Arrival in Potchefstroom

Well, I am glad to say that I arrived safely in Potch. I arrived here saturday morning and at that point I was the only international student in the house, so at night I was a little bit scared because of all the strange sounds around the house. But fortunately another student arrived at night: Anna she is from Germany. I was glad that she arrived so I wasn`t all alone anylonger. On sunday there isn`t much to do around here: people go to church and everything is arranged around that. So I was just reading a little and sitting in the sun. The classes only start on the 12th of February so I have still 2 weeks of vacation here, although I do have to get started on my thesis. Today Tamara is arriving in Potch and we were invited to go to a gamefarm of a friend of mine this weekend, so I am really looking forward to that.

Wintercourse

The last week of the Wintercourse has been very exhausting. Wednesday we had a closing seminar with interesting lectures, unfortunately I missed the one of Prof. van Genugten which was very interesting, but they changed the programme last minute so I wasn`t able to participate in this lecture. After the seminar we had diner and drinks in Tilburg. On thursday we had to leave very early: the buss would take us to The Hague at 7.15. In The Hague we visited the International Criminal Court, and although they didn`t tell me anything that I didn`t already know, it was very interesting to visit the ICC. After our visit to the ICC we visited the Hall of Knights and the Second Chamber, where a debat was being held. The debat wasn`t very interesting for the South African students because they couldn`t really understand what was being discussed. Later that day the buss dropped us off at the hostel where we would send the night. We went shopping, but the shops closed earlier than usual because of the storm. We had diner at an Italian restaurant and drinks at the hostel. The next morning we woke up at 5.30 because the South African students had a plain to catch! I wasn`t really sad that they were leaving, because I will see them again next week. I made some nice friends during the Wintercourse and I am glad I was part of the organization this year.

South African students

With only 2 weeks to go before I leave for South Africa, it is nice to have a group of South African students in Tilburg right now. They arrived last tuesday and Tamara and I went to pick them up at Schiphol Airport. Tuesday evening we planned a `welcome to Tilburg` diner, which was a good opportunity to get to know the students. Wednesday we went iceskating, which was very funny, because most of them had never seen ice before. Although I expected that they would be terrible at iceskating, they were actually very good. Tomorrow we will go to the Zaanse Schans, for some real Dutch stuff.