After arriving in Alkmaar from Amsterdam Schipol Airport I arrived to the student accommodation where I was going to live for 5 months.  I've been friendly welcomed by the others foreign students, essentially Finnish, but also Dutch student that are living there longer. They explained me that living here was like a little family, there were commons dinners every first Monday of the month. One of the most important rules of the accommodation is to only SPEAK IN ENGLISH IN THE LIVING ROOM (as much as possible).

The week end of my arrival, many activities where proposed with the student coaches like a tour of the city with a guide, ice skating, dinner in an Italian restaurant called Taormina but also more funny bicycling to an old farmhouse typically Dutch where I could make my own cheese! Oh and of course I forgot to mention : drank various beers. That was really interesting 

I also learned quickly that I had to buy a bike as soon as possible because everything is made so that bike are priority sometimes even on the pedestrians.  

To summarize this  first week end showed me the typical culture of the Netherlands.

Here are some pictures : 

Jérémie

My first day in Inholland University of Applied Sciences - Alkmaar was good, we discovered all the buildings in which we'll have all our courses. People in charge of foreign student told us that the majority of the courses will be group project research in connection with local companies which have for objective to increase their market share in various countries (essentially Europe).

There are also Finance courses, Business English and Network relations which last one is really interesting because it shows the importance and the different contrast by having and doing relations in foreign countries.

We are following the third year of the dutch student program there, the class is in English and multicultural because there are the foreign student (Finnish, Russian) and the dutch students.

There are not many associations or activities organized, but some activities are done with only the erasmus and 3 or 4 dutch student in charge of foreign people. We were a little group of Erasmus student, only 8 foreign student.

There is a cafeteria where it is possible to find typical dutch food but also common refresh.

The schedule of the semester is clear at the beginning. It good to know that the average there is 55 over 100 points to pass.

History: Inholland University of Applied Sciences (Dutch: Hogeschool Inholland) is a vocational university, located in Netherlands. Its organizational structure is a result of a collaboration of four family independant institutions. Inholland present itself as ambitious, innovative, and internationally oriented. It offers Bachelor in many fields: Economy to Aeronautical Engineering.

Jérémie

I decided on a Sunday to discover Amsterdam. It is useful to know that Amsterdam is 30min from Alkmaar. There are many train, every quarter of an hour. A train ticket costs 7,50 euros so the all trip costs something like 16 euros with the cost of the ticket card.

Then you arrive in Amsterdam Centraal Station : 

We didn't took the metro because it's easy to visit by foot if you just want to hang out and see the city. The first impression when you arrive is that the streets are crowded. Then after walking and see some funny shops well you realize that this is the city of what is forbidden. And needless to say that the red light district is just crazy. It's funny to see that family roam these streets in total tranquility. You feel disoriented, but it's a nice city. 

However the architecture and canal water form very beautiful landscapes. And I spotted many museum that could be interesting to visit! 

Jérémie

We went in Amsterdam on a Friday to go shopping. There is a big street, named Kalverstraat where there is all the big clothes stores as Zara, Urban Outfitters, Topshop, River Island and others..

So we decided to stop in this street, it was full of people because of the end of the week and because there is always much people in Amsterdam. 

Amsterdam is a country of EU so of course the currency is the Euro. Prices are more or less close to France. I could do some good deals because it was the las week of the sales. 

We took beautiful pictures because it was sunny this day (something rare in this season aha).  

N.B : However it is good to know that it is better to withdraw some cash at ATM because French money cards do not work everywhere. 

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Alkmaar is a nice town of North Holland where are living 100 000 inhabitants. The region of Alkmaar has still typical old windmills of Holland. There are two churches and two large squares, one where attended formerly a fish market and one which always takes place a cheese market. The cheese market is internationally known and happened from first Friday of April to first Friday of September, every Friday.

For partygoers this is also the two places you need to go on thursday/friday/saturday because there are some dancing bars where people go out at night.

There are also two big streets where it is possible to find every big store, there are two cinema, one theatre, some museums and many grocery shops.  

In addition the city have a football club called AZ Alkmaar that play in the first division (Eredivise) of the country.

Dutch windmill.

The Netherlands is a country where many cultures meet, it is possible to find all kinds of foreign restaurants/shops in all cities of Holland. Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Greek, French, Italian, Argentinian, Turkish... Really all cultures.

Around Alkmaar:

The city is 7 kilometers from the sea which corresponds to 30 minutes bike, the beach is really large, there is a beautiful little seaside town called Bergen aan Zee and as there is often wind there are plenty of wind turbine offshore. You can easily walk on the beach and just chill out when it's sunny (or no, it's up to you).

Jérémie