dutch home.

Hello all!

Last week, we had our first real experience with some real dutch locals. Even before arriving, Cake, who's this girl who was in Maastricht the semester before passed our email addresses to this dutch local guy by the name of Cyrill and he's been emailing us about our details of arrival all the way til our first meeting. The email conversations were going pretty smoothly and regularly like how i would a friend or maybe a penpal for this context, until our friend Cyrill revealed that he was close to 50 years old and enjoyed taking exchange students out for a tour and especially mainly asians. This was a total shocker for both of us as we also recently caught the movie "Hostel 2 " at Ian Kwok's place and that showed reminded us how foreign european hostels can be really interesting with the sale of body parts or sadistic tortures going on these days. So i tried to be non-offending when i questioned Cake about this flying dutchman and she re-assured me that Cyrill was really genuine and sincere about meeting us! we went in the end, so much for our parents warning us since young about 'don't anyhow go strangers house ah!' hahaha

Cyrill agreed to pick up at 7pm at our hostel gate and make a 7-minutes (Dutch are incredible precise with timings, 'like 15.5seconds later turn right ..etc') ride to his home and kid you not, its like a couple of minutes away from the border of Belgium! (This is the beauty of Maastricht, its probably the only fascinating thing about this boring student town, its at the borders with Belgium and Germany). Indeed, at like 7.02pm, he arrived and he even apologised for the 2 minute delay which was really polite of him, cause 2 minutes is nothing to me back home in singapore i normally average a waiting-time of 15-20 minutes?. And so we finally saw him, the man whom others described as dodgy dutch man by our fellow sg counterparts back in the hostel when we told them about our plans. He was 1.9m? typical of a Dutch and he is really infact nice and he drove us to his home! where his half deaf mother, 'Gery' was waiting and she is a pleasant old lady. Below are some pictures of that night where we were served a typical dutch cake which tastes exactly like my apple strudel pie back home and some really authentic dutch tea. Before that we had coffee, and did i mention that i do not know how to mix coffee? shit man its embarrassing, i was taking my ques from like Cyrill about how much sugar and milk to add into the coffee to get the standard taste. It was going alright with the coffee mixing under i realized theres no standard taste with the coffee as later Gery told everyone, 'excuse Cyrill and his excessive sugar intake' and there i was pouring my 4th bag of sugar into my coffee. I learnt.

But besides talking about asian cultures meet dutch blah blah blah i was taught how to roll a manual cigarette! Thohir admitted to me that he was secretly waiting to find a moment to smoke as he was dying for a smoke and was worried he would give a bad impressive but when Cyrill tossed over an ashtray, tell you the 2 just hit off like some old chimneys or something. And you thought that was it, there suddenly old lil Gery pulls out her dainty lady cigars and she was commenting on some random nicotine thingie in her cigs under her gibberish tone. The next thing i know, both the 2 dutch were teaching me how to fold cigarettes like similar to those budget smokers back home who try to fold some filter paper around some wood shavings like kinda content and most of the time, the sticks folded looks really budget with the shavings coming off. Don't worry i didnt smoke, i think i dont like the feeling of having hot random smelly air down my throat, respect to those who can do it.

Yes, the night ended when i requested to see their garden, and when the dutch people talk about their back yard gardens, we not talking about your 5m by 5m gardens in sg, the gardens in maastricht are akin to what we call farm. At the back of his house, he had like plot of land pretty huge which the Cyrill used to grow all sorts of shit from rosemary to etc i cant rem the names but chian was have the time of her life out there, picking plants out of the grown and smelling them like one ratatouiie and then amazingly identifying them correctly! amazing.

By then the time had stretched to around 10.30pm and it was time for Cyrill to send us back but before that he had one last surprise for us and it was to show us this really random road with house on both sides of it and he said, this road is the border between holland and belgium. So there we were in the car being 5 seconds in holland the next 5 seconds in belgium, Cyrill was having fun steering the car left and right into belgium and then back to holland while everyone was getting car-sickness. joking. but you get the point.

Well, hope you enjoyed this post about some really genuine, sincere, warm dutch hospitality101, really wished most of you would be able to experience this one day. Anyway its 2.09am now and we gotta wake up at around 5.30am to go to Brugge tomorrow. Til then, enjoy and have a fruitful one.

Poh

the man himself

Hail and Cyril best buddies

Gery - The unconventional grandma

Chian and Cyril enthusiastically sharing recipes!

lee indulging in a cup of Maastricht tea

listening attentively to Cyril giving us more insights into the dutch culture. lee said it felt like intercultural comms LIVE!

We're gonna build a snowman

HAVE YOU HEARD?

it snowed in Maastricht 2 nights ago (3rd March 08) at about 2am!!

