My Study Abroad Experience

I had the wonderful opportunity to study a course related to my college studies free of charge based on my academic performance in a small city in Gelderland, Netherlands called Arnhem. In this post I will be talking about how my daily life was for the three weeks spent in Arnhem.

Check In: Airport and Accommodation So, after I arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, I was welcomed into the city and country by Arnhem Business School study abroad coordinator Ms Ingrid Le Coultre den-Ouden, after some pleasantries were exchanged, she gave me my train tickets and I was off to Arnhem, where I met up with Ingrid’s co-worker, International Relations Officer, Judith van de Looij (aka Judith with the bootyth – a nickname we gave her during the course). Judith accompanied me to our accommodation which was conveniently located across the metro station as my luggage paired with my fatigue was killing me – I couldn’t wait to get a hot shower and throw myself on a comfy bed. The Netherlands is such a small country – to illustrate, I basically travelled through 3 countries in under 2 hours. After I was briefed on the rules of the house and the city, I headed off to my room - which I luckily shared with Sumaiya, a friend of mine. Considering I arrived quite late (even when I'm abroad I still operate on African time- which is sad), I couldn't meet the rest of the group until tomorrow morning, but then again they were out in town drinking so I didn't miss much.

Check In: Summer Course

On Monday morning, I got to meet a few of the students in the course (remember I arrived on African time so didn’t have the chance to meet anyone). I immediately befriended them, I was drawn to their happy-go-lucky aura. We all headed down to the basement for breakfast, where I got to meet the rest of the gang – a gang that I had become close to over a short period. There was 16 of us in total – 3 South Africans, 4 Americans, a Finnish guy, an Indian lady and the rest were Australians from the same institute. We all headed to the metro station to board on a tram to campus. We met the Dean of Arnhem Business School, faculty lecturers and our course co-ordinator (and now my mentor) Ms Miriam Zwaan. After we were welcomed into the Institute and programme by the Dean, we had a Dutch scrumptious lunch followed by some delectable vegan brownies (I’ve never had any vegan related food and those brownies were the bomb). After lunch, we delved into the programme. We were split into 8 pairs based on the topics plastered around the classroom for our assignment, referred to as a quest. I chose a challenging one – Brexit – a faux pas on the Brits, where my late partner (Stevie Marcon) and I had to present benefits from Brexit for multinational corporations. 

In the evening, Judith came to the house with Ismaïl Gazaz, our entertainment coordinator, our first night, Ismaïl split us into four groups and made us do an alphabet treasure search across the city for the night. It was great, fun actually – we stopped around 10 pm to get dinner before the restaurants would close, since the restaurants and bars were at proximity to our home.

Week 1 The rest of the week was good, filled with the usual humdrum of college and other adventurous lectures such as creative thinking and the business proposal in a day, the proposal was based on the creative thoughts we had after splitting into groups of four. Every day would end on a high yet forgettable note, firstly we would visit this other bar place called Amigo’s since they had half-priced marguerites daily and the bar next to it had some delicious tapas, then we would visit the different restaurants around Arnhem like Happy Italy (an artisanal pizza and pasta place), Rhodos (Greek restaurant) Batavia Indonesisch (Indonesian restaurant), Istan Arnhem (Turkish restaurant), although Happy Italy was a fan-favourite since it served more than perfect portions of pasta for a reasonable price, additionally their food is BOMB! We would also settle for the usual franchises like Burger King, KFC, Domino’s, McDonalds and Spar. To be honest, I was quite surprised to find Spar in Arnhem, I always assumed it was a South African supermarket. After our eateries, we would go to bars for drinks, some (like me) would retire early, while the rest would come home around the morning. Unless it was a Thursday, around Arnhem, Thursday's clothing shops would close later than usual, hence I would go shopping with the girls.

On Saturday morning, we had an early morning breakfast and headed off for Starbucks before we met up with Judith and Ismaïl for our tour to South Holland, specifically to Den Haag (The Hague) and Rotterdam. Most of you may know Den Haag as a city which holds the International Criminal Court, International Court of Justice and some United Nations conferences. It is also home to most foreign embassies in the Netherlands and Dutch government. The city has a gothic but modern aura and it has a very rich history behind it, especially with the number of stories Ismaïl told us. From being part of the French empire to being occupied by the German and a certain royal member hiding in Delft. We visited some historic landmarks, such as the inner courts of the King William II Palace (turned into a museum), Escher in Het Palais museum (an abstract art museum) and some long-standing churches. After a great day, we had dinner and drinks at this other restaurant outside the market square, before we went back home and partied the Saturday night out.

