By: Radu Smintina, Foster Undergraduate

Hello there. I have been in Rotterdam for a little over a month now and reflecting on my experiences I must say I am surprised. There is SO much to tell, but alas space is limited and time, of the essence, so I will restrict my study abroad story to the most memorable experiences and observations for now.

When I first arrived in Rotterdam one of the things that struck me most was the sheer amount of diversity this city has to offer. I expected to be immersed in a sea of blond hair and blue eyes but, being a port city, there are all sorts of ethnicities here, mostly from Asian, African and other European cultures. The Rotterdam School of Management follows suit. There is a large international student population which is great to be a part of, not just on a business level but on a personal level as well. I have made many new and different friends and feel as though I have broadened my world view as a result of these friendships. On another note my palate is also thankful for all the cultural diversity for the Dutch lack, shall we say, creativity when it comes to food.

Another advantage of living in Rotterdam is that it is a fantastic hub for travel, being so close to many other wonderful cities. So far I have visited Barcelona, Bruges, Gent and Brussels in Belgium, Florence and Rome. However that is not to leave out all of the beautiful cities within Holland – Amsterdam, Leiden, Den Hauge and Rotterdam itself also has much to offer with its many canals, bridges and bi-weekly farmers markets.

Lastly I must address the infamous Queen’s Day which takes place every April 30th. It was a festival to rival all festivals as hundreds of thousands of people packed the city of Amsterdam. The streets were lined with venders and concerts and the canals were chock full of boats (and anything else that would float and support people). From dawn till dusk the city was alive and the most emphatic Queen’s Day troopers had started the festivities the night before in Den Hague. This was truly a memorable experience. Well I must leave you now, but will be sure to write again soon, take care!

My time in Rotterdam is coming to a close, and I’ll be leaving this lovely city in one week.  It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for almost four months now!  I feel so privileged for having had the opportunity to not only study in The Netherlands but to also travel to so many places in Europe.  I truly didn’t imagine I’d cover so much ground during my time here.

A word for those of you considering an exchange with RSM:

My overall experience at the school itself was pretty positive.  I took a minor called “E-Marketing” that was very fascinating, and I believe relevant for all business students.  The course focused on marketing in the “new economy,” and spent most of the time examining the importance for businesses to adapt how they do business as the internet becomes more and more integrated into society.  The course composition was much like any class at Foster and included lectures, class discussions, group work, a major paper and an exam.  If you are thinking of doing your exchange during autumn quarter you will have the opportunity to take a minor (which is worth 15 ECTS).  I suggest that if you chose to take a minor, you also chose at least one other course to take.  I only took the one minor and found that I had a lot of extra time on my hands.  It might not sound like such a bad thing until all the people you know are busy with school work.

If you are looking for a highly academic environment with a lot of extra seminars, lectures and workshops to participate in outside of the classroom, then I suggest you look at other universities.  While there are some academic events to participate in they are few and far between and always cost extra.  There is an “academic” club called STAR which organizes events throughout the year.   Unfortunately, in order to actively participate in the club you must be staying longer than a quarter because of project timeframes.  On the other hand, if you are looking to attend a lot of parties then RSM is for you.  There are always school sponsored parties (sometimes the school even provides drinks) and weekly social drinks.  There is rarely a night when someone isn’t having some sort of party.  The school also organizes several trips outside of Rotterdam so that you get to know other cities in The Netherlands.

The Dutch have a “do-it-yourself” mentality.  That makes some things very difficult to accomplish.  If you come to RSM you will notice immediately that there isn’t much coordination between RSM and the rest of Erasmus University.  For example, in order to print you need a “print card,” which inconveniently cannot be your student card, and you must have a separate print card for every building you wish to print in.  So if you only want to have one print card you may find yourself taking several trips across campus.

Erasmus also does not have dormitories.  You’ll need to conduct a housing search on your own.  Erasmus refers students to a company that offers dorm style housing.  You’ll need to figure out what is best for you.  If you chose to go through this company your accommodations will be akin to standard student dorms and cost more than if you found housing on your own.  The plus side is that you would be living with a lot of other students so making friends would be very easy.  I chose to find housing on my own and am very happy with my situation.  I posted a message on a Facebook page for RSM students and was offered to sublet an apartment from a student who was leaving Rotterdam to do her own exchange.  My apartment is further away from the school (about 15 minutes by bike) but located in the Center of Rotterdam which is close to shopping, outdoor markets, restaurants, bars and a multitude of clubs.  I also pay about 150-250 Euros less than what other students pay.

