Ooook, here go my impressions about Holland. After beiing here for about two months I have a lot of things to tell you about.
Well, the first one that amazed me was the biking experience! Holland is a true cycling country. Personally I haven’t used a bike for ten years, so it was quite fun to see how I was cycling the first two days. But now I cannot do anything without my iron friend. Sure, it was also a great source of pain in some parts of my body (I bet you know what I mean…), but after a while I got used to it, and now feel fine. It takes me about 20 minutes to get to the university, so it helps me to keep fit.
Another amazing fact was that Holland is a VERY liberal country. Plenty of things that are legally forbidden in most other countries, are permitted (or, should I say, tolerated) here – like soft drugs, prostitution, euthanasia, and so forth. Probably that’s why Dutch people are not addicted to drugs very much (contrary to my expectations J), ‘cause it’s not so interesting when it’s allowed, is it?
I also have to say some words about Tilburg. Well, it’s pretty nice and cozy here, and the city is very clean. Some people say it’s not the best place in Holland at all, and after visiting old cities like Utrecht, Breda, Rotterdam and so on, I understand what they are talking about. Well, yeah, Tilburg is only 200 years young (or somewhere around that, I don’t remember exactly) and it is composed of several former villages which now form city districts. It is pretty much an industrial city (textile industry), but still I like it. There are several really beautiful buildings in the centre (mostly cathedrals and churches), and I must say that I feel at home in Tilburg. Sometimes it seems to me that I’ve been living here for at least several years, so familiar it has turned out! To be honest, there is one thing I don’t like here, the weather. Sometimes it’s wonderful, but sometimes, when I’m riding my bike and it’s raining and the wind is so strong that I don’t know how I can keep moving – well, on occasions like this I think that Tilburg is not so nice as it seems… But anyway, I like it, and this is true.
Since I came here to study (or at least I’m supposed to…), I should say a couple of words about the university. It’s really awesome, I guess it’s one of the top universities of the world. I’ve got five courses, and I like them all, especially two of them: Introduction to Dutch Law (I couldn’t imagine that Dutch law is so sophisticated, but transparent and pragmatic at the same time!) and my English course (‘cause I never feel bored there, and it is a very good opportunity to improve my language skills). One thing that appeared a little bit complicated to me at first is that everything here goes through the Internet. You register for your courses, find the literature you need and assignments to be done, check your schedule via the Internet facilities like Blackboard CourseInfo and Electronic Study Guide. But now I think that it’s very convenient and useful to have all the stuff I need on the Internet. The library is really, really good, there are about several hundred (!!!) PCs there with access to the Internet. European society is truly a digital society living somewhere between Internet and real world. Another good thing is that all the university buildings are close to each other, so it doesn’t take a long time to get from one to another.
I must confess that since there are about three or four hundred international students in Tilburg, I probably communicate mostly with people from all over the world and there is not much time to get to know Dutch culture and Dutch people. But as I’ve noticed, they are very friendly, polite and VERY punctual (which is good because I am too, or at least it seems to me that I am…). I live in an appartment with three girls (lucky me!) – from France, Spain and the Czech Republic, so it’s really an international community. I learned a few phrases in different languages, tasted some unfamiliar food (which I liked), and definitely got a whole bunch of new friends. Well, of course, I’m kind of tired to convince people that Russians don’t drink vodka every day (at least I don’t) and that there no wolves and bears in Siberian cities! But all this is fun, so I like it! One side of living in Tilburg is studying, but the other is partying, that’s for sure!
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