Week 2 The week was more entertaining than the previous week, probably because I started joining the club-and-bar hopping squad, I visited more clubs and pubs than my age. With the course, it was the usual humdrum of working on the quest, classes and more adventurous lectures such as Dutch culture, LEAN manufacturing process (this was practical and hilarious) and we even had some interesting business talks with some entrepreneurs and business managers.  Things that we learnt during that particular day, we would see in practicality with our scheduled excursions: On Monday, we visited Gazelle bicycle factory shop, which is the most famous bicycle brand in Europe (seen the LEAN manufacturing process), Tuesday we visited Hippe Koeien, a dairy farm in Didam which distributes its milk to the Netherlands dairy industry, also Ms Karolien (lady who manages Hippe Koeien) gives milk to an ice-cream parlour just down the road, had the most smooth and creamiest gelato I’ve ever had. On Wednesday, we visited the Arnhem Foodbank, where we learned that the bank collects foods from major supermarkets and small businesses and distributes it to those who need parcels on Fridays throughout the province. Thursday morning and afternoon, Ismaïl came to take us the Netherlands Open Air Museum, I enjoyed see the revolution of the Dutch culture, the museum is like a small town and as you walk, you see the change in time and circumstances like the progression of revolution from the 1910s to 1950s, and of course – ended the day with shopping at Primark, H&M, Zara and other fashionable shops. On Friday afternoon, we visited Peeze, a coffee manufacturer in Arnhem. I am not a coffee person yet I enjoyed making myself a latte with the help of one of the PR managers. I even learned how to make those cute designs in your coffee – well, only a leaf, heart and smiley emoji. 

On Saturday morning, we had to leave quite early for Brussels, three and a half hours later, we made to Central Brussels. We stayed in a four-star hotel, we went to our rooms – this time, I was solo – to drop our stuff and freshen up before we toured the city. Started at the Fine Arts College of Brussels (Palais des beaux-arts de-Bruxelles), onwards to the Manneken Pis statue – a statue of a naked toddler boy peeing (there are so many stories behind this statue ranging from a boy who peed to save a town from a fire to a rich man’s young son went missing in the city and a search party found him happily peeing). We headed down for a late lunch at a French café before continuing through the city, seeing the former palaces, the court of justice and even the European Union Parliament, the evening was quite spectacular. We headed for a niche Italian bistro where I tried some of Pragathi’s escargot (snail dish – not cool), Chandre’s mussel pasta and Sumaiya’s lasagne. I had ordered myself a tiramisu, which was decadent and wonderful. We headed off to a bar close by to celebrate with the locals the end of European Football World Cup. 

On Sunday, we went to Atomium, a science fair project turned building shaped like an atom, followed by a visit by some students (not me – I was too tired) to Little Europe, as the name describes – a miniature version of Europe, its landmarks and attractions. Late afternoon we walked all the way to the train station to go back home, had dinner at Happy Italy and went to watch the European World Cup final at the pub, of course, Portugal won!

Week 3

The week was not as great as the previous weeks, the mood was sombre, we were all starting to realise that this was our final week in Arnhem and the pressure of the presentation was drawing near. We filled the week with many group activities, on Tuesday evening, we visited Ismaïl’s home suburb Nijmegen, like Arnhem, but more colourful and rich in history. Before we toured around Nijmegen, we settled for a meal at a café. I settled for a pizza burger, but honestly, I was disappointed with the outcome – it was basically a wrap with a burger patty, excessive cheese and other pizza toppings. We toured the suburb and left on a tram back home, we sang “Try Again” by Macy Gray, this was our last group activity together. Friday morning, we met on campus to present our presentation to Miriam, the Dean, faculty lecturers and three special guests one of whom was Faruhs Matkasimovs (Latvian former exchange student and a new friend I gained).  After our presentation, we bade a sad farewell to David, who had to leave early for Amsterdam with his friends. We had a farewell lunch at another Indonesian restaurant, we were presented with our certificates, and where Stevie and I were awarded best quest. After our lunch, we went back home to pack, since we were living very early the next day and bade farewell to yet two Americans as they were going back home. We planned for one last night out by club-hopping the entire night, we went back to our accommodation at 3 am, took a quick shower and took our luggage down before the airport shuttle arrived at 5 am to take 5 of us to the airport.

Check In: Homebound We bade farewell to three mates we came with and went to the airport locker room, we locked our luggage up and took Sumaiya to explore Red Light District – you know, the naughty side of Amsterdam and did some last-minute shopping before we went to check-in for our flight back home. The line for Emirates flight check-in was long, due to the Istanbul bombings, some flights in Istanbul were grounded hence some people came on our flight to Dubai. We missed an opportunity to receive free flight since we did not have a transit visa. A long 5-hour flight, traveller’s flu, 12-hour connection and lastly 8-hour flight back home, it was great to be on African soil – Johannesburg. A holiday for me is not a holiday without any last-minute drama. I got pulled out by South African Police Service for some “routine” questions, followed by SARS customs lady asking me how much I’d spend in Europe and if it exceeded R5000, I need to pay taxes…told her I did spend more R5000 but I don’t have money to pay taxes since it was the first time I heard about paying customs on what you’ve spent abroad. I've travelled thrice to Europe and not once anyone was questioned about this.