Future Student

Studying Law for 3 weeks

2009-09-15T08:05:00.000-07:00

Soooo finally i have some time to write again. Lots of stuff is going on and i have to tell alot about studying law. Obviously i don't have much time, as u may have noticed. Well let me explain. My week is not so bad on the first sight. I have only two days in the week when i have to go to university. One lecture and a tutorial on one day and a second tutorial on another day. That's all! Buut. I have to meet with my group on another day to work on assignments. So that's three days every week. On the first day each week (for my course at the moment of course)we don't have to know anything, we will get our theme in the tutorial. Then we have some time to discuss and talk about this theme. Then we get our assignment for the week which is to research and make a principal about our theme. we have to do this in a small group with 3-4 people. We meet and talk about it and finish our assignment. Then the groups will present their solutions in the next tutorial. Furthermore we have to read and do exercise on our own between those tutorials. Then comes the hard time. We have to research on our own and write a paper each week. I wont go into detail but that's the hardest part in my opinion.

How is the University? Hows studying law so far?

It is great. I love the way we have to work here. We have to do mostly everything on our own. The groups are really nice and people are eager to learn (not everyone of course). The whole university is really nice and modern. Studying law is great too so far. It may be the learning method but its really fun. I don't think i would like to study law in Germany where you have big lectures. Its not only fun but u really learn while you discuss and talk with each other.
So far its great. I will write about that later.

Hows living on your own?

Its great! Cooking for myself isn't that big a deal. but its a change if you always have to work before you can eat. Then wash the dishes. haha.
I (only) have a bike and there comes another problem. I can only go shopping with bike. So i have to leave big things in the shop.. And riding the bike.. i still have pain sitting on it, after 3 weeks of riding it everyday. Well it will go away soon i hope/think. I have to go now but i will write updates soon.

Finally studying?

2009-08-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

So finally i moved in my new student room and i mostly finished unpacking all my stuff. Yesterday was my introduction day. I loved it! The University looked really great, the people were nice and of course maastricht is one great city. I will write more about that later. I met one of my new roommates and he seemed nice! My food is still in the fridge too so one thing less to worry about. I still need to figure out where i can buy cheap food though! Lately I'm not so hungry anyways, i wonder why. The regular classes start at 1. September. So then i can write about how it is to study law. Being away from home isn't that great than most students would expect it to be, well i think so. Now i have to do everything on my own including cooking and doing the laundry. But so far its not so bad. And i think i will enjoy it more later on. Also the move was kinda strange. We brought everything in my room, my furniture and all the other stuff. They then went and i had to sit in a room full of unpacked and loose furniture. Not so nice. But my room looks nice now and i have Internet (obviously) and cable TV. I still have problems with that admission process, even though i have done everything they asked.

Moving in my new Room

2009-08-21T04:29:00.000-07:00

Just a short note! Tomorrow i will finally move so today i have to prepare everything. We will ride with two cars, that should be enough. Well my room isn't that big anyways. I found a nice room in a house with 4 other roommates. I have no idea how it will be, i hope they are all clean and nice and wont eat my stuff from the shared kitchen!! At least i know one of my future roommates, my girlfriend is moving in the same house too! I have two bigger brothers who are already studying, one in Germany the other one in the Netherlands. Unfortunately kinda far away from my future uni. One of them was in a house with 5 other girls as roommates! Guys would think that's heaven but it was the absolute opposite! He told me they did nothing and were kinda messy. They didn't clean the kitchen or the bath. I hope i will have better roommates. The landlord is strict from what have heard.. I really need to go get all my stuff together now, i haven't done much so far.

Study abroad?

