities. However, at the same time, I find it very relaxing to come home after a long day of studying and research in the library and enjoy and view of the city from my balcony. The mental tension of not getting everything done that day that I wished I had, and the physical tension from a ten minute bike ride home on an empty stomach seem to melt away.
Related posts:
(More) Life in Maastricht (in pictures!)
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Scheveningen is a name I have known as a variation of the Sicilian Defense. I never knew where it came from till now. I found a reference to the fact the defense was first played in a tournament in Scheveningen but no mention of the year.
ReplyDeleteScheveningen is also the name of the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War, in 1653.