We are getting adjusted :)
Published: 2021-11-19 15:28:32

We're sorry for not posting in a long time, we've been super busy with school and overwhelmed with adjusting to the Netherlands. Good news is that we are finally growing comfortable and are finding ways to succeed here :)

Some big news I can't believe we forgot to share, I (Ian) have been admitted to the university; UC Davis has finally submitted my degree paperwork and I am officially enrolled at Wageningen. The only big change academically is that I've changed my major from Consumer studies to Business studies. I was under the interpretation that their Consumer studies major had a finance division, but it doesn't. So business it is. We're halfway through our second term now and I'm feeling much better now that I've found my way in that regard.

What to share, what to share... there's so much...

Quite honestly adjusting to the Netherlands has been pretty difficult, we didn't realize just how good we have it in the US. The biggest shock is probably the lack access to the things we need. We expected to be relatively fine since we both lived in Davis and survived (about the same size and serves the same type of community (students and rich professors)), but we didn't realize just how much of a difference having a car made to our day-to-day lives. For instance if we needed some basic necessity that a grocery store didn't supply we'd just drive to the next town over and go to Walmart. It's silly we didn't really consider things like this, but we're managing and learning how online shopping works. The phrase "small town" here means something completely different here than it does in the US, technically Wageningen is only a hair bigger than whatever a village is.

Another day-to-day thing that is a complete game changer is grocery shopping. At first it sounded cool having a grocery store every half mile or whatever it is, but we figured out that it's because you have to go there nearly every day. Foods here expire pretty much the moment they're purchased because pesticides and preservatives aren't allowed here. It takes a completely different mindset to prepare meals and to have food on hand. Also you can only hold so much after you shop because, well, you're on a bicycle.

While there are a few inconvenient culture shocks it's not all bad. First off we would be completely lost without our awesome housemates. Completely coincidentally the building we're in is mostly made up of other international students that are all either studying their masters degree or working on their PhD. It's a really open environment, everyone is really friendly, everybody loves Morris; what else could you ask for? We've even had a few dinner parties where someone would cook "a meal from home" for everyone. So far the Italians made pizza and carbonara, Kim made everyone a fantastic chili, the Briton likes to barbecue and that always comes out great. We're surrounded by friends here and although the building itself is old and falling apart it really is a good place to be.

Academically we're still a bit confused but we are getting along. We learned that a Bachelor's degree here takes 3 years and a Master's 2, so some of our classes feel a bit familiar to classes we took in the last year of our Bachelor's at Davis. The classes are broken up into 8 week terms called "periods" which move really quick (we're already halfway through our second period!), but still they are pretty feasible work loads. Typically you take 2 classes per period, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, and from there the class organizes itself pretty much however it wants. Whether we are fans of the system here or not it's pretty easy to realize it'll be over before we know it.

To me the most exciting thing is how future-forward this university is. Wageningen being a sustainability-focused university everything here is working to make a change to the way things work now. I'll get Kim to write about her stuff soon, but for me it's a lot of "how can banks/finance better support sustainability" and "how can businesses promote sustainability and responsible conduct". It's not just theoretical either, many banks here are opening up new divisions dedicated to researching sustainability in the businesses they fund. For example it's almost expected that Dutch banks don't have any investment in oil companies like Shell or BP. It really feels like this university is preparing us to work in some sort of world leading/forward looking company.

The last big question I'm sure everyone has is "have Kim and Ian traveled yet"? And the answer is pretty much no. We've made it to one nearby city called Utrecht for an afternoon (it was beautiful!), but otherwise have stuck to Wageningen. We are finally settling in here and will be traveling soon; we just learned that plane tickets to London or Morocco or pretty much wherever are only like 10eur! We'll be taking advantage of that soon we hope. Otherwise we are learning how public transport works and should have some train passes soon to go to other Dutch cities or even Germany/Belgium. 

We can't wait to be home for Christmas.