Rotterdam Exchange

Baxter Atkins (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)

It’s been several months here in Rotterdam and I am loving just about everything there is. The Dutch people seem to have life figured out and pretty great, from the canals to the clogs to the endless cheese shops it’s everything I could have asked for. Especially now as the weather improves and Europe is really beginning to shine, the baby ducks swim on the campus pond, students relax in the heat and I am finding it all the more impossible to study with the country beckoning me to explore it. What can I say, you can never see too many windmills or eat too much pickled fish – the Netherlands is the most quintessentially European place and truly my second home

The photo above is from one of my many day trips to nearby areas, this one in the small Belgium town of Bruges, which is a fairytale town by any definition, with swans in the lake, bell towers, cobble stone streets with horses and carriages, it is exactly how you would imagine Europe and definitely one of the more beautiful places I have been.

Living on campus has definitely been amazing, living with so many fantastic peoples all from different countries is definitely a once in a life time cultural experience. I live with a couple of Norwegians, with Canadians, Americans, and French and Italian neighbors. It’s all so much fun. Furthermore the classes over here have been inspiring and very different to what I am used to at UTS, getting the global perspective is fascinating and seeing how different (and more difficult) other universities can be is an academic experience like no other.

And it would be remiss not to mention the travel aspect, which is a key part of any exchange especially those in Europe with such fascinating countries across every border. I’ve made some progress and look forward to seeing much more when my exchange finishes. Forever grateful to UTS and the good people at study abroad who have enabled this and cannot believe how much fun i am having.

EDIT: 19:40pm 17/5/16

BAXTER ATKINS 11987649 FASS