Posted in September 2015
Pieter-Bas Bentinck, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Post #1: Campus and Atlanta
Dear reader,
Since August 11th 2015, I have been calling Atlanta, in the state Georgia in the USA, my home. For the Fall semester, which lasts from mid-August until mid-December, I will be doing my minor at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). In 2013 I started my bachelor of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University of Technology and after a long process of applications I got accepted here through Global E3.
Atlanta is a huge city in the south of the United States and the Campus of Georgia Tech is right in the center of it. The downtown area, where the business center and some of the major sports arenas are located, is only a mile away and midtown, where they some nice bars and restaurants, is even closer. Nevertheless, walking isn’t very common, except for when you walk to classes on campus (although even there they have a bus network that runs quite regularly).
Other than that cars are the big thing here, partly because gas is really cheap. But even if you do not have a car, Ubers are sometimes even cheaper than public transport when you want to go around town.
However, even though cars are relatively cheap, it is not really necessary to leave campus a lot. This is because there is so much to do here. For example, when you study at Georgia Tech, you are automatically allowed access to the sports center, where you can do pretty much every type of sports you want. You can join the club teams or you can form a team yourself and join the intramural competition. This is a competition within the university that takes about half a semester, during which you play a game per week. You can choose between 4 sports and once it is done, a new phase with four different sports will start. For the first phase, we signed up for ultimate frisbee with a group of friends.
Another big thing at Georgia Tech is, just like many other US colleges, college football. Georgia Tech has a really good team and there is a lot of things going on whenever they have a game. During home games, which are about every other week, it is quite common to go ‘tailgating’ before the game. Tailgating officially means having a little party around the back of your car. People will bring beers and barbecues (and in extreme cases even complete tents with TV-screens etc.) before they take off to the game. Because you live so close to the stadium at Tech, bringing a car doesn’t make sense, but the rest comes down to the same. Once you get to the game eventually it is the typical American experience with cheerleaders, mascots and marching bands so even if you aren’t really into sports, it is a great experience.
That’s it for now. There is still a lot I haven’t told yet, but that will come in the next posts!
Cheers,
Pieter-Bas
Lieve – New York University, Post 1
Hi everyone!
I’m a third years student mechanical engineering at Delft University of technology and I’m spending the fall semester 2015 at NYU (New York University). I had the great oppurtunity to do a semester abroad in NYC by taking part in the GlobalE3 exchange program. I picked NYU as my first choice, because I’ve been to new york once and I LOVED the city and I definitely wanted to experience living in this city myself. Especially because Delft is a small city with a sort of ‘student campus community’ where everyone knows each other, it seemed really interesting to me to experience student life in a big city!
Exactly a month ago I left Schiphol airport to fly all the way to the big apple. The first couple of days I stayed in an airbnb in uptown manhattan, until I could move into my dorm. I’m spending my semester in an on-campus nyu dorm, called 2nd street. The dorm is located at the corner of 2nd street and bowery, which is in the lower east side. This is a wonderful, I would say the best, place to live in manhattan! It is a 2 minute walk to SOHO, a 5 minute walk to the campus and washington sqaure park, and is surrounded by adorable restaurants and cafés.
My arrival day at the dorm was kind of funny, because all students were bringing SO much stuff into their room, while I had only one big suitcase. My room is on the ninth floor and compared to the others, quite big. I share my room with my roommate Emily. Fortunately, she is from the U.S. so she brought a microwave (which didn’t fit into my suitcase…). I got really lucky with her being my roommate, because we are exactly the same kind of girls and we have become really good friends, spending a lot of time together!
