Wednesday, May 17th

What a sunny day in Amsterdam! Today was a pretty chill day, but so much fun. We began the morning off by walking to the University of Amsterdam. The campus is pretty centrally located and really easy to navigate. The University is known for their business school, so many of the students come here to study business. I’ve noticed that the schools here have pretty much all of the same opportunities and resources as schools in America. It’s crazy to think that they pay so much less than we do at home for school. The university is very attractive to international students because every class is offered in English and everyone here speaks it as well. This gives the school and the Netherlands a competitive advantage over other countries just because of how easy it is to get around without knowing any Dutch. Outside companies also will start business/ do business in the Netherlands just because it is so easy to communicate and makes business abroad a lot easier. One downside to this is that there are an abundance of people coming to study with little to no room for them. The Netherlands already have a housing crisis, so when international students come they are often left with no place to live. I also found the process of finding a job after school quite interesting. When applying for a job European residents have priority and then others. Companies are required to offer a job to a local first and if they can’t find one they can hire an international person. We then had a really delicious meal in their cafeteria which had a variety of options. I really enjoyed this visit and look forward to a time when I study abroad at a school like this! 

After our tour of the university we headed back to central station where we got on a canal cruise. This is something I really wanted to do because I’ve seen so many around in the canals and they looked a lot of fun. We learned a lot about the history of the city and some great things to do. Ever since the housing crisis in Amsterdam began after WWII houseboats became very popular. These houses are fully functional and a great alternative. I think that I would thrive living in a house boat if I ever lived here! Overall, today was a great day I’m the city, but now I’m starting to get sad about heading home soon. I will miss everyone so much.