Ng Cheuk Lam, Natalie Year 3 Major in Information System & Marketing
Table of content Part 1: Monthly Activity Log 3-7 Part 2: General Exchange Information 8-12 Part 3: Checklist of items to bring 13 Part 4: Useful Links 13
Part 1: Monthly Activity Log August 2017 I arrived Maastricht on 29 th August and took the train from Amsterdam Schiphol airport to Maastricht Station. There was a pick-up service provided by UM that you needed to sign up beforehand. UM students were helpful, they helped us carry the luggage and drove us to the UM guesthouse. On 31 st August, there is an orientation which consisted a school tour and a trial of Problem-based learning (PBL) learning style. PBL mainly focus on the discussion of students, the more you contribute and participate in class, the more you understand the content. September 2017 The semester starts on 4 th September. There was no tutorial in the first week. Instead, there were lectures introduced the course syllabus. The second week started with tutorials and I needed to read the reading material before attending class. In September, the workload was not heavy. So, exchange mates and I went travelling every weekend, we traveled Amsterdam, Munich, Paris and Prague. Every time we went travelling, there would be more than 5 people which made the trip more exciting and fun. For the trip to Munich, we joined the beer festival called Oktoberfest which is like the AIA in Hong Kong. There were lots of people drinking one-liter beer in the festival. For the trip to Prague, we took the 12 hours Flixbus to go there which was really tried. My first impression of Prague was very a romantic city. However, due to the development of tourism, there were lots of tourists and it is very crowded, making
the city to become more commercial. Among all the places, my favorite place was Paris. Paris Disneyland was a good place to have fun and playing all the rides could release all the stress from the study. October 2017 In early October, my bike was broken and needed to find the bike repaired shop to fix it. There was a bike repair shop after crossing the river which was cheaper than the bike shop near Maastricht station. By that time, I started to walk to school. As guesthouse is quite near the SBE, it only took about 15 mins to go to school from guesthouse. Before having the examination week, I had travelled Aachen, Den Haag. In mid-october, it came to the final examinations. Because of the examination, that weekend I did not go travelling, instead I did hard studying. The examination was very difficult and I need to revise all the readings and recited most of the content. As the exam were mostly long questions and there is no cheat sheet allowed which is unlike UST. I really study very hard in order to get a pass.
November 2017 After the examination, I went to Switzerland and Oslo in Norway to celebrate the end of the examination. The second period started right after the exam period, and in this period, I only took one course which had more time for exploring Europe. I went to Copenhagen, Strasburg, Brussels and Basel. Copenhagen is my favorite city in north Europe. Although we did not visit many spots, we just randomly walked around the city. I could still feel the sense of Christmassy. We also went to Flying Tiger and bought some interesting stuff. However, in the mid-nov, my phone was being stolen in Basel, a city in Switzerland. At that time, I was buying the chocolate and I put my phone in my pocket in the jacket. Just after 5 minutes, my phone was gone. I called the police, but the police were not helpful. When I arrived the police station, there were only one to two police knew English. Because it was near at 6 pm at that time, the police wanted to close the police station, they told me to use the online system for reporting the loss of the phone. Eventually, I got the proof of loss of the phone for the claim of insurance.
December 2017 In December, there were lots of Christmas markets in Europe. No matter which country I went, there was a Christmas market, and some even more than one. In December, I went to Aachen, Cologne in Germany which are famous for their Christmas markets. I tried the hot wine and bought some Christmas decorations in the markets. Apart from that, I had also been to Lisbon and saw the sunset at the most western part of Europe. In mid-dec, it was nearly the end of the semester, so we decided to hold a party, gathering all the friends to have fun. Before the examinations, there was almost a week for studying. Because of studying only one course for this period, I decided to go to Milan, Venice in Italy and Barcelona in Spain in the study break. After finishing the examination, I went to London to celebrate Christmas.
January 2018 In January, it was a month for traveling with no study stress. I went to Germany, Austria, and Hungary. I had visited Germany several cities, Nuremberg, Berlin, and Hamburg. I went countdown in the Nuremberg. There was firework everywhere which was quite dangerous. I also visited Vienna in Austria. I really love Budapest in Hungary as the building there were not that similar to other European counties. The cost of living there was also lower than the Netherlands. It was a good chance to try lots of Hungarian traditional food. The souvenirs in Budapest had their own characteristics. You will find Budapest is a worthtravelling city. After going travelling, I went to my aunt s home in Arnhem, the Netherlands before going back to Hong Kong.
