First week of classes? Check!

I figured that it would be a good idea to write a post after having been here for a full week. Having been too lazy to so on time (since I've been here a week and a half now), I'm instead opting for writing a post after finishing the first week of classes.

As can be expected, a lot of the last week has involved running around and getting little things done. Opening a Dutch bank account. Finding classrooms. Having fingerprints taken for my Residence Permit. Walking into the kitchen to cook, realizing I'm missing half the things I need, and walking to the grocery store. That sort of thing.  In and amongst that, there've been a few ISN (International Students' Network) events thrown in, adventures to different places around the city, and, yes, even the occasional moment or two of studying.

After where my last blog post left off, we had the official introduction day to the Law Faculty on Thursday. My roommates who are in SBE (The School of Business and Economics, which has over 400 exchange students out of a total of 700 some) had two full days of orientation, but, contrary to what I've come to expect, the law school kept it short and sweet. We had an introduction from the Dean, followed by a tour around Maas (in the rain), followed by dinner (and drinks). Later that evening, ISN hosted a pub crawl, which essentially consisted of waiting in long lines to enter small bars and then leave again quickly because it was too crowded. Thursday was also the day I bought my bike (more on that later). On Saturday, I went to a Dutch Dinner hosted by ISN. The dinner consisted of sausage, chicken, three different types of mashed potatoes, and sauerkraut, and we followed it up with some waffles. The rest of the week was spent on the aforementioned running around, as well as my first tutorial and first lecture (I'll write more about Maastricht's particular form of teaching, PBL, in a few weeks).

So how are things going? So far, so good. Maastricht is a beautiful, old city, and I'm still waiting for the day I manage to walk somewhere without stopping to take photos (I'm basically starting to overtake Google Street View at this point). It's quite interesting to me how the historical parts of the city are just that-part of the city, rather than preserved museum-style as we tend to do in Canada. Cafés line the squares, ancient bridges are still in use, and numerous old churches have been converted into everything from hotels to archives to a bookstore with a coffeeshop. I've also been quite impressed with the exchange student community so far, everyone is really friendly but also quite engaged and enthusiastic about being in the Netherlands.

As far as activities, that's really it so far. Keep an eye out for another blog post that will talk more about the observations I've made about life here so far, which will be written when I get around to it very soon.