For an overall review, I think my integration into the Dutch society has been quite smooth: I don’t encounter any big difficulty. I think that the experiences that I had when I arrived to France from Vietnam have taught me a lot. Moreover, the program that I study here being a special program for exchange students, I have other international friends who are empathy with me and the Dutch teachers and friends are aware of our differences: we have the class of Intercultural, the Dutch friends know that we – the international students- are ‘new in town’ and don’t have an as good English as them, thus pay attention on listening to us.
Furthermore, I don’t have to frustrated with the administration papers but instead, feeling welcomed by the staffs from the International Student Office, or the Housing office.

However, there still are things that are new for me and that I have to adapt to.

The first thing is the use of the Internet, of social media and especially the Blackboard. Indeed, in the beginning, I didn’t know that I have to look at the Backboard everyday to check the classroom number or for possible changes on the schedule, the announcements from the teachers, etc. Moreover, most of the assignments are sent to the teachers by e-mail, the scholar results, the enrollment for exams are also done through Blackboard. In addition, I have to use Facebook a lot as we use Facebook to share documents, divide the work or announce news. For instance, I have now 2 Facebook groups for the two minors, about 7 other group pages for the team projects or presentations that I’ve had.
Now, I’ve gotten used to this frequent use of the Internet and appreciate it a lot more. However, I still remind myself not to abuse the virtual communication and underestimate the importance of face-to-face contacts.

The second thing is the task-oriented and the relaxing attitude of the Dutch. Indeed, I was surprised to feel that the Dutch were quite free of stress and discussed little. Now, I’m trying learning from them, taking things easy and focusing on solving the problem. I think it’s more productive.

Last but not least, after more than 6 months being in Groningen, I’m convinced that ‘more clothes, it’s always better’. Don’t be fooled by the sunlight, the blue sky: it can get really cold outside, or can snow 10 minutes later. One morning, when I got up, the sky was grey.  Like 1 hour later, it turned to be sunny. Then suddenly, it snowed for about half an hour and became sunny again… And the weather switched like that for the whole day.