Part 2: General Exchange Information 1) Visa procedure You would need to wait UM to send you the detail of the visa procedure and follow the guideline to apply for the visa. You would need to go to the visa office which located in Wanchai to hand in the document and do the fingerprints. Do remember to bring your photos, passport and the offering letter. After one or two weeks, you will receive an email for pick up the visa. Do remember to apply for the visa as soon as possible as it takes time. 2) Orientation Activities There are several orientation activities that you can join. ISN is the international student union which organize activities for international students. But, you would need to pay for most of the activities. I had joined one party that was held in the church. It was a unique experience to have a party at a church. 3) International Services & activities ISN is not only organized the orientation activities, but also the international activities. You can sign up for the activities they held in the guesthouse as their office is in the lobby of the guesthouse. 4) Accommodation UM guesthouse is like the hall in UM, which including P-building, M-building, and C-building. I lived in a doubled room in P-building (around 17 euro per night), there are a kitchen and refrigerator in the room. Because everyone got their own kitchen, there is no common room in the hall. However, you can still gather with your friends in the lobby. You do not need to bring pillow or blanket as they are provided. There is also a laundry room on each floor, providing washing machines, dryers and irons. There is also vacuum machine and mop provided for cleaning the room. For M- building and C-building, they have shared kitchen and common room on each floor. M-building is cheaper than both P-building and C-building. Actually, all the buildings are next to each other, you apply for the hall in UM guesthouse websites. If you want to choose the roommate, you can send email to UM guesthouse for requesting having the same room with your friend. 5) Course registration For the course registration, you will receive the email about the guideline for course registration. You can also go to the course registration website to see the schedule of the class. But, you would only know the weekday you need to attend the lesson,
but not the exact time for the lesson. There are 2 periods in one semester, and each period you could maximum register 2 courses. I have registered EBC 2060 information system and EBC2063 Marketing Strategy & Practice for the first period and took EBC 2062 Brand Management in the second period. 6) Teaching & assessment method There is a PBL (Problem-based learning) in UM. There are mostly one to two lectures for the course throughout the period. You would need to attend the tutorial twice a week for each course. There is lots of reading material you need to prepare before attending the class. During the class, there are lots of discussions and you need to actively speak in the discussion in order to gain a pass for the participation. For most of the class, you can only skip one tutorial otherwise it will affect your participation grade. So, you need to pay attention to the course syllabus. The course grading consists of class participation (including attendance, participation), hosting or facilitation and exam. Hosting and facilitation mean presentations. This is a heavy workload assessment, you need to form a group of 2 (sometimes a group of 4, depending on the course requirements) and present the main point of the reading material for facilitating the class discussion. You need to bring the discussion to class and make sure the discussion is on the right track. For the exam, it is very important among all the courses as you fail the exam equal to fail the course. For most of the exam, you need to gain 55% of the marks to get a pass. 7) Sports & Recreation Facilities If you are interested in doing sports and gym, you could join the UM sports which took about 20 minutes from guesthouse by bus. You would have 5 trials for the activities held by UM sports in September to decide whether to join the membership afterward. You need to pay 70 euro for one-semester membership. 8) Finance & Banking (including currency and expense) When you arrive Maastricht, you need to apply for the bank account in ING bank as soon as possible. You need to book the timeslot for an opening bank account online. As opening a bank account needs to take about 2-3 weeks, you need to wait for the letters to activate the bank account. But the mailing from ING bank is really slow which takes a few weeks. After opening the account, you could activate the mobile banking, the mobile app will help you to record all the transactions that paid by card. In this way, it helps
you to record and keep track on your expense. The followings are my expense for whole exchange, HKD Visa 3500 Air ticket 6100 Housing 25000 Mobile and networking 1000 Transportation 10000 Travelling 31000 Insurance 1700 Total 78300 9) Social clubs & Networking opportunities UM should have some social clubs, but I did not join it. You can join the activities organized by ISN and its office is located the lobby of the guesthouse. 10) Health & Safety There is a clinic in the guesthouse and also a hospital near UM sports. But, I would advice you to bring some medicine from Hong Kong to Maastricht instead of seeing the doctor if it is not necessary. 11) Food There is variety choice of food you can choose in Maastricht. There are lots of restaurants in the city center, including all you can eat for the sushi, Italian restaurant and bars. The price is fair which is similar to the price in Hong Kong for all you can eat. Apart from that, there is also a restaurant called Dadawan which is near the Maastricht Station. The restaurant provides sushi, ramen and also stone bowl which are all tasty. However, I did not eat out frequently. Most of the time I cooked in the guesthouse for both lunch and dinner. There are two local supermarkets called Albert Heijn and Jumbo which can buy fresh vegetable and meat. Most of the time, I went to Albert Heijn as the private label s milk is tastier. There is a Asian market in the city center called Amazing Oriental ( 東方行 ) which provides Chinese food there. You can buy Hong Kong snacks and soya milk there.
