After many long hours of travel today we finally arrived in Amsterdam. The first things that I have noticed about the city and the culture itself is how transportation is completely different. Amsterdam essentially runs on bikes and trains to get people from place to place. Half if not more of the streets of downtown and the majority of the city is reserved for bikers and trains. This is completely different to many of the places in the US that I am accustomed to that rely on cars and other automobiles to get people from place to place. Another immediate observation upon arriving in the country is the vast number of cultures that have influence in the city. Just from observing the many different restaurant cuisines and languages spoken in Amsterdam it is clear that it is an extremely diverse culture. Although there is a vast amount of culture that I have seen so far, I have noticed how much English is a part of the city. Many shops and businesses are either originally American or have resemblance to American culture. Throughout the city many of the signs and markings are in English and English only. Ultimately this shows the extreme diversity of the country.

As far as the activities planned in the coming days and weeks, I am extremely excited to begin and experience all the program has to offer. I am specifically interested to see the difference between the field of engineering here in the Netherlands and Amsterdam to the United States. With the company visits and professional activities in the coming days I will be able discover those similarities and differences in the business and engineering fields. I am also excited to learn and experience more of the Netherland’s culture. From just being here in the first few hours of the trip I have already seen and learned so much about society here in the Netherlands. Tomorrow especially I am looking forward to the engineering talk in the morning and discovering more about the history of this city and country while touring the Anne Frank house later in the day. All in all, I feel very much excited to begin my time here in the Netherlands.