Easy like a Sunday Morning

This morning the overcast weather looks quite charming. Either I have gained an appreciation for bleak grey clouds over night, or I am feeling the positive effect of getting to the end of a particularly busy week.

The end of this week marks the end of block two and the official halfway point of my LLM. The thought of the latter gives me a bubbly excited feeling mixed with the mental mantra that if I keep focused I will really make the most of this program. Let’s call it so far so good for now. To top it off, the end of the week also signals a week off of classes to relax and recoup. Since there was no break between blocks one and two, this newfound holiday feels like a special treat.

The week started with a coffee-infused blur of paper deadlines (the only upside to big final papers being that there are no exams) followed by grade reviews, tying up the loose ends of final projects and having final meetings. Of course, some work continues over to the next block, but nobody is thinking of that work when there are assignments to finish up.

The week ended on a high note. Friday marked the halfway point of my six-month clinical program with the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM). Our research internship with SIM is split into two three-month sections during which I, along with three colleagues, do research for two different clients. The first project proved to be challenging but very interesting work and we travelled to the Hague (Den Haag) bright and early Friday morning to give the final presentation of our work.

As a very generous thank you, we received one research book and picked one mystery Dutch-related book each at the end of our presentation. For my Dutch-related book, I unwrapped it to find I had chosen the Diary of Anne Frank, a book that I haven’t read in many years. I flipped to the first page on the train ride home and found myself looking at a small passage from the original diary of Anne Frank written in Dutch. I was amazed to see I could actually understand it. It’s times like that you really feel you’re making progress. Who knows, maybe one day I will have the pleasure of reading the whole book in its original language.

After a long week, I spent Saturday afternoon strolling through the streets of Amsterdam with a friend before grabbing a quick celebratory dinner in a cute restaurant in the city center and hopping on the train back. It’s nice to get out of Utrecht and explore the unknown city streets of bustling Amsterdam, but it always feels good at the end of the day to come home.

Today is a day of tea, minor amounts of housework and taking it easy. I should probably be thinking about making a final choice on my thesis topic, but I think I can happily leave that until the start of the new week.

Until the next time/Tot de volgende keer!

Erin

Gelukkig Nieuwjaar iedereen!

A very Happy New Year to you all.

I am back at university after a lovely (and much needed) two and a half weeks at home in Ireland for the Christmas holidays. Alas, I was not in the Netherlands to experience ‘first Christmas day’, ‘second Christmas day’, or even the unofficial but intriguing ‘third Christmas day’, but I was happy to enjoy the Irish tradition of a full turkey dinner. With the minor exception of one large assignment that could not be ignored, I am happy to report I avoided almost all thought of deadlines and university meetings. Not to mention, I realized that when chatting to people about my day-to-day life in the Netherlands, I referred to it with ease as “home”.

The end of 2013 was a challenging mish-mash of paper deadlines, daily meetings, and small moments of panic. As may be proven by my lack of blogs (and general social life), I found myself completely swamped with work. Of course, it does not help that I signed up for the ICC Moot Court, which is an additional 7.5 ECTS beyond the required courses of my Master’s program. Buyer beware: this program offers many excellent opportunities to build your CV and get involved, but make sure you only take on as much as you can handle. The many opportunities (internships, Moot Court, clinical programs etc.) mean there is certainly the temptation to do so.

Now, the new year is in full swing. The first week of classes is over and there is no time to waste. Aside from moving house in the middle of the year due to my lease being up (something you wouldn’t have to do with university accommodation), I am facing the final deadlines of the second period. The bad news is that it has been straight back to work. The good news is that I have much more energy after the long break. Most excitingly, it means I am very close to the halfway point. Hallelujah!

But what would the new year be without a list of resolutions? So here it goes. My hopes for the year include the following:

1) Better time management: This means not letting approaching deadlines mean challenging all-nighters. Now that it’s a new year, and I’m much wiser than I was in September, I’ve decided the best way to approach my Master’s is by treating it like a full-time job. This means library time 9-5 on workdays. Of course, there are always exceptions, but for the most part I will get my work done during the day and have my evenings free so I can sit back and relax.

2) Travel more: Being in the Netherlands offers so many great opportunities to explore Europe, and I plan to make the most of them. Great cities like Paris, Barcelona and Berlin are calling my name. Not to mention, I need to get myself out of Utrecht if I ever want to discover the other places in the Netherlands I might love (although probably not as much).

3) Strike a balance: Now that I am almost halfway, it is time to focus on striking a balance between university life and everything else. The usual incentive to be healthy that the new year brings is suited to Utrecht with its fresh vegetable markets and its beautiful parks to jog in. With the warm winter (it has been nothing but sunny days since I got back), it is easy to get outside and take advantage of the city’s many cultural events. It’s also good for taking study breaks outside, or what one classmate recently referred to as “sanity walks.”

4) Appreciate: With such a hectic lifestyle, it can sometimes be easy to forget to appreciate everything around you. When panic about a deadline sets in, I often ask myself “Why did I ever do a Master’s?” and when I can’t figure out something Dutch-related, it’s tempting to jump to “What am I doing here?”. The fact is there are always going to be some off-days, but the majority of the time I am amazed by the place I live in and the quality of work I produce as part of my program. Now I only need to take the time to slow down and appreciate it while it happens.

