Rotterdam, The Netherlands
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| Kralingsen Plas |
1. The Netherlands
Small country with a peculiar weather, get use to rain
and sun in the same day and it is always windy. Your best friend will be the
weather apps.
The trains work very well therefore you can visit other cities in
The Netherlands (Utrecht, Maastricht, Amsterdam, Delft, Den Haag, and others)
and also visit Belgium ( Rotterdam – Brussels is around €20). Download the app
9292 or check the website 9292.nl to have access to train and trams time table
in the entire country.
2. Rotterdam
Rotterdam is a very nice city, with modern
architecture and wonderful terraces to enjoy the sun. The city center is small,
bike is the best transportation
2.1 ‘My’ best
places
·
Kraligen Plas – to jogging, to have a
drink or do a barbecue
·
Blaak Market – every Tuesday and
Saturday
·
Cubic Houses – the icon of Rotterdam
·
Erasmus Bridge
·
Euromast
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| Erasmus Bridge |
2.2 Transports
Everyone has a bike, however don’t forget to buy a
good locker otherwise you will get yours stolen. You can buy one in the fb
groups like Rotterdam Commodity Market, by asking for it or replying to one of
the innumerous posts.
To use the tram you can buy in the central station or in
other big stations an anonymous Ovi-chipkaard (check the website: https://www.ov-chipkaart.nl/aanvragen/),
costs 7.5€ and you can put credit on it. It gives you cheaper travels otherwise
you have to buy a single ticket that costs €3 (normally one travel with the
ovi-chikaard costs around €1.5).
2.3 Restaurants
As you may guess, The Netherlands is not the cheapest
country, especially when compared to Portugal. Nevertheless the biggest
difference is felt in the prices you pay in restaurants or clubs/bars. .
You
can find a huge variety of cuisines, but the classics are the Italian
restaurants: VIP (Very Important Pizza), Happy Italy, Vapiano, and others. A
cheap alternative is also enjoying the many fast food roulettes in the middle
of the street. A especially note for the Rotterdam famous invention named
Kapsalon that you can find in Kebab stands. For the ‘desert’, go near Blaak and
try the poffertjes (mini pancakes) and also the typical cookie with sweet cream
inside.
2.4 Supermarkets
The biggest chain is Albert Heijn (very similar to the
Pingo Doce in Portugal). However if you want cheaper supermarkets you have
others like Aldi. But to buy fresh (and cheaper) vegetables and fruit go to the
market every Tuesday and Saturday at Blaak, it is the best.
2.5 Nightlife
Because we
know study is not everything, it is crucial to talk a bit about the parties and
the nightlife in this review. Despite from what you may think, we believe it is
perfectly doable to combine the workload of the university with your mental
sanity, meaning parties.
The key for
your mental sanity to stay intact is to have a good CEMS Club, which you may be
part of, if you want. This body is of outmost importance because they are the
only ones to organize the social activities for you.
Concerning
clubs/bars, there are a few interesting options in Rotterdam. In the end, you
will spend the majority of your Tuesday’s nights in a club called BED, where
ESN organized a weekly international party with very cheap beer.
Going in detail,
the following activities were the ones we had during the semester:
·
Carnival in Cologne
·
Trip to Ireland (Dublin)
·
Cycling dinner
·
King’s day
·
Pub Crawl
·
Karaoke night
·
Marathon
·
Barbecue
·
Paintball
·
Several dinners and clubbing nights
Along with
all this activities, we also had a few sustainable and corporate initiatives
such as volunteering days with homeless or mental disable people and company
presentations and tours.
A special
note for King’s day - a ceremony that marks the birth of the King
Willem-Alexander. This event happens every year on April 27th and is one of the
most known parties in the Netherlands. It is a daily party, celebrated from
morning till the time you can’t walk anymore and the craziest action takes
place in Amsterdam. Definitely a most!
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| King’s day in Amsterdam |
3. The University
Don’t be
confused by the name of the faculty, “RSM”, vs the name of the university,
“Erasmus”. Unlike what it may seem, the most famous university in Rotterdam is
not named after the many students it receives in the Erasmus exchange program, rather by the Dutch Renaissance
theologist Desiderius Erasmus. Within this huge university – with over 20,000
students – stands the business and management faculty, called RSM.
It is often
heard by CEMS students throughout the world that NOVA and RSM are similar in
that they are two of the most demanding universities of the program. Although I
have not studied in all the others, from the 5 universities I attended
throughout the past years, I have to admit that RSM is very good academically.
I attended three courses: “Management Challenges in International
Organizations” (the mandatory course), “Corporate Governance and Strategic
Leadership” and “Climate Change Strategy Role Play”. They were all quite
interesting, challenging and had excellent teachers. However, one of the only
problems we faced at the university was the grading systems. Although their
scale is from 1-10 (easy to convert into Nova’s scale of 1-20) it is extremely
difficult to achieve their “cume laude”
grade of 8.5, which is equivalent to Nova’s grade of 17.
3.1 International Business Projects (IBP)
Regarding the International Business Projects
(IBP) at RSM there are around 12 different projects, grouped in teams of 4-5
students, typically from very different nationalities. The difference of RSM’s
IBP system, to that of other schools, is that you do not get to select your
favourite. You receive a survey, some months in advance, asking what subjects
and industries you would prefer to work with, but you do not even know the
companies/subjects until you get there.
From the three of us who were in RSM
last spring semester, we got IBP’s with Siemens (myself), CARE Nederland
(Beatriz) and Berenschot (Miguel). I was extremely lucky because my group got
to travel to Spain and the UK as part of the data collection process for our
project and I had a great Academic and Company coach. However this is not
always the case – feel free to contact us personally for more specific details
regarding other projects.
Overall, I
really enjoyed the university and I believe I speak for the three of us when I
say that Rotterdam is a great choice of CEMS exchange city, particularly if you
want a great “academic stamp” on your CV!
3.2 Campus
The
University campus is amazing! Since 1 year ago they are improving the
facilities and trying to increase the sustainability of the campus. As a
result, it is super green, there are lakes everywhere and the atmosphere is
cool. Some of the facilities include:
·
Starbucks
·
Sports Center (gym, football and
tennis fields, classes…)
·
Several restaurants, including a
totally renewed area.
·
Pub
·
Supermarket
In addition,
if you are trying to find a place to live, I recommend you the U-building, also
known as Hatta Building. This is a 15-floor building inside campus only for
international students to live. It is cool because you have everything you need
in a 5-minute walking distance from you and the environment is very friendly.
Nevertheless I would try to ask in the CEMS Facebook group if someone is
thinking about staying there because in my year we were we were 12 CEMS
students living there and that obviously made the experience much better.
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| Erasmus University Campus |
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By Beatriz Gonçalves, Miguel Vale and Patricia Weigert,Class of 2013/2014
Term Abroad - Spring 2014
