Delft

Having been in Europe for a few months now, I feel like I’m finally settled into the dutch way of life. The fist challenge was to find a bike, to be honest it was a lot harder than I imagined! My first taste of Delft was stepping off a train platform to be bombarded with hundreds if not thousands of bikes lining the station. Surely not all of them can have owners? We had to resist the temptation to find a neglected bike to call our own. Though hunting through the numerous bike shops around town it was possible to bargain for a little rust and clangy mud guard. The worse the bike-the better your chances of keeping it!

I was a little intimidated by the concept of studying architecture at one of the worlds top ranking schools (for both architecture and engineering). However the reality has been not so different from Australia. To my surprise there is a huge influx of Australians here! Randomly ended up living with 2, but also found it a little ironic to travel half way across the world to end up in a studio with 5 other Australians but hey! All new people with new insight.

The University is closed on weekends and they kick you out at 10pm weekdays (which for an architecture student is a difficult concept to deal with).Which means there is a whole lot of spare time compared to Australia! Subject choice has led me to a weeklong study in Germany (with Polish, Swedish, German and Belgium students) which was awesome for insight into how other universities and students work / live. It also gave us the opportunity to squeeze some travel in, opting for a road trip instead of direct flights. A few nights in berlin and Cologne eased the pressure of a workshop environment! Jumping at any opportunity to hit the road again, flights are already booked for the coming weeks. If you’re contemplating exchange don’t hesitate! At 2 months it is already one of the best things I’ve ever done!

-elke