Today we had an organized free day and went to a huge vintage market that happens once a month called IJ-Hallen. The market was absolutely massive and there was anything you could possibly want or need available. There I picked up some jewelry and a purse that I definitely did not need. This little market does a great job of working towards a circular economy and sustainability. This is because most of the stuff is second hand meaning nothing is being produced. This lowers the amount of waste as well because we aren’t throwing away things we don’t want anymore, instead we are giving these things a new home to be enjoyed by someone else. Everybody wins, the seller makes money, the buyer fulfills a need or a want, and the planet experiences no harm.
Our next activity of the day was a happy hour with the alumni network. This was really nice because we got the opportunity to speak to Pitt graduates about what they do and why they chose to move abroad. One of the alumni I talked to named Christina was a chemistry major but ended up working as a global marketing director at her company. This goes to show that with any major you can end up in something that you do not expect completely. Another alum named Kira talked to me a lot about the culture shock of moving to Europe after living in America your whole life. Some of the biggest things she mentioned was the work life balance, the directness, and the language barrier (or lack thereof). In Europe people automatically get 21 days off and they don’t expect you to work outside of your scheduled time. This is a major draw for me and makes me want to consider living and working abroad. One of the craziest things she mentioned was how well the Dutch speak English and although sometimes you have to be patient to understand exactly what someone is saying, they can usually get it out. This is good because you know you can always communicate with someone but it’s not so great when you are wanting to submerge yourself in the culture and people automatically switch to english for you.