My first day from the ‘NYU welcome week’ was impressive: people yelling and congratulating me with my acceptance at NYU when I entered the building. After picking up my NYU ID (you have to show this everywhere, usually 15 times a day, so you would be completely lost without it…), I went to the NYU bookstore. I expected a booksore, but it is actually more like an NYU fanshop. They sell literally everything, from sweaters to plates, with NYU on it! During the welcome week I noticed that the ‘free food events’ are very popular among nyu students, because food and grocery’s are incredibly expensive! Almost all grocery stores are more or less 3 times as expensive as in the Netherlands. My roommate taught me that there is only 1 grocery store in manhattan which is pretty cheap: Trader Joe’s. If you come there between 5 and 9, the line for the check-out will be outside the store 😉
After a couple of days exploring the city and the campus, my classes had begun. Although my major is mechanical engineering, I decided to take some completely different courses at NYU. I’m taking French, Psychology, Chemistry and Flight mechanics. I really like the variety among my classes! The first two are teached at the main campus, in very impressive buildings, all located around washington square park. On tuesdays and thursdays I have to go to the engineering campus, which is located in Brooklyn. Usually I take the subway to Brooklyn, but sometimes I walk (40 minutes) or bike there. People in the city walk everywhere, so my legs got really muscled! My French class is very small, only 14 students, and that is where I met 2 of my best friends. There is a remarkable difference between my classes here and at the TU Delft, I have LOTS of homework at NYU. So you have to keep up with everything, because you can earn a great deal of your final grade with quizzes, webassignments and midterm exams during the semester. The good news: if you do your homework it’s almost impossible to fail a class ;). I am lucky because I have no classes on Friday. I use my fridays to hang out with friends, explore the city, crash in central park or go to Coney Island beach. So far the weather has been incredible (average of 30 degrees celcius and lots of sun), so my visit to the wonderful coney island beach was great!!
Although living in NYC is extremely expensive (my room costs $2000 a month!!), the gym is free for NYU students, so I go there a lot, most of the times with Emily. Most of the NYU students are enrolled in a mealplan (americans never cook!), but Emily and I decided to take care of our own meals. We go to Trader Joe’s 2 times a week to buy lots of food and we cook and eat together almost everyday. During the weekends I go out with a group of girls to fancy nightclubs! You have to dress up completely and you have to be invited by a ‘promoter’ to be able to get in there. Being a girl in nyc is great, because you’ve got free entrance and drinks in all nightclubs! Going to those nightclubs was a real experience, completely different than going out in the Netherlands, but lots of fun!!
So far, this is a wonderful experience and I’m having a great time in the city. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the semester!
Lieve
Jenneke Bijpost – University of Maryland, Post # 1 , The Beginning
Hi everyone!
In 2013 I started as a student at the Technical University of Delft, majoring in Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management. Now, 2 years later, I am at the beginning of my minor. This Fall-semester, I will be at the University of Maryland, taking courses in Civil Engineering. My name is Jenneke Bijpost and over the next couple of months I will give you an insight into my life as an exchange student at the University of Maryland.
My adventure in the United States started at the end of July. I had an opportunity to work on a project in Holland, Michigan for 2 weeks and before I made a trip to San Francisco for a week. So when I came to the University at the end of August, I was already a bit used to a couple of things like American English, time difference, American opportunism, American food and suchlike. Nevertheless, my first week was a week full of experiences. I met my roommate (yes, I share a room), went to Washington DC and explored the city from a canoe, saw my first American Football game, found out the difference between a Dutch soccer game and an American one and a lot more! A couple of days ago I booked a flight to Chicago for next weekend with a group of students. To be short, the American life is full of opportunities.
Last week was my first week with classes. There are some really big differences between the Dutch school system and the American one. The classes here are a lot smaller (around 40 people per class) and you don’t have one test at the end of the semester but a lot of graded homework, pop-up quizzes and projects. Before you even can start thinking about your test, you already build up about 80% of your grade. Interaction with the teacher is really important and because of the size of the classes, the teacher recognizes you from the class before. In some courses your grade is even partially based on your appearance and energy in the class.
Over all, I am having an incredible time over here. The courses are really interesting and I am learning a variety of subjects at one time. There are so many opportunities for activities outside school! I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks!!
Jenneke
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