Holidays in Hull

My Dutch blogs are starting to look similar every week, so this time a blog in English. This week I had my second deadline, and this assignment was more difficult than the one from the Language School. I had to write about the policy of the central banks during the recent financial crisis. The topic is interesting, but after 4 days of reading and using different kind of statistics and a lot of numbers, I concluded that a job at a central bank won’t fit me that well.

Still, the life here feels a bit like having long holidays. In Holland, as some people might know, my agenda is pretty full of appointments. Here in Hull I don’t have a job, so I could spend more time studying but I’m afraid that I like the ‘international life’ here on campus more than the study-part of this semester. But I’m glad that I learn about economics and financial markets, I’m convinced that money will always play a powerful role.

Last weekend started with having a great dinner, especially the desserts were very delicious. I ate cake as dessert and afterwards at a small party I tried another Brazilian cake, this time not the rainy cakes but a cake decorated with nutella and smarties!

In my last blog I wrote about the conversation I had with one of my lectures. He told me he studied in Enschede (in the east of the Netherlands). This week another lecturer asked me where I come from, and he told me he studied in Groningen (in the very north of the Netherlands). He ended the conversation with ‘tot ziens’, the Dutch expression for ‘goodbye’.

The education system is different in England: public school are expensive (private) school and state-schools are the schools financed by the government. I’m very glad that I was not forced to wear a school-uniform in primary school and high school. In Holland most schools are mixed schools, but here in England it is quite common to go to school only for girls, or boys.

My mom sent me special spices from Holland, to make ‘nasi’: a recipe with rice, meat and vegetables and a sauce made of peanut butter. It tasted very good! Last week I had Brazilian food, including the Brazilian temperature (the heating was fully turned on) and Brazilian music. The food tasted very good, especially because some ingredients came from Brazil (they travelled a long way from Brazil to England in a suitcase haha). I regret I haven’t learned Spanish or Portugese at high school, because those languages could be useful here!

After reading and writing about central banks this last Saturday it was definitely time to relax, so the evening started with pre-drinks: this time malibu mixed with pineapple juice instead of the English cider. With a small group we went to a pub, where some old crazy English people were celebrating a birthday. Afterwards, we wanted to go to a houseparty, but the houseparty was not really crowded and therefore we decided to go to the nightclub on campus: Asylum. Sunday was lazy day, with in the evening the Brazilian dinner.

Yesterday we did what the Hull-students do: going to the nightclub without a jacket. We left our jackets in the house near the nightclub and ran to the entrance of the nightclub. Because of the running no one felt cold. Yesterday I celebrated the birthdays of Radka and Nicole; eating together with the ‘eating club’ and Radka all surprised us with a real good birthday cake: a pancake-cake!

In a few minutes I will go to another pre-drink, but this time we won’t go partying because tomorrow our 3-day trip to three cities starts: first we visit Birmingham, followed by Oxford and we end in Cambridge.