24.9
Projects, Projects, Projects…
For the past three weeks, I have been sitting behind my computer and writing assignments, projects reports and bunch of other tasks. The amount of work you have to do during 4 courses feels unbelievable. It would be fine, if we didn’t do a lot of extra and unnecessary work. I have realised here how big difference there is between finnish way of doing things and the dutch way of doing things. The bureaucracy here is hardcore. During the first week of school, 3 lessons were cancelled and we got no message about it, neither was the timetable updated.
In Rotterdam there is no such thing as direct approach to a problem and there is also no direct answer to a question. Everything must be described theoretically and as complicated as it is possible. When you start a project you need to do bunch of stuff and documents with the group before you actually get to a problem – and that is frustrating, because you waste a lot of time and energy on those things that are either common sense in Finland or just self-evident. Because of this, you lose the efficiency and the work you do could be done much faster with less effort and a same result in the end.
Absolutely no flexibility. This is another thing I have noticed and discussed with those rare friends I got here (due to the fact that local people are extremely distant, arrogant, boring and just sad), that teachers here do not understand that a student could sometimes think for himself with his own little head. Some of the students are already doing their 4th year of studies and yet still before every single task they are explained how they should do an assignment of max. 500 words, using the assignment criteria chart. There’s are also no middle ground with most of the teachers – its my way or no way. That is a sad fact, because a huge potential is being killed by following the 1.2.3. steps with no permission of using own thinking or evaluating a problem.
The “applied sciences” part is forgotten totally here. Books are priority #1 and theoretical approach is the only way. We have to read 80-120 pages before every single class and the actual class is then lectured in the way where a teacher asks questions and we have to sit and answer, 60% of the class never read anything so you can imagine how much sense this makes. There are no personal experience examples, there are no examples from real life/world, there are no stories, no newspaper or a book written by a famous person used to elaborate anything. It is boring, it is lacking of quality and it is way behind the 2016 education system, which is funny because we are talking about Netherlands here and not Africa.
The educational system that our school is using is also a huge mess. Everybody knows that its from the era of Dinosauruses, but nobody does anything since there are a cooperation between the software provider and the money was paid and now there is no other options but to use this buggy and broken system. Intranet is like 999 times better and more sufficient – I can’t even use the local system in english. Email is used to send the assignments to teachers and visa versa, which is a joke to be honest and not a professional way of doing things.
Half of the materials provided are in dutch, so imagine the easiness of starting the projects.
90% of the people I met here are distant, fake, arrogant, boring, full of themselves and I have no idea who told dutch people that they are direct and straight forward in their actions, because they can’t even handle the directness. A total respect and love back to Finland, because compared to what I have seen for the past 5 weeks now, Finland is awesome.
I can not recommend the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences to any finnish student, because it sure feels like a huge step back and the quality difference is amazing between TAMK and RUAS.
The first day in Rotterdam and especially in my room was not a very pleasant experience. Even the hard rain which was pouring on the city did not depress us, but arriving at the Erasmus International House and seeing my room did the job. The room was in such a bad condition that still up to this moment I do not understand how can an organization rent such a room after seeing that it is clearly not in a shape for renting or do not stand up to a basic standard and what I have paid for. My flat mate is having the same problem and currently we are trying to do everything to get out of here, because paying a rent for this sh**hole is something we are not going to do.
The fact that it was Sunday did not help our case, since it’s a day off for the offices and their staff. We had a discussion about the flat with a helpful guy who is taking care of the office inside the Erasmus House, but he can’t make any decisions and still needs to connect those who can. This will obviously take some time and every extra minute spent in this apartment is a minute too much. This morning I woke up with a smell of a public toilet and in a couple of days that smell will stay in my clothes and belongings no matter where I go. Not a pleasant experience so far.
There is a difference between bad quality and a disgusting sight – hopefully SSH will fix this during the next 1-2 days, because this is not what I paid for and will not continue to pay.
Thank you for this awesome start Erasmus International Housing and SSH!
Other than that, things are fine. Rotterdam is a cool city.
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