Semester 1, term 1

It has been a long time ago since I entered the Hague University for the first time. It's already 7 months ago and I'm in week 3 of semester 2.. So, let's go back in time!

It all started with an introductionweek organized by European Studies. It was a chance to get to know all your classmates, some teachers, the environment and of course, more about the programme. When I walked into the school, I was surprised by the fact how big it was. The first thing I thought, how am I going to find all the rooms etc.? But everything was explained during the introductionweek. It's really easy, trust me.

We all had to go one big room and the classes were announced. There was a girl from my high school who is also studying European Studies, but unfortunately she wasn't in my class. When every single class was announed, we went to a classroom where we were meeting our supervisor. There was a little information session about how Blackboard works(An online system where you can enroll for courses, find study manuals etc.) and how to find our schedule. We also did a little game where everyone introduced themselves. There was a tour around the school later on today.

I don't really remember everything that happened during the introductionweek, but I can tell that it was fun. We also had a tour around the city and there was a nice party at Club Le Paris. I was really surprised about the fact that everyone was so nice to eachother. The second year student and the teachers were also nice and willing to help us.

The day after the party we had een 'Anti-Hangover Brunch' which was a good way to catch up on what happened the day before, and to confront other people with their drunk behavior(I'm just kidding!) Afterwards, there was an other information session.

From that moment, everything started. Everyone bought the last couple of books, checked their timetable etc.

The first week of school was really fun. Every teacher introduced their course  clear and told us what to expect, what kind of exams we were getting, what the rules are and probably some more things I can't remember. At the beginning I wondered how I was going to find the classrooms, but don't worry about that, there is a really clear system on how to find the rooms. I will give you a short summary about some of the courses.

Culture Dimension; This is a course where you will go back in time and learn more about the culture theories philosophers. You will also learn more about different cultural backrounds and how to understand people from an other culture. For this course you had an MC exam and a presentation about a given topic with a fellow-student.

Economic Dimension; This was my favorite course. In this course you will learn all the ins and outs of a business. You will learn about what kind of companies there are, how to manage a company and basically everything you need to know about business/entrepreneurship. During the 'Open Day's', I got many questions about if you have to calculate things, but don't worry, this course is more about the theoretical side.

German; This course depends on which language you had before(it can also be French, Spain, but I had German on high school. You have two different classes each week, one of them is 'Practical German' where you have to give a presentation every single week with a sub-group. The other class is about reading, grammar and about the country.

Research Skills; this course was about you research skills. How can you find sources that are trustworthy for your research, papers or presentations. You will also learn how to interview and how to make a decent APA-style report.

There are some more cources, but I just randomly picked some courses you tell you more about.

It's very important to go to all the lectures. It can be very hard to motivate yourself, but if you go to every lecture, you will send it in your (exam) results. It's also important to keep up with the reading. There is a manual for every course, where you can find the homework and the reading for next week.  Overall, I like this term and I've learned a lot. The way of teaching etc. is obviously different than you are used to in high school. Teacher expect that you can work on your own and motivate yourself. You will also improve your skills on working together with other students. It is sometimes so frustrating, because not every student was as motivated as I was. Sometimes they wanted to start working on something at the last moment or willing to work hard on something at all. Those things will happen everywhere, so it just something you will have to deal with.