Vakken A

I want to start today's blog with a word.  A very important Dutch word.  A very special word. It means subjects, as in courses.

Vakken.  

Type it into Google Translate and ask Siri or whoever does that voice-over to pronounce it for you.  It sounds strangely familiar.  You will never forget the word VAKKEN.

The topic of VAKKEN happens to describe my day.  Today was orientation day for Erasmus School of Law.  Classes officially start on September 2, but actually start on September 9.  This leaves 10 days to fill with travel, studying, learning a language, more Rotterdam, staring blankly at walls, watching paint dry, resurrecting Dutch monarchs, etc.  I'm fairly sure I'd like to go with the travel option, but I'm also open to the others.  I could accomplish the first and last by going to my #1 desired travel destination (Stonehenge) and performing some mystical seance thing or whatever the kids do these days.

Back on track...I began the day by meeting with the professor from my EU Internal Market Law class (if I make it that far without unleashing a plague of zombie monarchs).  I wanted to clarify what was meant in the syllabus by "moot court."  It is exactly what I thought.  Apparently I will have to write an appellate brief to the General Court or European Court of Justice as the representative for an EU Member State.  I then have to present my argument orally, presumably in front of the professor.  Luckily, since basic procedural matters have mostly been resolved by the time a case reaches the EU judiciary, the argument will almost exclusively rely on legal merits.  I'm fairly intimidated at the thought of doing this, but I know it will be a really fantastic learning experience and it involves group work.  The professor was also extremely nice and left me feeling optimistic about my preparedness for the course.

Afterwards I went on a quick campus tour.  The campus is fairly standard, with blocky architecture (which I previously described as a "pleasant concentration camp" aesthetic) and dark neutral tones; however, certain areas are punctuated by modern abstract artwork:

I wonder how much slavery went into this wonderful glaswerk.  According to urban legend which I am just making up now, the above art actually spells Arbeit Macht Frei.  Curious, since that's not even a Dutch phrase.  Yet, my guess is that very little prisoner labor went into such an expressive piece, considering the slavery must be focused on the massive construction undertaking which has now absorbed about half of the entire campus:

That is the actual map.  I did not Photoshop it.  I hope there's Dutch worker's compensation for students if a brick falls on my face during class.

After the tour, I headed to the School of Law's orientation program (beforehand I ate at the campus restaurant, where I ordered a pizza margherita with mozzarella di bufala - MOLTO BENE).  I met up with Marta, the other FSU student on the exchange program, and also met a very nice Ethiopian exchange student.  The orientation itself included a number of presentations, ranging from pertinent student organizations to an overview of the Netherlands and its legal culture.  In particular, I found the presentation on the Netherlands quite interesting.  I learned that the Dutch are actually the tallest people in the world, like to plan and be punctual, complain a lot, and have given up all hope of rebuilding an empire so they have turned to mining meteorites for precious metals in order to fulfill their devious plan for forced world punctuality.  I may be misinformed on one of those things.  I also learned that Rotterdam is one of the few European cities with a skyline, due to the fact that the German Luftwaffe bombed the VAKKEN out of the city during World War II so there was no historical center to preserve.        
                
Erasmus then decided to throw all of the exchange and international students a nice party on the 17th floor of one of the buildings.  The food and drink were amazing, but the view was even more amazing:

I made a lot of new friends in 2 hours.  One in particular happens to be Italian, so she and I are going to try to be language partners while we're here.  I also met someone who will be participating in an exchange program with FSU next semester.  Small world.

Today's extra Dutch lesson:
- Ja (Yes)/Nee (No).
- Goedemorgen. (Good morning.)