We started off our day with a short walk to University Van Amsterdam business and main campus. A student named Thomas gave us a tour. At the university here, you take general classes for two years, and declare in your third year as well as graduating in three years which is shorter than in the US, but they do have a shorter summer break than the US. When entering the buildings, it reminded me of Pitt in the way that some were very modern while others were older and more historic. We then entered the parking garage for bikes which was insane to see how many bikes they really hold. This is very different from Pitt, which is a campus where not much biking goes on and looking at similarities to Pitt’s business school, you could tie in majors like law and economics to your business administration degree. It was also fascinating how our guide stated that none of the colleges in the Netherlands are competitive, so almost everyone gets in, which is not the case back in the US. One last fascinating yet odd fact Thomas left us with was that underneath the water in the canals is a layer of bikes because there are so many that fall in which is crazy to me! We then headed to their cafeteria, which I have to say was much nicer than the eatery.
Our last stop of the day was a canal cruise starting from central Amsterdam.We were able to plug in earbuds to learn about the history of what we were driving by such as why homes and buildings look the way they do and have evolved over time. We got to see many people enjoying their days, houseboats and others on the canal. It was really nice to be able to take in and explore all parts of central Amsterdam while relaxing on the water. With our time after, we walked around and checked out parts of Amsterdam that we have not seen before, to squeeze the most out of these last few days left.