The weather here is still a bit fickle. On one hand, we see the half-shy half-sleepy flowers starting to bloom and spouts of the sun's warm rays as a herald of spring. On the other we get harsh winds and now, snow?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I am absolutely thrilled at the idea of experiencing the 4 seasons. One of my pet peeves about Singapore is the summer all year round phenomenon :(

I'm just well, confused by Mother Nature's mood swings.

But anyways, here are some photos Poh took just outside the Guesthouse while I was all snuggled up in my cosy little bed. Now, I'm trying my best to vicariously blog about the experience. Enjoy!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

dreaming of a white christmas

News about the snow spread like wildfire as everyone rushed out for a kodak moment!

People excitedly ran outta their rooms in their pyjamas, or lackthereof (what the)

I hope we'll see snow at least 2 more times!

we are here to partaye - poh & lee

Hello all,

poh: its been a while since i posted and so i decided to leave an update of how's things been here in maastricht. Its 4.37am on a wednesday, tuesday is the night when all the partying happens over here. We just got back from a club called "De alla" (sounds religious but hell no) and it seems to be the only happening place over here past midnight.

lee: In fact, partying today was a totally spontaneous move! After watching Stepup2 at the Minerva cinema, we just couldn't control our desire to regurgitate & unleash the street style dance moves we just learnt (the hidden dance potential in all of us). One thing we forgot to keep in mind was the attire. We wore our dowdy winter clothes to club! Super unglamorous Singaporeans in long-sleeve shirts, thick sweaters and stuffy turtle necks, in stark contrast to our European counterparts dressed to impress in their red killer stilettos, tube tops and mini skirts! Oh, and to add to the nerd factor, we CYCLED to the club. Its the norm here but imagine, cycling to Zouk, ahem.

poh: The people here also follow a similar routine b4 clubbing like back home when most people have "pre-game" sessions either at a pub or at someone's house in Shelford or something and then after everyone's boozed up and high they head to the club over here! Well, i have noticed here that most head to the most famous pub here called the "Highlander" where everyone drinks til 2 that is when it closes, and then make their way to alla. That was what happened here for us. I was with cheryl, cirong, hail, sherman, snoop-dong and also regis! Here are some photos from the night.

lee: clubbing here is INSANE. firstly, Maastricht is a really small town with a population of 120,000 people and about 10% are students mostly from the only University in Maastricht which is our school. So every few steps you are like 'ehhh hiiiiiii!!!', to a classmate mainly or a friend of a friend (and here you'll definitely know a person is in yr class because there are only 12-14 people in a class, pretty close knitted company). Its not like SMU where someone can be in your class for one whole semester and you won't even notice. secondly, tuesday is dubbed international night where the exchange students come out of their studying holes and party, I guess the workload that most students experience here are unheard of in their home universities so everyone just really lets their hair down and parties hard! thirdly, everyone is kissing everyone. after every say 3-5 dance moves, there'll be crazy kissing. Insane! Oh lam and jh, if you're wondering there is a variety of dancing here, front to front, back to front (in Virginia) BOTH also have.

Stepup3? okay..shuts!

The crew with the testosterones

At the highlander

Pierre, Poh, Chloe, Lee

Poh's classmate - Jamie who works at the highlander!

Ron, my Canadian classmate/project mate. We just finished an awesomeness presentation today!

Share the love: Chloe 's other exchange buddy - Carina from Sweden

Poh effortlessly (i hope) tompang'ing me on Lucy to the De Alla because Sherman's bike broke down. Sherman you owe us one! haha

De Alla the only happening club in Maastricht, if not the only

Say cheese: a picture with my classmate Lucia from Peru

Rockin on with Martha my classmate from Mexico (meh-hee-ko)

Pohsters, snoop_dong, Shermanator

Everything works around our schedule now

Till next tuesday! :)

hallelujah!

Because of the insane workload this week, it was the first time since I arrived that I didn't utilize the weekend for my travel escapades. On saturday around 3.30pm, I spontaneously said "Poh lets attend the 5pm mass" and to my surprise he agreed. If we missed this slot, it meant we had to wait one whole week for the next one as there is only one time slot in the WHOLE of Maastricht for Catholic masses held in English. The rest are celebrated in Dutch.

The congregation of purely English speaking people in Maastricht was truly a small community. We entered the Church, only to find that mass was conducted in a crypt (smaller room in the basement, akin to an underground vault). It was still very cosy nonetheless with small lamps and candles proving a warm dim lighting (had to squint at the prayer booklet). Due to the space constraints, the priest was accompanied by only 1 super teeny weeny alter boy as opposed to 12 alter boys in Singapore. I feel that the atmosphere here is so much better than in Singapore. Its quiet and really a place of solace. Perhaps the old cathedral style ambience contributed to it.

We prayed fervently for our family and friends back home, for new friends made here, for our new lives here in Maastricht, for safety, for unwavering faith in God despite being in a foreign land where its all about partying and travelling.

