Travel Report

For at gøre sig fortjent til sit Erasmus-legat, skal man indsende en rejserapport som andre håbefulde udvekslingsstuderende så kan få information fra.. Den er hermed lavet.. Tog satme 3 timer og har som sædvanligt sikkert skrevet alt for meget, men jaja, wtf.. Enjoy!

Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Cecilie Bruhn Rasmussen
+45 40 89 71 83
cera06ab@student.cbs.dk / cidsel@hotmail.com
August 2008 – January 2009
Bsc in Business Administration and Commercial Law, 5th semester
________________________________________
1. Application
I have always been considering going abroad, so when it come out that we were recommended to go abroad on the 5th semester, I didn’t hesitate. My essential reasons was to get my English improved, or just used – and to get the experience of going abroad and the process it takes and then of course all the different cultures you get to know from the other international students.
I first of all started of taking the TOEFL-test and as that is quite a lot of money it seemed silly not to use it afterwards.

2. Preparation phase
It sounds very cliché but start of in good time… As soon as I got my TOEFL result I more or less sat up a camp on the International Office and started looking through the different folders. You don’t get much help, as the employees mostly know about the possibilities from the students who’ve already been there, so they just tell you to get inspiration from the travel reports.
To start off with I wanted to go somewhere different, where no one from my degree programme had been before, but I simply gave up, because it was so difficult and no help was possible…
I ended up choosing Radboud University because not that many had been there before, and because I wanted to go somewhere different. To begin with I was very ‘hooked’ on going to London or somewhere else in the UK, but a friend of mine said that to him that sounded a bit silly, because “chances are that you’ll go to UK anyway, so pick somewhere where you’re never going to end up anyway.” – And that way, I ended up in Nijmegen.
When it comes to choosing subjects be aware of the difference between Bachelor and Master courses. I ended up choosing a lot of Master courses which I couldn’t be enrolled at, because I do not have my bachelor yet. That messed up my learning agreement a lot, and thereby my pre-approval. So be aware.

3. Arrival at the host university
I managed to miss the most of the introduction week, but according to the others it had been great and something you did not wanted to miss (and according to the pictures and videos it DID look great!). Before the introduction week there’d also been a language course, I obviously missed that too and I must admit that I didn’t hear anything about it being great or bad. I tried to find a language course during the semester, but the courses that I found was about 300€, so I decided to skip it.
Changing and choosing new subjects is very easy and the international offices are very nice and helpful.
The library and computer facilities are very good. Your student card is used to borrow the books, as soon as you activate it at the main library, and your student number is used to log on to the computers. To print and copy you need a “chip-knip” which you can get at your Dutch bank (if you choose to get a Dutch bank account) otherwise you can by the card at an information desk. The people at the law library were very helpful so don’t hesitate to ask for help. The library also arranges a “guided tour” in the library where you get to know the book system, how to copy and so on – go there!
As we on CBS have “e-campus” and “SiteScape”, Radboud has “KISS”/”TIS” and “Blackboard”. Make sure you get to know these sites and get access as quick as possible, as the information here is quite crucial!
When it comes to purchasing books I didn’t buy a single book at the campus book store. You had to wait weeks for the book and it was both faster and cheaper to buy the books online, as far as I found out. Besides that, you have to buy readers, which is a slow and stupid process. You have to order the reader online (IF you have the right bank card, otherwise you have to order, print out your order, go to the office and pay), wait for an email to arrive telling you that the reader is ready, print out the email as a receipt, go to the office and get your reader. And again this takes about one week, sometimes more.

4. Subject description
a. Comparative Constitutional Law (7 ECTS) – 4CMPCONL
This is the class where almost all the nationalities come together. You need to know your own constitution, but it is possible to just go along. The professor, Prof. Kortmann, is now retired, so I do not know whether the course will continue in the same way.
We used the book, “Courts and Political Insitutions” which was about 20€ and then we were divided in groups who presented the chapters you were suppose to have read. That resulted in very different lectures and depended on that people had read and participated.
The exam was like a nice small talk with the professor at his office. We talked about Denmark and our constitution and then compared it a bit to other constitutions.
There’s a book (“Constitutional Law of 15 EU Member States”) at the library with all the constitutions, where I copied the Danish constitution to know what I was suppose to know (Professor Kortmann, was co-writer on the book).

b. International & Comparative Copyright Law (7 ECTS) – 4INCOPYL
Professor Dr. Antoon Quaedvlieg is a very happy and smiling man, but sometimes quite confusing as he has a lot to tell, but don’t really know how to structure.
The lectures are very entertaining as he runs back and forth and has a smile and behavior like Mr. Bean.
There’s a reader (about 25€) containing the legislation and that is the only thing you can bring to the exam, which is written. The professor puts out notes on BlackBoard, but besides them, the reader is the only thing you can read to prepare for the exam, as there’s no real curriculum and your notes from the lectures often doesn’t make sence.
Rumor is that almost everyone passes the exam.

