Last Days at Webster Leiden

     Well, my times here in the Netherlands have come to an end. It has been so much fun, and I feel a bit sad to leave, though I’m sure my new adventures in China will be just as exciting, if not more. The last couple weeks have been some great ones to end the trip on. On the weekend of October 1-4, a carnival came into Leiden, as it was their famous holiday for Drie Oktober (third of October). The holiday signifies a stance made by the citizens of Leiden against the Spanish in the Eighty Years’ War in 1574. Basically, the Spanish had controlled most of the Netherlands, and when they attacked Leiden, the citizens had fought for days, until the Spanish finally retreated on the 3^rd of October. This represented a turning point in the war for the Netherlands. Therefore, they agreed to give the citizens of Leiden a grand festival each year, in which the people of Leiden would receive free herring and white bread. I tried the herring, and while it was a bit fishy, it was not too bad, although I did put a lot of spicy seasoning on it. The festival was huge, with carnival rides and games on many different plazas. The neatest thing about it, was that it did not exist in a giant parking lot or fairgrounds, it happened on any street or canal that they could squeeze stands on to. There were even some boats that had tables, dance floors, and stages on. Here is a picture of one of the smaller canals:

     That was a very fun weekend. The following weekend, not much went on, as many people were preparing for exams. We did, however, go out in Amsterdam on Saturday night for Karla’s, one of the cohort members, birthday. This was pretty fun. Everyone got dressed up, hopped on a train, and went to dinner then some drinks and dancing. We ate at a traditional Dutch pancake house. This was not your ordinary pancake. They were more for lunch and dinner, as they contained meats and vegetables. I’m not sure if they were for me, but they weren’t too bad. I also knew that if we were celebrating a birthday, it might be smart to fill up on food, in case someone tried to buy some celebratory shots.

     Above is a picture that I took on the way to the train station when heading home. I’m not sure exactly what the building is, but you can see a bit of the Amsterdam train station in the background to the right. As you can probably tell by now, I like the water reflections.

     During exam week, our exams were papers and presentations. For Statistics, two cohort members and I formed a group with a Dutch student to do a practical statistical analysis on a real-world company. Our Dutch friend works for a manufacturing company which sells anything from oil rigs to specific components used for oil drilling. We decided to use his company, as he felt that it may help him move up in his company. It was pretty interesting to see exactly how you can apply statistics to the business world. I didn’t think Statistics was very practical, but this class showed me that there are a few things that I would not mind remembering for later in life. After our presentations, the professor insisted on taking us out and buying us a drink. This was pretty neat; I had never done such a thing with a professor before. In Marketing, we had to give presentations on a full marketing analysis and proposal for a company. My group chose Nike, and we ended up with about an 80-slide presentation. We went all-out, making legitimate print-out posters that even fooled our professor. We printed Nike footprints, and had them running all the way to the door. They even ran up the wall. On the door, we had our poster up, saying to take the “Nike Challenge”. The advertisement was saying that they now made more comfortable shoes for those who did not like the “narrowness” of current Nike’s, and that they could try them for 30 days, returning them for money back if they did not like them. Our professor walked up, read the poster, and said that he believed it was for a company somewhere else in the World Trade Center, as he had seen them advertise for Nike before. I think we did pretty well. After class, he, too, insisted on taking us for a drink. He took us to the bar on the bottom floor of the World Trade Center, and we had a drink with all of the other businessmen that worked in the WTC.

     That night, being done with exams, we went out for a drink with a full-time student named Gregor. He was a Dutch student, and was the president of the business club. He had been assigned as our assistant while in Leiden, so he was constantly working to help us in our daily lives. Therefore, we wanted to take him out to show him our gratitude. Everyone pitched in and we got him a 200 Euro gift-certificate to a nice clothing store in Leiden. He was always well-dressed, so we figured he would appreciate that the most. Below is a picture of a few of us in the program with Gregor, who was standing in the middle:

     It is true, I am very sad to leave. Part of me wishes I could stay in Leiden for the whole year, as it was such a quaint and friendly town. However, the rest of me knows how much different China will be from anything that I am used to. Therefore, I know that every day will offer excitement and adventure. Next stop: Shanghai for a week to attend the World Expo.