Most of all, Poh and I prayed for us.

Face it: Living together with someone for a long period of time, there's bound to be conflicts.

The past week the both of us have been at loggerheads about almost everything. Thank goodness we have resolved our differences and alls good for now. haha

Onze Lieve Vrouwe - Church of Our Lady

Oh guess what! The website mentioned a free tour of the Church of Our Lady is possible for those who study in Maastricht.

"Contact the student-chaplain pastor@maastricht.studentpastoraat.nl for an appointment".

Sweet.

We might do just that.

School Daze

It dawned on me while I was doing my readings that I haven't really mentioned much about the school on the blog, so just to reassure my parents that I'm REALLY on an exchange and not squandering their money on some extravagant holiday - Dad, Mum, here's a post on the school.

Universiteit of Maastricht - Faculty of Economics & Business Administration

Registration booth during orientation

My Orientation Group: From Top Left: Rachel (Singapore), Ci Rong (Singapore), Carrie (Hong Kong), Me (Singapore), Carlos (Hong Kong), Wilson (Hong Kong). From Bottom Left: France, An Thu (Canada), OGL (Netherlands), Nikzad (USA), Sandra (Sweden)

The school to me is a blend of our very own SMU & Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry. Its SMU'ish mainly because of its strategic city centre location, high ayo-technology networks,

Interior of school

and it simultaneously jolts back memories of Hogwarts because of its grey brickalicious, cobblestoned, fortress-like exterior. Think Ikea's modern minimalistic interior and a Hogwarts exterior! Minus the moving staircases and changing passageways of course. erm hurhur okay shuts.

See, the combination of bricks and glass!

So, we definitely got cold feet after hearing all the horror stories from both SMU students who did their exchange at Universiteit Maastricht, SMU students who heard stories from friend of a friend who did their exchange at UM, UM students who did their exchange at SMU...blah blah blah. The common consensus - It won't be a breeze at UM, this was evident when some UM exchange student who did his exchange at SMU told me, and I quote him, "Well, from my point of view tis more stressfull then SMU, but you can really learn a lot." (Seriously, to be honest, learning alot was one of the last things on my mind when I was there for an exchange!) Now I'm in my 3rd week of school, I can safely say that it is indeed true that UM's workload is about SMUx(100000), the amount of readings they do here is INSANE! For example, even during our weekend trips to Amsterdam, whatever quiet opportunity we got on the train to and fro all of us will expeditiously and diligently whip up our notes (however you'll see our heads having a life of its own - swinging 360degrees after sometime..zZz) and try to absorb. In terms of competitiveness and coping with pressure, I think its comparable to SMU.

Let me lay out the similarities/differences so you can get a clearer picture.

Academic Calendar: Here at UM, the semester commences from Feb-Jun with 2 blocks, 7 weeks per block. Each block, we can take up to a maximum to 2 subjects and have an exam 7 weeks later (equivalent to 14 lessons). Then there's about a 10 day break before the next block starts with a different 2 modules. So here, its less modules per block but the downside is a very rushed academic schedule.

Class size: At SMU its like 35-40 people in a class. At UM its 12-14 people in a class. Imagine if you don't read your literature, don't participate and simply be a mouse. Its obvious as daylight I tell you. Quoting Ian Kwoksish when I told him about the system, he said in jest, "Oh I see, so its 80% class participation, 20% final exams!?" Haha

Self-study: At SMU (well for me at least), its goes like this
1) attend class
2) learn things/participate
3) do homework and hand up
4) repeat process #1-#3
5) 2 weeks before exam study like one mad dog86.

At UM, it goes like this (for everyone):

1) read the relevant chapters and literature assigned before class
(UM recommends allocating 8 hours aside for each module per week)

...and because UM strongly believes in the PBL (Problem Based Learning) system
which is rather intriguing I might say...

2) for the whole 2 hours of class, the tutor will skip the teaching and ZOOM into whatever problem you encountered in the readings. So, its more of analyzing and doing post-evaluation of literature rather than it being the first time you are looking at this material in front of you. The tutor will post questions about the readings where you will have to take this opportunity to prove that you indeed read the articles! Its usually a heated discussion with all the 'I beg to differ' and 'To add on to what he/she said...' so you really have to keep the Guides motto "Be Prepared" at bay and don't even think of being a mouse!

3) Assign readings for the next lesson and repeat steps 1+2

Gui face with the tons of readings!

Presentations: Here at UM, there are 14 lessons per block and about 14 people in a class which means - EVERYONE gets a chance to present! There are some classes which still believe in group projects, but the norm would be individual presentations where you would have to play the role of the teacher and tutor the class in depth about the respective chapter you were assigned to. Attire here for presentations are casual-every-other-day clothes and if you dress to impress for presentations like at SMU you'll cause an unnecessary commotion.

