Posted in November 2013
Jenneke Evers, University of Maryland, post #1
Hello lovely readers,
I was asked to write a little story about life as an exchange student. Let’s introduce myself first; I am Jenneke Evers, a 20-year old bachelor student at Delft University of Technology. My major is Technology, Policy and Management with a specialization in Transport Engineering. Normally I live in Delft, but for this semester I decided to follow my dream and move to the United States of America!
I arrived at the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park in August this year. College Park is a small city in the south of Maryland near the Washington D.C. area. When I first arrived at the campus of the university, I was overwhelmed by the size and the charm of the campus, it is like the movies! The whole campus is centered around the McKeldin Mall, which is a green area with university buildings on the sides and the McKeldin Library at the end. The campus hosts around 9,500 students who live in residence halls and apartments and has its own swimming pool, recreation centres, theatre, shops, sportfields and football-stadium with a capacity of 54,000!
In our first week, we went to a football game between UMD and Florida, which was great, including all the cheerleaders, marching band, fireworks and the national anthem! To be honest, I did not know the rules of American football, but living on campus, you learn them fast enough.
The colours of the UMD are red, gold and black, and to be a true Maryland student, you need to have at least several Maryland shirts, sweaters and shorts. So, immediately after the arrival of me and my roomie Fidan (from Istanbul), my american roommate showed us around campus and took us shopping to buy a Maryland-shirt and shorts.
In the next post, I will tell you all about my international friends and the first week of lectures.
Adios, ciao, tschuss, bye, see you later! Jen
Julia van der Burgt, Georgia Tech, Post #1 Introduction
This semester I study at Georgia Institute of Technology (GaTech) in Atlanta, US. I wanted to do a minor in Material Science and the Global E3 program gave me the chance to go to GaTech and follow the Nano-material certificate program.
I’ve been studying here for already three months, in which I have seen and learned a lot and had many great experiences. I’m taking courses about nanomaterials, nanoscale devices, quantum mechanics and some general materials science. It’s a good coherent program and although I had expected my courses to be quite challenging, since I’m taking 3rd and 4th year materials science courses as an AE student, it hasn’t been too difficult so far.
The campus of GaTech is very nice. I have classes in many different buildings, which have all good facilities. Because most students live on-campus, whole student life takes place on the campus, and there is always something going on: music, activities, games, which makes it very lively. Sports facilities are great: I’m a swimmer, so the Olympic pool of ’96 is one of the best things I’ve found here and I made a lot of friends in the swim club.
GaTech is not really a place to go if you play music: I started playing in the Symphony Orchestra, but I quitted after a couple of weeks because I didn’t like it. I decided that I rather spend my time outside, because I think the weather in Atlanta in the fall is perfect!
I live off-campus, and I could bike to school in shorts every day till the end of October. Although Atlanta is not a very bike-friendly city, I can bike around a lot. This is great, it gives me a lot of freedom, because the public transport here is very bad. Most Americans (of course) use their car, but biking works very well!
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