Hello from Maastricht!

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Finally arrived here last Sunday after 14 hours of flight from Jakarta.



My first week here is full of orientation activities/parties, meeting fellow exchangers and exploring the city by bicycle. There are more than 300 students from 35 different countries coming to the Maastricht University, School of Business & Economics this semester. While I still meet many Asians (I haven’t met one from Indonesia though), most of them came from the EU.

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The Netherlands is not complete without bicycles. Cycling is the main transportation mode here, so I rented a bicycle for 29.9 euros/month, which apparently is a little bit too expensive as my friend managed to get a second-hand bicycle for 40 euros (My friend told me that the dealer said my friend could get a 10 euro bike if he wants). I guess there is some truth to what my roommate told me (jokingly) when we just arrived: “In Netherlands, you either buy a bike, rent a bike, or steal a bike.” Nevertheless, I’m quite happy because for the first time in my life, I can cycle so much without worrying about cars and hot weathers!

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And of course, this blog entry won’t be complete without talking about: food! Surprisingly there are lots of Indonesian food here, which I find really amusing. Even my German friend, Jan, told me that he was served “Sate” during his orientation (He’s in a different faculty from mine, by the way). Also, beers are ridiculously cheap here. A can of beer is literally cheaper than a bottle of water (in supermarkets, you can get a can of beer for as cheap as 60 cents!).  Other than that, the food here is actually quite good and is priced quite reasonably (around 3-5 euros for a decent meal).​
 

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So this shall conclude my first entry. In the next few weekends, I might be travelling to some other cities. So if it does happen, I’ll probably write about it on my next entry ;)











Cheers,

Antoni









Say hi to Antoni Lewa, just drop him an email in antonirl.2009@sis.smu.edu.sg​ or give him a shout in Facebook