12) Transportations Most of the students got their own bikes to travel around in Maastricht as Maastricht is a small town. Biking only takes about 5 mins from guesthouse to SBE and also 5 mins to go to the city center which is really convenient. You can buy a bike through Facebook groups, the price would be around 50-70 euro. Do not get a bike with a very cheap price, it would have a great potential to be a stolen bike. Besides, bikes are easily to be stolen in the Netherlands, you always need to ensure you did lock the bike before leaving. My friends got his bike stolen on the first week of the semester in the Maastricht station. So, you need to be careful of parking the bike. Apart from bike, you may also take bus for going to city center. In the Netherlands, there is a OV card which is like the Octopus card in Hong Kong. You can buy it in the train station. You can top up the card on the bus or in the train station. The bus fee is depending on the distance you travelled. The bus stops of buses no. 1, 2, 5, 6 are in front of the guesthouse which can get you to the city center and train station quickly. Do remember to tap on the card for both getting on and off the bus. Otherwise, it will have charged you the maximum fee for the whole ride. If you want to travel around the Netherlands, you would need to take the train. You can use the OV card for paying the ticket, but it would be more expensive. Most of the people will buy group tickets online which is mush cheaper than buying a single ticket. You can form the group through Facebook or by yourself. 13) Climate The first day (29 th August) arrived Maastricht is really hot as there is no aircondition in the guesthouse or even in the Netherlands. You really need to wear short sleeves in the first week of arrival. But, the locals said it is not normal to be that hot. Mostly in August and September, it would be relatively cool. However, it started getting cold in the late-october, like below 10 C every day. You need to wear a thick jacket whenever going out. 14) Communication Most of the Dutch know English. Whenever you go to restaurants or supermarkets, most of the employees speak English. For eating out, some restaurants will provide English menu, otherwise, there is someone explain the menu to you. While in the school, all the students and professors speak English. There is no communication barrier between classmates and professors. There are some telecommunication providers in Maastricht, but I only know some
of them, like Vodafone, Lycamobile, and T-mobile. For choosing the mobile service and networking, I choose Vodafone with its prepaid card. Paying 20 euro each month, there are 3 GB mobile data (there is 1 GB mobile data as extra, so in total there is 4 GB mobile data per month) and 30 minutes for calling and unlimited text as a bundle. When you need to renew the bundle, you can top up the phone with the help of the staff in the store or top up online. However, if you used up the 4 GB mobile data before the due date of the bundle, you need to go to the store to ask for help, otherwise, you need to call the top up department, and wait for 30 minutes for the department staff to pick up the phone. 15) Cautionary measures You need to be careful with your phone although Maastricht is relatively safe. Still, do not put the phone in the pocket of the jacket which is easy to be stolen. It is good to put the money separately in different places, some in the bank and some in the wallet. Do bring cash with you and not fully rely on the ING bank card as there is still a chance that you forget to bring the card with you.
Part 3: Items to bring Checklists for items to brings - Cash (both Euro and Hong Kong dollar) - Hong Kong sim card - *Spare phone - Laptop - Clothing - Slipper - Clothes hangers - Bed sheets - Medicine - Cooker - Kettle - Calculator - Hair dryer - Adaptors - Chargers for phone and laptop - USB & USB cable - Hand cream & lipstick - Travel sets for shampoo and shower gel - Gloves Items that not to bring - Suits - Family-sized shampoo and shower gel - Blankets Part 4: Useful Links ISN Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/isnmaastricht/ UM Guesthouse: https://www.maastrichthousing.com/ Skyscanner: https://www.skyscanner.com.hk/ GoEuro: https://www.goeuro.com/ *Skyscanner and GoEuro are the websites for booking flights and buses for travelling.