Week 16 – Cultural

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