If you are planning to do a lot of traveling during your exchange then Rotterdam is a great place to be because of its central location.  Since you are basically in the center of Europe you can go pretty much anywhere by train or a quick flight on one of Europe’s budget airlines.  I’ve been to Germany, Belgium, France, Czech Republic, Italy and Spain.

I hope this information proves useful for you in choosing where you want to go on your exchange.  If you have any other questions about RSM I’d be happy to answer them for you.  I’ve had an incredible time and have learned so much about the World!  Good luck in your own travels!

Me on the Erasmusbrug (Erasmus Bridge)

I have been done with classes for a week now and can’t believe it.  It is crazy how fast time has flown by.  It feels like I just went on the integration trip where I met everyone in the exchange program for the first time.  Although I will be traveling for the next month, many people are already going home or leaving on their own travel adventures.  It will be hard to say goodbye to everyone but I will have lots of places to stay all around the world!

I returned from Berlin yesterday.  We were there for the 20^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which was really exciting.  I leave for Stockholm this week and after that will be traveling to Bergen, Prague and southern Spain.  I also hope to have a chance to see more of the Netherlands.  There are a lot of amazing cities in the Netherlands and they are easy to travel to since the country is so small.  Two weekends ago I went to Utrecht, which is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands.  Utrecht is very beautiful and similar to Amsterdam, but without all the tourists.

If you visit the Netherlands you have to try Stroopwafels.  Stroopwafels are thin Dutch waffle cookies with a syrup filling.  You can buy them pretty much everywhere but nothing beats a freshly made one!

I am really going to miss everyone in my exchange program, as well as living abroad. Nothing can compare to the experiences and people I have met.  At least with the internet and facebook it will be easier to keep in touch with everyone.

International Group on my 21st Birthday

Hi, my name is Rachel Renninger, and I am a junior at the Foster School of Business but am currently studying at RSM Erasmus University in the Netherlands.  I have already been in Rotterdam a little over a month now and time is flying by!  I have made friends with people from all over the world and am truly having an international experience.

The university put on a two day integration trip the weekend before classes started, which was a great way to meet everyone in the program.  I choose to live at Casa Erasmus, one of the student buildings and am very glad I did.  Although some students found nicer places that were less expensive it is great to be around other students and only have a 10 minute walk to campus and is close to downtown as well.

One of the reasons why I chose to study in Rotterdam was because of its excellent location.  It is very easy to travel to other countries in Europe from Rotterdam and I have already been to Belgium, Italy, and Germany and am going to London in a couple weeks.  Pretty much everyone in the Netherlands speaks English, which makes it very easy to get around.  The Dutch are also some of the nicest and friendliest people I have met.

I chose to take a minor while studying at RSM, which is 15 ECTS credits.  The minor I chose was Principles of Negotiation.  I only have class Tuesdays and Thursdays for 3 hours, which is very nice as it gives me time to travel to other cities in Europe.  There are only about 18 students in my class which is really nice, and there are three professors teaching during the trimester.  My grade for the class is based on a reflection journal of my experiences in class and a final paper on a negotiation topic of my choice.  So far I have not found my experiences in the classroom all that different from at Foster.

Going on exchange can definitely be overwhelming at times but I strongly recommend it to everyone.  I have had an amazing time so far, and it has been the best decision I have made while at UW.

My name is Emily, and I’m attending Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University in The Netherlands.   I’ve been here for almost a month now and have been having an amazing time.

The transition from home to living in Rotterdam proved quite easy thanks to wonderful introductory program the RSM organized for all the international exchange students.  At RSM there are students from over 80 countries all studying under the same roof.  The opportunity to interact with them has been the highlight of my experiences so far.  We all participated in a two day introductory program that was designed to get us to know each other quickly.  We spent almost a whole day in an acrobatic workshop (yes, acrobatic) and then spent the night in a youth hostel located in a nature reserve outside of Rotterdam.  We truly did get to know each other well and now have a great network of support.  There is always somewhere to go and someone to go with!