2009-08-19T06:26:00.000-07:00

Today i want to tell you why i decided to study abroad. Why should you want to study abroad? In my case it was an easy
decision. I already went to school in an international environment. I live in Antwerp in Belgium. Initially i come from Germany so my family decided to put me in a German school. I ended up going to an international School in Brussels. When i thought about studying i couldn't imagine to go back to my home country. I wanted to make my study time an exiting new and international experience. I thought about studying in Belgium, when i told my mom she was more then happy. "Oh so you can even stay here and live with us". You can imagine that is not really what a future student wants. I want to be independent and free. I waited 18 years for that! Well as i told you i chose the Netherlands ultimately. What benefits do i expect from studying abroad? That's simple. the international experience will show my future employer that I'm open, respectful with other cultures and always open for new developments! As i already went to school in a different country i have a small advantage. I also would like to make new friends not only who speak my language but also others. Eventually you will end up with a great diversity friends all over the world! Furthermore you will learn to except other cultures or maybe you will even stay in your country of choice. All in all you will have a more sophisticated view on your country, your home country and the world. There are much more benefits for studying abroad but i have to prepare moving in my new room now! I will write about that soon too!

Admission and other study related Problems

2009-08-08T06:35:00.000-07:00

I told you yesterday i would start studying soon. Well that's only half true. After i was sure i want to study law i thought about where? what specific? I went to an international school in Brussels and i was sure i want to stay in the area. The Netherlands was my country of choice and soon i found myself looking up universities there. The 'infamous' Maastricht University was also one of these. Many students from my school decide to study there. It is said to be a modern uni with unique learning system the Problem-Based-Learning (short: Pbl) and is also said to be very international. I looked up their law programs and found one taught entirely in English that fitted my expectations:European Law school. Actually I'm quite exited how it will be! If there wasn't one Problem. This darn admission process. I applied quite early, i didn't even had the copy of my School Degree. after sum weeks i got a Letter back and was happy to be admitted. I just had to 'finish' school and nothing more. My marks were OK, i thought everything is fine. Well now I'm stuck with admission. Send this send that, over and over again. Please register online there then there and send again a copy of that. I was and still am really confused. I think at the moment i have send everything twice or triple with regular mail and email. And still no sign of an end. It's a bit frustrating but I'm sure i will get done soon. I really advise you to apply early to get everything done and i think that's important at every university not only in Maastricht. Also keep in touch with the university and make some pressure! But the service they provide isn't bad, they are really nice and quick in replying on questions. All in all I'm really exited to finally study in Maastricht. I visited the town several times and i loved it on first sight. From my visits it looked very international. I walked down a shopping street and from every corner i could hear people speaking English, German and dutch of course. I also have another problem: How i manage my financials! Well that's something i will write about tomorrow.

Studying Law, something for me?

2009-08-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Finishing school is a exiting and happy moment for mostly all of the students around the world. Many already knew what they want to do since kindergarten others made up their mind recently and again others just have no idea at all. Sad as it is, it was different for me. Since my early days as a little boy crawling on the ground i liked to draw and paint. I did paint with everything even with eggs on windows or toothpaste on mirrors. U may ask yourself why am i saying this and the headline of my post is 'Studying Law'. There's some explanation needed.So when i grew up i thought why not do something with art, design maybe? So i just relied on this choice i made ages ago and when school was coming to an end i began doubting. Suddenly i was a bit shocked and also taken by surprise that maybe i don't want to actually study art. Why? I couldn't imagine working in this field. I don't want to be a freelance artist nor did i want to do design for companies or do art at all. I was really shocked. What do i want to do? Everyone around me had thought about this ages ago or made their choices in the last weeks/months. So what to do? I thought about what i like, but more importantly as what i want to work later? When i thought about this i thought about my characteristics, what i like to do, what i don't like, do i want to work with people? I had many things in mind, but i always came back to law.I loved the idea to work as lawyer or legal adviser in law firms. I thought about me, could i do this is this really the right choice for me? One of my 'bad' habits is that i always want to be right even if i am not. Is that enough? I can learn things quite fast without much trouble. I like working with people helping them fighting for their cases. Hm maybe law isn't such a bad choice after all. I looked up more things, more choices, friends and family were helping but again i always came back to law. Fascination Why? I don't know. I hope i made the right choice. I will start studying law in one month. In this blog i will talk about mostly anything from student life, classes, to cooking and all the stuff that comes together. I will also talk about my art (i still like it).