Class composition: Because the modules that were available to us were mainly the courses conducted in English, we have a good mix of regular and exchange students. Its interesting to gain different international perspectives from this experience and also to contribute Singaporean perspectives. So to all those who lied during the first meeting that they knew where Singapore was and what our little island is all about, now you Really know! The classes for me are very 'Oh, I didn't know that, coooool!' About the tutor, its very different from Singapore. Back home, the Professor is revered more I feel because basically he/she teaches us through powerpoint slides etc, and we are confident beyond a shadow of doubt that he/she knows her stuff (note: knowing your stuff and knowing how to teach is a different issue altogether). At times, the learning system here gets so individual with you presenting the chapter and you learning everything beforehand, with your classmates involved in the problem based learning and the tutor as a mere facilitator, you can't blame your mind for straying and thinking 'What is this person doing here in the first place?'

But Poh and I are staying positive like we always do :) Its all about proper time management I guess.

On the first day we got our printer, even before school started, I printed out little motivational quotes for us as the test print. His was a simple:

and on my magnetic board I had:

Bloody Singaporean nerds, mmm hmmm I know!

Now, please take a moment to wish us both all the best because we've decided not to let UM scare the daylights outta us. The word 'fail' is in neither of our dictionaries. Only words like 'Pass', 'Travel', 'Explore', 'Fun', 'Enjoy our exchange experience', 'The time of our life!' exist.

ams ams AMSTERDAM!!

We're off to Amsterdam the city of vice for the weekend so to all fans of our blog, we'll be back tomorrow night with stories to tell! so...Watch this space! :)

Today's trip to Amsterdam will be my 2nd. In fact, I was there just last week with Hail & Violeta (our nice Bulgarian friend) where we planned to meet Cherylicious Tansters and her friends Gerald and Kee Yeh there. It was indeed good company for the 2 days we were there! :)

To prevent backlog of pictures and Tansters from nagging me, here are some shots from my 1st Amsterdam trip last week! Enjoy!

Crossing the River Maas with my barang to get to the Centraal Station

Amsterdam is a 2.5 hour train ride away from Maastricht

Our hostel for the 2 nights, it was rather dodge so I slept in my trenchcoat on the bed heh

Dinner at some awesome Italian restaurant Hail recommended

Sweet Violeta and I

Look who I found!! My favourite Tansish!! xoxo

Cheryl's super amused at the Small Talk Cafe behind! haha

We're suckers for giant clogs!

6 of us all enthused at the Rijksmuseum

6 of us at the Van Gogh Museum


ps: not all pictures are appropriate to put on the blog so I'll send you all by email k! :)

Leaving for Amsterdam again now with excited Poh! See you soon!

we heart KORTINGS (discounts)!

My partner in crime has been spotted!

too bad we didn't bring our cameras out today!




*WARNING: this is gonna be a bims entry. bims level 7/10*

While queuing to pay up, it just randomly came to my mind that everyone has different shopping habits, and to find a good shopping partner is like finding a perfect heart donor (okay gees morbid, i know) . Some fall into the look-see look-see category, some are into the i-only-buy-branded (Pdubs), some are the i-hate-sieving-through-crazy-piles (organized_lil_lamsters), some cannot tahan and get tired and moody after half an hour- 45mins (exhausted_lex)...

Cirong, one of the other Singaporeans (from NUS) and I, have a similar shopping philosophy. We believe in always getting the best deals (for now at least) especially when we know we'll be here for a long 4 months and we're aware there we'll regret it big time when we see whatever regular priced item we buy now, sold at the spring/summer sale at 70% off just before we leave. So now its just digging and digging and digging! Haha we call ourselves the meticulous diggers with an eye for the little red banner! We had a wonderful insightful lunch and then shopped for a good 4 hours continuously and got SUPER dehydrated. So on the way back the two of us furiously gulped down 1.5 litre worth of water!! The girl can really shop!

To date some of my best shopping buddies would have to be Lamsters, Michaela, Kams, Poh (sometimes), Steph and hello Rong new found buddy!

After all thats said and done, my BEST shopping kaki would still have to be my everdearest Mum. She's truly the #1 shopaholic! My mother can shop anytime of the day, anywhere. Forget that its dirty, forget that its dangerous, forget that we're inconveniencing people (Dad and Brandon), forget that we're running late, forget that people are angry with us (Dad and Brandon), forget our Majesty of The Seas cruise ship is going to sail off leaving us both stranded on some random Caribbean island, forget that we need to pee, forget we have missed breakfast, lunch and now dinner. Mum, think shopping Every chance we got, trading shawls with money in plastic bags over the River Nile, shopping at dodgy Shenzhen till 8pm even though we were warned it was dangerous at nightfall , shopping at airport transits like nobody's business etc etc.

And I, I guess I'm just a chip of the old block :p heh thanks mum for everything. Love!