I’m taking a course called a “minor” which is basically one class worth several credits.  The course composition is fairly similar to classes at Foster.   My minor has two classes a week that are two hours and 45 minutes long.  We have a few small assignments, reading, a major paper and an exam.  While this is considered a full course load I’m finding that the amount of work is very manageable and I have plenty of time to travel.  There are very few student associations and extracurricular activities outside of sports.  If I could change one thing here, it would be to have more student associations.  I’ve discovered that as students at Foster we are very privileged to have so many opportunities outside of the classroom.

Life outside of the classroom has been just as pleasant.  I love travelling all over town by bicycle.  There are streets and traffic signals dedicated to bicycles, and it is so flat here cycling several kilometers isn’t a big deal.  If you love night life Rotterdam is definitely the place to be!  There are many places to go dancing and no matter what the day you can always find someone who is ready to dance the night away.  Clubs are open here much later.  Typical clubs are open until around 5 AM.  While clubs may stay open all night long I’ve found that every other business has much shorter hours.  Stores tend to open 11 AM and close around 6 or 7 PM.  It took some getting used to but now I plan my midnight snacks in advance.

The Netherlands is a wonderful place to be, not only for Holland itself, but also for its proximity to many other European destinations.  A few hours train ride will get you to Germany, Belgium, and France (to name just a few).  So far I’ve visited a few cities in Holland; Amsterdam, Den Haag, and Delft.  In the next three weeks I’m going to Germany and France!

Tot ziens!

I’m going to be honest with all of you, when I first decided to do the exchange, I spent most of my time worrying about where I wanted to travel to, whom I was going to visit, and how many places I could go in 12 short weeks. I even went as far as scheduling my classes (all of which meet weekly), on Monday and Tuesday, greatly freeing up my availability to roam from Fri-Sun to Wed-Sun.

So I started making lots of REALLY great plans. I was probably only in Rotterdam my first month there a handful of days. If you don’t recall, my living situation was a little different from the others on my program because I had decided to rent a room from a local Dutch girl going on exchange herself. Her roommate also went on exchange simultaneously, and the girl renting from her wouldn’t get to Rotterdam until February. But since I was essentially living alone, it was lots of guilt free traveling.

When my new roommate moved in (a Dutch girl who was doing an internship at a large hotel in Rotterdam), I helped her get settled in a little in exchange for some basic Dutch lessons.

At this point I should provide a brief background on some basic things The Netherlands. Education is heavily subsidized. Local students pay less than we do per quarter for the year, receiving a monthly housing/living stipend, and a transportation card that permits FREE public transportation travel (like the U-pass) on everything IN THE COUNTRY. That’s right. Buses, trams, metros, inter-city trains. FREE. (but MUCH better than the U-Pass). The only catch is that I can use it on weekdays only. On weekends, I get 40% off.

Being an exchange student makes me healthy contributor to the housing rental and transportation industries of Holland. My friends and I griped regularly. But boy, was my luck about to change… (more…)

An introduction of myself, eh? My name is Joey Hwong, and I’m currently a super senior at Foster, studying in Rotterdam, The Netherlands for winter quarter. It took quite a lot of effort to get me here, so I thought sharing this experience would be most interesting as a late introduction of myself.

After I received my acceptance letter in spring 2008, I promptly submitted all of the required documents, including the housing request form to stadswonen (the company that handles all student accommodations). I didn’t hear back until…probably late September or October, with notification that I hadn’t submitted “anything” at all. After a couple follow-up emails, I realized my only option was to resubmit. This late into the game, I was left with but one option over 7 km from school and in a “shadier area of town.” (My buddy’s words, not mine.) It was also quite pricey. After several more emails with stadswonen/Foster Exchanges/my parents/my buddy concerning the safety of this location, the practicality of going to school, it was decided that I would need them to find me alternative housing, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to go. In the meantime, throughout this discussion, instead of working with me to provide a solution, stadswonen contacted me and canceled their housing proposal because I had exceeded their 24 hours window for acceptance.

