I did my postgraduate degree in this awesome Dutch city in 2012/13. Many adventures were had!
It was late July and the mercury had been pushing thirty all afternoon. I’m guessing this, of course, as I haven’t laid eyes on an actual thermometer all year… but my Blackberry was telling me that it was, in fact, a stonker of a summer’s day, and even if there’d been a technological blackout, the masses of people lounging semi-naked along the banks of the … Continue reading Girl on Top (of the city)
It’s my Birthday. Time to throw a party. Theme? 90s Eurodance. Naturally. In my 10 months in Maastricht so far, I seemed to have garnered quite a reputation for my frivolity skills. This was confirmed last week when I received the coveted “Party Animal” award at the final International dinner piss-up. Then, like it does every year, my birthday came around and, having a lot to prove … Continue reading Party to end all Parties.
Having spent 6 months in the Netherlands so far, I can tell you with a fair amount of conviction that the Dutch are not the most reserved people you will encounter. This is generally. You know, average everyday dutchness… the type that occurs about 360 days a year. Of the 5 days not included in this figure one is Queen’s day, where everybody dresses from … Continue reading Carnaval Madness!
First set of MSc exams FINISHED! I won’t say they were easy, but I’m pretty confident I didn’t do too dreadfully. Naturally, the whole MPP cohort celebrated with a massive piss-up at the Highlander bar where we drank them out of both gin and tequila. It’s a lovely, crisp, sunny October day, and I’m feeling surprisingly non-hungover considering last night’s antics. Just as well, really, … Continue reading Parental Visitation
So our program, and we shall be known from this post onwards as MPP (Master of Public Policy), is very nationally diverse. From about 100 students in total, there are about 45 different nationalities represented. To celebrate this diversity, and so that we can all get to know a bit about each others’ cultures, there will be “international dinners” held sporadically throughout the year, where we … Continue reading First International Dinner
We are in Maastricht and it is beautiful! So my fantastic parents decided to take the “any excuse for a holiday” approach to me moving abroad, so we basically just loaded up the car with all my junk, grabbed my sister and drove to Newcastle where we got on a ferry, had dinner, sat at the bar for a few hours, went to bed and woke … Continue reading Arrival in Maastricht
So I’ve just got back home after a mad 3-weeks running around America, and it’s pretty much only just sunk in that I’m moving to the Netherlands in less than 2 weeks and I am so not organised it’s unreal. Just before I left for the US I was accepted into a MSc program run by the United Nations University institution UNU-MERIT in conjunction with … Continue reading Can we panic yet?
the lost scot 