Good morninggg. I actually woke up about an hour earlier than I was planning to today. So, it gave me the perfect opportunity to find the nearest apothecary to buy some ibuprofen. It worked out very well actually and I got a latte on my way back.
Then we made the short walk to the Universiteit van Amsterdam’s campus. We got a tour of their campus with an emphasis on their business program. It was incredible to see the sheer amount of bike parking they have for their students. I think it’s also interesting to hear how no students live on campus. The city and the university make sure that the campus in the city is solely for school related things and then living situations are on the outskirts of the city. So this university has 4 campuses throughout the city and the one we visited has the business, law, and psych school buildings.
It seems that their classes start in September and then run all the way into July. (not accounting for various breaks) This is a very long school year with a pretty short summer. Their tuition is also only about 2,000 euros but this also does not include housing or food. For an international student, tuition is about 20,000 euros. It was also interesting to see how they had a lot of study spaces because most student apartments don’t have enough space for studying.
We also ate lunch at their dining hall. Yet again, I got a solid meal (pesto pasta) for only 6 and a half euros. We then got some free time to walk around where we went to get bubble tea from a nearby restaurant.
After our break, we headed to our canal cruise. Boat ride 4/4. They also provided earbuds to listen to a dialogue on our cruise. The cruise was very relaxing because I could just sit down with my head out the window in the breeze. I was able to just look around and enjoy the scenery while listening to the dialogue. For example, I learned that dutch buildings have taller windows on the bottom and smaller windows on the top because it creates an optical illusion. The windows make the buildings look much bigger and taller than they actually are.
After the cruise, a group of us started walking around to shop for souvenirs. We eventually made our way to the flea market that we passed on our cruise. It was very similar to the one we saw on Sunday just a little bit smaller. I also showed restraint and did not make any additional purchases.
All in all this day was relatively lowkey and I look forward to tomorrow to make the most of our last day in Amsterdam. Almost done <3