Eveline, University of Maryland, post 1
Hi everyone!
My name is Eveline and I am a twenty year old Industrial Design Engineering Student at the Technical University of Delft. This semester I am studying at the University of Maryland in the United States.
About six weeks ago I arrived on campus, one day before orientation started. I flew to Washington with a girl from Delft that I already knew from my student association. The morning after we arrived we got up early to attend the exchange orientation program. It started off in a gorgeous building on campus called ‘Tydings Hall’ with a lecture on the University of Maryland. That day we were introduced to little facts about the university and the facilities on campus. We got divided into little groups to tour the campus and have lunch. After a full day of orientation activities the study abroad office had organized a ‘Welcome Dinner’ for all the exchange students. I met a lot of new people whom I still do a lot with.
Orientation lasted for four days, and after the first weekend things started getting serious and lectures started. It took me and my friends a while to get used to the very different educational system here: choosing your own classes, building your own schedule, all the homework, quizzes and midterms. I am working very hard to maintain all the assignments I have to hand in and keep up with all the readings, as you never know here when your professor will ‘surprise’ you with a quizz!
Even though I am very occupied with all the school work, I am still enjoying myself a lot here. There a lot of things to do around campus, such as sports and joining clubs (there is a club for basically ANYTHING you could ever think of, and you are free to join any one of them!). I notice that the engineering students at this university have more work to do than most other majors at this university.
Washington is very near by, it takes about 25-40 minutes to travel to the city center either by train or uber. I have visited the city four times thus far, and me and my friends have also travelled to Philadalphia for a day. Next weekend we are visiting Baltimore and Annapolis, and in a few weeks we are going to New York. Busses here are very cheap, and there is so much to do not too far away from the university.
Of course I have also witnessed a few traditional football games already. The stadium on campus is huge and the games are such an experience: cheerleaders, marching bands, food and all the university merchandise you can possible imagine are there to make the whole day even more impressive than it already is. American schools sure do take their athletics seriously!
Talk to you soon!
Eveline
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