een semester in utrecht

As if organizing my whole trip was not exhausting enough, I also had to stand up very early in the morning to be there in time. Half past four my alarm-clock woke me up.  Still drowsy from roughly fours hours of sleep I packed the last things I would need in Utrecht (including my laptop and some food for surviving the first week). Unfortunately things did not went as expected. My ride did not showed up on the agreed time and so I spent more than half an hour waiting for it to appear. I could have slept even longer… Never mind! We stuffed the last baggage into the car and off we went.

The journey itself was not very spectacular, but I was hit by the ooh-effect when we finally arrived there. First I thought that this could be a complex of a big company , but I had soon to realize that those buildings - quite a few more than 10 Floors high - are actually part of the Utrecht university.

Managing to find a way through this labyrinth and getting your key for your house was actually a severe task. Luckily getting from the Uithof to my new room rather not. Thus I also arrived just in time back at the university for the introduction.

After the mentors of A-eskwadraat welkomed us at the university, a few students told us something about their experiences at the university when they arrived here for the first time and also what they have done until yet. Thereupon we had lunch - for free ;). But lunch is actually not the right word. Sure you have got a few warm snacks but the bigger part of the menu is kept by sandwiches, rolls, bread, fresh fruits, salad and other things that you normally can find at the bistro or cafe at my home university in Osnabrück, but definitely not at the mensa.

After lunch we went to the city of utrecht. From De Uithof I took the bus to center, where we had a guided tour through the city. We saw many nice places including the two “Grachten”, but it is less water than I expected from the nickname “little Amsterdam”. We also had been at the Dom in Utrecht. More precisely at the top of the tower, which is 112m height. The reward for walking the 465 steps upstairs was a nice view over the city and almost half the country ;). As we could also get a glance of Amsterdam and Rotterdam at the horizon.

Walking towards our dinner location we also had a strange experience. Out of the sudden there was a flock of sheep’s, locked behind a fence indeed, but I could not tell that I have seen a flock of sheep’s in the middle of a city before.

Our dinner was served in an Irish pub and after a few beers we also decided to join in the pub quiz, which was also taking place there. Actually it was quite fun, but the results were not that presentable. We managed to gain a place somewhere at the top of the last third. Perhaps we will be better next time, but some of the questions were really hard. Does anybody of you know a Brazilian word for a shantytown?

With the end of the quiz, also my first day in Utrecht came to an end.

PS. I know I am a little bit delayed, more entries and also picture will definitely come at the latest on the weekend.