I spent a good week seeking all possible alternatives and finally found a girl on facebook who was studying abroad to Vancouver, BC for her winter trimester. Worked out well, it was 2/3 of the rent stadswonen wanted to charge and only 2 km from school. And she’s lent me her bicycle to use, which saves me a bit of money in transportation/bike acquisition costs.

Following, there was another fiasco involving the contract and deposit, since I was going on vacation, and so was she. I couldn’t wire money from my bank account in the States. But that’s less interesting, so I’ll skip those parts.

So, a week or two ago, there was a welcome dinner, and I spent the evening talking to a gentleman who was serving as the photographer for the evening. Turns out he’s part of the weekly magazine the university puts out and I’m not the only person whose had the worst experiences with stadswonen. I’ll be in a small segment (with photo) sometime next week in their magazine. The magazine is doing an expose on stadswonen and the fact the university outsources the housing to them.

At the moment, I’m currently enjoying my flat, conveniently located next to a grocery store, trams, metros, and the usage of my bicycle. It makes me feel less like I’m “studying abroad” here and more like I’m trying to immerse myself into the culture, which is nice.

That’s all for now.

So I just returned home last week from Rotterdam. It was hard to leave all the people that I’d meet while abroad, but once they started leaving to go home I started feeling ready to go. It made me realize that the people I met and the time I had with them, although for only a few months, were the best part of my time abroad.

I was also able to travel quite a bit after I was done with classes, which was the main reason I wanted to study in Europe. Everything is so close to each other that you can take a plane or train anywhere for a relatively cheap price. I traveled with a couple people I’d met in my exchange group the two weeks prior to coming home. We went to Edinburgh which was a really cool, old looking city with a castle right in the middle. Then on to Paris and London. We spent almost a week in London and still weren’t able to do everything that we wanted to. There are so many things to do and see. I would also recommend purchasing the London pass to anyone who is traveling to London next semester. It was about 50pounds, and it gets you admission into a lot of different things around London (Tower of London, London Bridge, Globe Theatre, Unlimited subway ticket, and lots more) we easily got our money’s worth. I think out of the places I went to and visited, London and Amsterdam were my favorite.

As far as Rotterdam, it started feeling like home after a while and was a great place to live. I think before I left I was wishing that maybe the program would be based in Amsterdam because it would be a better experience to live there, but in the end I’m glad I was in Rotterdam. There are still a lot of things to do there; it’s not as touristy and less crowded. Amsterdam is still only 50 minutes away, and it seemed like a lot of people still came down to Rotterdam for their bars and clubs.

These pictures are: view from my apartment room in Rotterdam, us outside of Notre Dame Cathedral, in front of the Arc de Triumph at night, and the campus at Erasmus University.

I would totally recommend some sort of study abroad program to anyone wanting a new experience, a change, and a challenge.

Just finished my last lecture at RSM which is nice because it’s probably only midterm week back home.  The classes here are pretty similar to those at Foster, since the lectures and readings are in English it doesn’t feel too different, but other things are.  The school has sponsored two huge parties for the business students where they’ve rented out a club and hired a bunch of DJ’s.  The European students go crazy over the popular DJ’s, they seem to be more popular than actors, sport stars, everybody.  There’s also a bar on the first level of the business school building in case you have a bad exam.  I’d be interested to talk to students from RSM who are on exchange at Foster to see what they thought was really different there compared to back home in Holland.

With classes almost being over I’m going to be doing a lot of traveling starting next week.  I’m leaving for Scotland on the 10th (I’ll have to try the Haggis after reading some of the other blogs) and London, Paris, Dublin, Berlin during the following weeks.  We’re trying to plan a trip to Italy as well, but time is going by pretty fast so I don’t know if we’ll be able to.  Being in Rotterdam is also nice because it’s only about an hour by train to Amsterdam (which is my favorite city I’ve been to so far).  Everyone studying abroad in Europe should visit if they haven’t already.

Between me and the 3 other US students (from Ohio State-they keep making fun of our football team) we are really enjoying Rotterdam and Erasmus Univ.   I feel it’s been a great experience so far, and I’ve made friends with a lot of people from all over the world and if nothing else I’ll have a place to stay in a lot of great cities when I come back!!!

Talk to everyone later!