Experience Dutch culture and everyday life in the Netherlands. This 23-day course includes numerous contacts with the Dutch as well as museum visits, excursions, concerts, meetings, and sightseeing. Participants may also take an introductory course at a language institute of the University of Utrecht. Course activities include home stays with Dutch hosts. Primary lodging is in Amsterdam and Utrecht, both optimal starting points for day trips.
Means of transportation is primarily the efficient Dutch public transportation system.
Excursions include the countries of Friesland, Belgium, and cities such as Den Haag, Gouda, and Rotterdam. The course concludes with free days for independent travel. Course goals are that students demonstrate gains in mastery of the Dutch language and that they increase their understanding of various religious, political, and broadly cultural facets of the Low Countries. Students demonstrate achievement of these goals in mandatory journal writing and the completion of a summary paper that includes specific writing assignments for course activities and places visited. Participants are required to have some experience in the Dutch language.