Arif's Exchange Log

Netherlands or Bust!!!!

I was on the place to Europe, thinking about what to expect. Are people going to be nice? Are the courses going to be difficult? Will I feel fulfilled without 3 cases a day?

I got off the plane at London Heathrow airport with 4 hours until my flight to Amsterdam, which was on a small discount airline. So I went to ask at the ticket counter, if they would put me on an earlier flight. The young guy in the blue vest said “No, that is not in our policy.” I guess he did not take a Marketing class that says the customer is always right!!! So, I decided to eat some lunch and read my book. After about an hour, I felt kind of tired. Naturally, I lied down across three plastic seats. I was having a nice, relaxing dream about school life outside Ivey. Suddenly, I woke up and started to run to my get only to realize that I missed my flight. The ironic thing is that I had to explain my situation to the same clerk that had refused to change my ticket four hours earlier.

Anyways, this is what I have learned in the first few weeks of being on exchange:

• People love to ride bikes, even if they are twenty years old.

• Shops in the Red Light District do not accept Canadian currency.

• There is at least one East Indian spice store in Netherlands.

• In Paris, hold your breath on the train, it smells like a gym locker room.

Netherlands or Bust - Part II

I am about half way through my exchange program. Time has flown by. What can I say about my Europe experience so far? Everyone drinks beer. The women are beautiful. Everything is expensive.

Rotterdam is about the same size of London and is also a University town. The MBA program here is very intensive with many papers and lots of groupwork. The students are from all over the world (Germany, France, Japan, Norway, Australia, India, China, US). When we are not out drinking, the main past time is playing the boardgame Risk until the early hours of the morning (for those who have played it know what I mean).

I have visited many places so far. My first trip was to Belgium, which I knew nothing about. Brussels is the capital and the location of the HQ of the European Union. It is Ok, it has some big churches. About an hour away, there is a small town called Bruges that is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. The buildings are very old and stunning, not to mention the cobblestone pathways and the river flowing around the town. But the best thing of the place is the chocolate, it is AWESOME!!! Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, crème-filled chocolate, chocolate with nuts….I don’t think I can go back to eating ordinary chocolate bars, such as Heresy’s or Dairymilk.

My second trip was to Amsterdam. It was kinda cool seeing the Red Light district with the women in the window. They are not as beautiful as you think they would be. They look like Za Za Gabor in lace. The smell of marijuana is in the air, similar to the scent of the apartment hallways of London. I also had a chance to visit a coffee shop. Bad Experience. Don’t want to talk about it.

Next stop Paris, the city of romance. Notre Dame is beautiful church with it domes and artistic glass windows. The food was very tasty, especially considering the food in Holland tastes like cardboard. The Eiffel tower is huge and I overwhelming at night when it was illuminated with flashing lights. I also visited the Louver. It was enormous and lots of fun.

In early October, I went to Munich for Oktoberfest, which is supposed to the best place to party. My friend was feeling tired, so I had to drive his car. It was Toyota Starlet which is the midget version of the Tercel. The highways (Autobahn) in Germany do not have speed limits, except for certain areas with construction where the maximum is 130km/h. I was pushing about 170 when my eye started to twitch. Suddenly, my left contact lens fell out. I ended up driving for about 40 minutes on the narrow lanes with many trucks surrounding while squinting with one eye until I reached the next gas station.

We finally arrived to the hotel about 7am since we had class the evening before. We checked in and went to sleep. After about 90 minutes, it was time to get up. We got dressed and took a cab to the beer gardens because we had to be there by 9 am. The next 12 hours were filled with drinking large mugs of beer, dancing on the tables with women in Bavarian outfits and eating large pretzels. It seemed like a constant drunken euphoria.

Then next day after showering and changing out my beer soaked clothes. We went back to the party tents, but I did not want to see another beer again. So I went sight seeing. I visited the Olympic Stadium and the BMW museum (very cool). Then I went to the Deutsches Museum which is the world’s best science and technology museum. It was awesome. Exhibits included from airplanes, tunnel construction, railway, bridge construction, and much more. This is a must see, especially for the engineer types.

This has been recap of my exchange in Netherlands. I must say that it has been an eye opening experience. I hope all is well at Ivey.

By Arif Shivji