c. Protection of Human Rights in International Law (7 ECTS) – 4PROTHR
Professor Piet Hein van Kempen is a very intelligent and interesting professor and encourages to discussions by saying; “I disagree with everything you say” – This makes it even better when you get him to agree with you.
There’s quite a lot to read, and as the professor focuses more on human right discussions in class, he doesn’t really go over the readings. Therefore the written exam is very difficult, if you depend on using the discussions from class.
You use a book “Human Rigths” by Tomuschat that cost 20-30€ and buy the professors reader, which is also about 30€ and contains all relevant legislation.
The reader is the only thing you can bring to the exam.

d. Criminology (7 ECTS) – 4CRIMSOC
Professor Dr. Terpstra teaches this course which is very theoretical and also has a lot of psychology students. The book “Theoretical Criminology” was quite expensive, 70€, so a lot of the students made copies of the book instead, which was worth it.
The book goes over all the criminology theories through time and these theories and people behind are the things you’re suppose to know by heart to pass the exam. Therefore it’s very important to read the book thorough and have a good memory, as you cannot bring anything but your dictionaries to the exam, which is a 3 hour written exam.
I found the exam very hard, but probably mostly because I’m not used to having exams without books.

e. Borders & Identities in Europe (6 ECTS) - ABBW-BCU306-71-2008‏
This was my one management course, which was lectured by two professor; Professor Hank van Houtum and Professor Martin van der Velde. I never ended up buying the book “New Europe: Imagined Spaces”, so I don’t know the price of it.
The grading is a weighted average of an essay manifest (30 %) and a written exam (70%). The manifest can be anything from an essay, poem, dance, song, to a poster, slideshow or YouTube video and our question was “What is a border” and everyone I know passed – The written exam wasn’t hard to pass either.
The course also offers an excursion to Brussels which you pay 70€ for. We went to the Parliament, the Commission and of course a tour in the city. Recommendable!

5. Accommodation
I got accommodation with help from the university who applied me to the SSHN (Short Stay Housing Nijmegen), which is a housing office who has accommodations all over Nijmegen.
There are mainly three places that the international students lived; Grifdijk (Lent), Hoogeveldt or Vossenfeld.
a. Grifdijjk was among the international students just called Lent, because I was situated in a small city outside Nijmegen, or just “The Erasmus Ghetto”. This was where most of the international students lived and also where I lived. It consists of 8 buildings with 8 apartments in each, where 4 people lived in each apartment. As I arrived late, it was perfect to get to live with 3 different nationalities from Day 1, as I could meet their friends and thereby get to know everyone.
Lent was a bit like having 1-200 roommates, as you could ALWAYS find someone home that you could go and talk to or borrow stuff from and there would always be a party somewhere.
The apartments were quite poor with holes in the walls and very boring non-colour-grey on the walls. There was a kitchen with a gas stove (no oven) and a little fridge with an even tinnier freezer, but there was enough kitchen aids to get by. Moreover there was a living room in connection with the kitchen, with a dinner table and four chairs and a TV. We also had a sofa and a sofa table, but that was very different from each apartment. Furthermore there was a toilet and a shower and a washing machine and a tumble dryer – very nice!
The rooms would minimum contain a bed, a table, a chair, lamps, an armchair and a closet, but some had more luck and more furniture and some even went to IKEA to add some extra to their room.
I loved this place, mostly because of the “ghetto” effect; when you arrived to Grifdijk and went to your apartment you would at least have waved at 4-5 persons on your way. The only down side of the place was the bike ride to the city centre (15min) and the university (30min) as you had to cross the Waal (the canal) and you would ALWAYS have a face wind.
The rent was 305€ a month.

b. Hoogeveldt
Here people lived about 12 people together (can’t remember exactly) and shared a quite big kitchen with stove, oven and fridges and freezers. The toilets and showers were shared as well and there were also washing machine and tumble dryers which they shared.
It was very different whether you got to live in a good corridor or not. Usually it would be one international student together with Dutch/German students and it very much depended on how much these students wanted to do together and together with the international student. But the international students living at Hoogeveldt would visit each other, as there was quite a lot living there as well.
The place is right beside Piecken, which is a student bar that we would go to almost every Tuesday, and also very close to the university.
As far as I remember the rent was 305€ a month here as well.

c. Vossenfeld
This was the most far out place to live (from my Lent point of view of course). It was quite close to the university (15min bike) but 30 minutes bike ride from city centre and 45-60 minutes from Lent! I was only there once, but as far as I know, they are 6-10 people sharing a quite big kitchen which is also a living room. The toilets are shared, but the rooms are quite big and with a private shower.
I don’t know the rent, but I guess that it was quite the same; 305€.