So there you have it. The new year brings a series of small changes that will improve my study habits and should bring me all the way to the end of my thesis with my health, happiness, and sanity in tact. Wish me luck, or as the Dutch say “Duim voor me” (twiddle your thumbs for me). Who ever said all direct translations make sense?

Until the next time/Tot de volgende keer!

Erin

Washing machines, Worries and Wanderlust

Life as an international student is always an adventure. This morning I woke up to the sound of *drip *drip *drip as my laundry machine leaked more water than it spun, flooding the top floor of the apartment and finding its way through a crack in my bedroom ceiling and falling to the floorboards. Queue a frantic email to my landlord (who happens to be conveniently in New Zealand). Don’t worry though – I don’t currently live in university provided accommodation. Suddenly, it’s starting to look like a very good option for next semester.

Laundry machine safely unplugged, but startled awake, I headed to the gym for an early morning class. The gym, TrainMore (just one of many options), is relatively cheap and right in the middle of the city, conveniently located next to the law library. It’s the perfect stress reliever and a welcome opposite to sitting in lectures and libraries, provided you can find the time. The only other thing you might need is motivation and despite my good intentions for the gym, Block 1 got the best of me and found me scrambling to find a balance. As of this week, we’re officially in Block 2. New block, different schedule, and hopefully more of a balance now that we’re all a bit more used to the pace of LLM life. *fingers crossed*

The start of Block 2 is a quick reboot after the finish of Block 1 last week. The past two weeks were a whirlwind of handing in papers, getting results and taking exams. The two highlights as everything came to a close were the moot court we participated in (that counts for 50% of our grade) and my first-ever open book exam.

It’s hard to say which I found more daunting, but I think the moot court exercise wins. From the moment I saw it on the syllabus, I was dreading having to stand up in front of my classmates and argue my case. For a journalism graduate/non-lawyer it was a scary feeling, but as it turns out everyone had the same jittery nerves on the day, lawyer or not. This was good because it meant no one was laughing or judging (we left that to the two judges in robes hearing our case and rapidly firing questions at us). Instead, we were rooting for each other and hoping all teams did well, even when we secretly wished our team would win. In my case, I’m sad to report the Defense council did not win, but overall the experience was great and felt very rewarding after the six weeks we had been working on the case, with the added bonus of winning best speaker on the day. 

LLM Human Rights and Criminal Justice moot court 2013

Since I run the risk of only sounding happy about the moot court now that it’s over, I can safely say it must have been enjoyable because I have now signed up to participate in the ICC Moot Court that takes place in May in the Hague, representing Utrecht University (along with 4 other colleagues) against 30 teams from all over the world. Yes, I am slightly terrified, but what doesn’t kill you gets you a law Masters, right?

The other challenge of the past two weeks was our open book exam. While you might think ‘open book’ sound incredibly easy because you have all of the answers at your fingertips, the exam is a three-hour race to find those answers. No excuses!

I haven’t gotten my grade back so I’m still anxiously waiting to know if I conquered this open book test after all. One thing I do know for sure is that I have become considerably better at bookmarking. Not to mention, I got my handy sticky-note booklet free from the law society. They must’ve known what was in store for me better than I did.

As the weeks go by and streets get lit up for Christmas and of course the Dutch Sinterklaas (celebrated on December 5^th), I count the ways I am turning fully-fledged Dutch and the little things that make me stand out as clearly international.

On the Dutch side, you know you’re turning Dutch when:
- You start craving delicious treats associated with Sinterklaas such as Speculaas and Pepernoten. 
- You plan your shopping for Thursday evening because you know that’s the only late night shopping of the week. 
- You yell ‘Goedemorgen’ enthusiastically to the rubbish sweepers at 7am on the way back from the train station after a weekend away from this city (that of course you missed).

On the not-so-Dutch side, you’re still international when:

- You and your roommate dress up to hand out candy to children on Halloween and are disappointed to realize Dutch children celebrate Sint Maarten and do their version of trick-or-treating (with homemade lanterns instead of costumes) on November 11^th.

- You still forget to put on gloves when leaving the house and then realize just how chilly your hands get when you’re biking the short trip to school. 

- Every time the cashier at the Albert Heijn asks you ‘Wil je een bonnetje?’ (Would you like a receipt), you still tilt you head to the side, stare blankly and say uncertainly “Ahhhh……no.”

The great thing about the (short) break between blocks means there is time to travel. Utrecht is the perfect starting point for a weekend away, whether it’s to one of Europe’s most popular cities (on my bucket list: Barcelona, Berlin, Lisbon, Budapest) or to explore one of the other great cities in the Netherlands. There are several inexpensive ways to get around. If you book in advance and do a little research you can find yourself on a weekend away even on a student budget. I luckily had the chance to travel between Block 1 and Block 2, after days of comparing cheap flights and bus rides across Europe, but that’s a whole other blog, so stay tuned!

Until the next time/Tot de volgende keer!

Erin