This week I mainly focused on trying to complete my
assignment for our Dutch culture and society module. For this assignment we have to find 15
pictures of things that we ourselves would consider typically Dutch after living
here for 4 months. Once we have our
pictures we then have to provide an explanation of 200-300 words on why we have
chosen this picture and our own personal story as to why we think it is
typically Dutch. It the beginning it was
hard to think of things that I would consider typically Dutch without becoming
too stereotypical. In reality when I first
sat down to complete the work I immediately thought of windmills and
clogs. However after thinking about my
first experiences in Nijmegen and comparing them to my daily routine now I was
able to come up with a mixture of individual pictures to write about. This assignment really got me thinking about
how stereotypes can make you think you know a country but in actual fact you
don’t know a country until you have lived in it or visited it. It also got me thinking of the stereotypes
that people may have of me and my country and if I have lived up to any of
these stereotypes during my time on Erasmus.
One of the items that I choose to write about when I was
completing my work was rose beer. I
choose this as one of my pictures as I had never seen rose beer before until coming
to Nijmegen. To me beer was always this disgusting drink that I never liked
which caused quite a problem when I came over here as everyone drank beer and I
mean everyone. The problem arose when we
would be out for drinks with our Erasmus group and everyone would be buying
each other beer and because I didn’t want to be rude and say I didn’t like it I
would just have to sit there and slowly sip away at my horrible drink. This all changed when one of my friends here
introduced me to rose beer. Ever since
that day if I go out I will order a glass of rose beer and have a drink that I enjoy. Rose beer will now always remind me of the amazing
times with my friends in Nijmegen and that is why I consider it typically
Dutch.
The different flags at the European Parliament |
After spending all week working on my assignment I had a day
off when we went to visit the European Parliament in Brussels. This was a brilliant experience and one that I
thought I never would have had the opportunity to do. From role play games to visiting a museum I learnt
a lot about the European parliament and even got to test out my skills as a
politician during a role pay exercise.
As I worked hard all week I was ready for the weekend and
for celebrating my flatmate Fabio’s birthday party. He had decided on a beach theme so we all
dressed up in our summer clothes and threw him a party that he would never
forget. It was a great end to a week
full of work and a night definitely to remember.
At Fabio's birthday party |