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| The UMD13 Pinoy Team (sans Jec and Viggo)! |
Opening day was, uhm, to say the least, perfunctory.
Ohitheres, casual welcome cum-orientation program (there was a pretty nice Dutch culture orientation and introductions all around of the people who were just names in email exchanges), free lunch (that vanished too quickly), administrative stuff (among others, we received our first month's allowance in cash since we didn't have local bank accounts yet), formal-ish opening program (with an opening lecture & all - already!) and cocktails (free drinks!).
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| Ohithere! This scene greeted us on our first day of stepping into the IHS. This is the library cum study area cum socials area. Yes, it has an actual bar. |
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| How cute - a welcome swag bag! |
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| No kidding, my first school locker - ever! |
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| Still in a daze, I silently freaked out whenever I see my name on stuff. |
For the orientation thingie, we were led through a lecture hall at a building just across from IHS'. As mentioned above, the flow was all mostly about the general practicalities.
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| Like finances. |
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| Dutch candies. |
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| And spotting the difference between a mug shot and the actual person. ☺ |
(Hot tip: Sit out front and dress nicely, preferably with
cultural accents, if you want to appear sharp in the official photos
that'll most likely appear in IHS marketing peripherals.)
For the actual opening program later that afternoon, we were again led to a different venue, walking distance off campus. And it was pretty fancy, had a less-academic more-professional feel to it.
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| We were there for those giant jars, really. |
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| And the drinks! Cheers to the year ahead - UMD13! |
P.S. We didn't stay long and made a beeline for the nearby grocery, Plus, to grab some supplies. The walk back to the campus/dorm was not bad.
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| Rotterdam's Nieuwe Maas River |
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| Very Rotterdam - a juxtaposition of a boat house and an awkward-looking slanting apartment building. |
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| The building next to the tower (could be one building) is actually where we had the opening program. |
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| Isn't it lovely? |