The Dutch people living these three places paid less in rent, but that was because of the furniture in the room – all the rooms contained the same furniture as described in the Lent paragraph.
Some of the students also lived in private housing, but I actually don’t know how they got it, but I think it was through SSHN as well. www.sshn.nl

6. Social life
The ISN (International Student Network) were the ones arranging the introduction week and dividing us in mentor groups with Dutch mentors and they furthermore throughout the semester arranged parties and excursions, so keep an eye on emails and announcements from there and participate in the mentor group dinners.
I also joined the JFV which is the law association. There you have a great chance to meet other Dutch students, as they meet every first Wednesday in the month to have free beer in city centre. They also arrange events and parties. As far as I remember the fee was 15€ for a semester, so as long as you participate in the activities and drink some of the free beers, it’s worth it.
Radboud University also has a very impressive sports center where you can use the fitness facilities or attend stuff like yoga, kick-fit, squash or the football, handball, volley, basket or other teams. The sports card was 35€ as far as I remember for a semester and with that you could attend everything. If you wanted to join a team, you might have to pay an extra fee to the club.
City centre is a great place to go out. The main street is packed with different bars and in the introduction week they went on a pub crawl, so already there you get a good idea of where you want to go. The night life is almost on every night, but Thursday is the big night for students.

7. Other practical and economic conditions
A bike is crucial. The Dutch people all have at least one bike. A return ticket with the bus was 2,50€, you could buy a discount card, but I never did, as I was biking. We did a lot of travelling, mostly with RyanAir from Düsseldorf or just by train. When it comes to train travelling make sure to book in advance, otherwise the prices go up or you just can’t go unless you’re a rebel (Dutch people don’t act spontaneous, so going to Paris on the same day as buying the ticket is impossible – at first).
We were told that working permit was difficult and too expensive because of some insurance requirement, so I actually never looked into it.
You need to bring some pass photos with you. When registering in Nijmegen they ask for your translated birth certificate, but I got registered without.
Living in the Netherlands is quite the same as in Denmark. They got Aldi and Spar as well as we have and the prices are quite the same. But a warning; The beers look very cheap, but that’s because they’re TINY! A normal beer at a pub in Nijmegen was somewhere between 0,2L and 0,3L(!) and then it’s not cheap paying 2€…
I opened a Dutch bank account to avoid paying fees every time I used my Danish credit card. Turned out to be quite difficult to get it to work, as they send all kinds of, for me at that time, useless information, as I was waiting for my pin number and the bank information so I could transfer money to the card. But don’t hesitate to go to bank and ask every time you get a letter, unless of course you got someone who reads Dutch who can translate. I got offers about mobile communication “with” my bank account, free movie tickets and offer for free popcorn before I actually got any REAL bank stuff.
A last warning is that they bike both ways in the roundabouts (VERY confusing and wrong feeling the first time!) and the police are very good at catching people without bike lights (20€ fee) and bikes parked outside the marked areas, so be aware.

8. In retrospect
I’d read all the travel reports before leaving, so I felt pretty prepared. Furthermore the university is very well organized, so most stuff is to be found online, and my email correspondence with the International Office at the university helped a lot as well regarding my learning agreement.
It might would have been good for me to know, that I was suppose to go to Nijmegen already primo/medio August, then I probably wouldn’t have gone on that charter trip.
I would have liked to learn how not spontaneous the Dutch people are. You have to have an appointment if you want to do anything in the Dutch system. I got my bag stolen and wanted to report it. To do that I had to wait until Monday, to go to the police, to get an appointment, and then come back 2-3 days later to fill out the report. In the meantime another guy found my bag and contacted the police who by that time didn’t have a report on it yet and told him that he could just keep it then. Thank God that the guy made an extra effort to find me.
And then of course regarding the travelling. Train tickets have to be bought 3-4 days in advance if you want to go outside the Netherlands. No spontaneous behavior here.

9. Evaluation
Academically the University was a 5. The professors and lectures that I attended were good.
Generally it was 4½. The employees at the offices were nice and made an effort to be helpful. But they were sometimes hard to reach and here after returning I had to make some arrangements, where the correspondence with the University has been a bit difficult. But still good!

10. Inspiration
Well, I’ve mentioned the most; the sports center, Blackboard (seemed more integrated than SiteScape), ISN, JFV and then they had guest computers, which I haven’t noticed on CBS. But there you could log on, which was good when you hadn’t received your logon data yet.

If it got any interest I had a blog during my stay… There’s of course a lot of nonsense, but there’s also some good descriptions of my experiences and pictures of my room, surroundings and great friends.
www.uninijmegen.blogspot.com