Album of the Day: U – Underscores
              Today we made the long bus journey from Amsterdam to Enschede, which was around 100 miles by bus (sadly no train this time). Once we got to Enschede, we got a tour of the University of Twente. The university is very widespread and filled with nature. Compared to a lot of schools here in the Netherlands, it’s designed more similarly to the big universities back home in the US, although it has a few major differences. Firstly, the campus is littered with amazing bike infrastructure, allowing students to traverse the campus on a bike faster than even taking the bus. Second, the housing system is completely different, favoring this sort of large house living community where anywhere from 10 – 15 people live in rooms connected to a living room and shared kitchen, as opposed to dorms with roommates and no kitchen or living room. Finally, the Dutch education system favors getting a masters and spending anywhere from 5 to 8 years in college to finish a higher-level degree. Overall, the University of Twente gave us a very cool insight into the Dutch higher education system (and made me incredibly jealous).

              Near the university, we got to visit Kristalbad, a natural water reserve that adds a second level of water filtration after the sewage removal plants upstream. This water reserve is incredibly useful for the area as it serves as flood and drought protection. Due to the Netherlands being completely under sea level, having flood protection is essential for the survival of the towns. Climate change has also made flooding far more common, increasing the need for areas like Kristalbad. Overall, this system of using nature to the towns advantage proves incredibly useful and helps develop the Netherlands in a more sustainable way.