{"id":1907,"date":"2017-10-27T13:31:53","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T12:31:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/hss-placements\/?p=1907"},"modified":"2018-08-31T15:26:25","modified_gmt":"2018-08-31T14:26:25","slug":"rotterdam-or-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/students\/2017\/10\/27\/rotterdam-or-anywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Rotterdam or Anywhere ..."},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting Here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liv:\u00a0<\/em>Anytime that somebody asked me if I was excited to go on placement my face most likely said I'm not sure even though I was so excited!!! Obviously I was apprehensive and nervous!! Moving to a new city,\u00a0 having an actual job, meeting new people, making new friends (again), not having my dinners cooked and my washing done for me like I\u2019ve just got used to again living at home for 3 months and of course the big question, will there be a local Zara in this new city?<\/p>\n

Kate:\u00a0<\/em>I am not afraid to confess I lack culture. Cheshire is renowned for footballers and their wives, although unfortunately I can\u2019t claim to be either. As much as I love home, I will be the first to admit it is hardly a bright lights, big city. That had always suited me and before arriving in Rotterdam I wasn\u2019t sure city life would be for me.\u00a0I am not the most streetwise, even in Manchester I could only probably only direct you to the Arndale and back on a good day. But maybe that is all the more reason to take the chance and see what the next year holds.<\/p>\n

Kate:\u00a0<\/em>My parents flew out with me, mainly just so I could utilise the extra baggage allowance. Flying to Schiphol in under one hour (taxiing the runway was definitely longer than the flight itself), we then had a short train ride to Rotterdam. This turned out to be stressful viewing as the Dutch apparently don\u2019t feel the need to put all the station stops on the information board, only the final one. So unless you know that, you aren\u2019t going anywhere quickly.<\/p>\n

Liv:\u00a0<\/em>Okay firstly, packing is stressful, but packing to live away from home for 10 months that is practically breakdown worthy. \u201cOnly the essentials\u201d, \u201cpacking lightly\u201d and \u201cbaggage allowance\u201d are not words that work well with me so 6 suitcases later we\u2019re eventually travelling the short and sweet 185 miles from my home to my new city: Rotterdam.<\/p>\n

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Views from the 8th<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Let\u2019s get this adventure started\u2026<\/p>\n

First Week at Work:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Liv:\u00a0<\/em>After a tearful goodbye on a sunny Sunday afternoon it was time to settle in, meet my flat mates and be prepared for our first day of work.<\/p>\n

So, we are working at BeLife which is a specialist rehabilitation centre \/ human performance centre where we are working as Clinical Exercise Physiologists (we\u2019re not quite sure what it means yet either). Our first day did not go quite as we had planned, BeLife had taken on one of their biggest projects to date, and no that wasn\u2019t us! We had plenty of people to meet but just not quite the time to do it!<\/p>\n

Day 2 went a little more smoothly and by day 3 we were proficient lab cleaners and had started with real work \u2026 kind of!<\/p>\n

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Modelling our lovely uniform<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Understandably we were not let loose on the clients straight away, so we did some experimenting of our own in the lab\u2026<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the evidence, some went better than others\u2026.<\/p>\n

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When working 40 hours a week is too much...<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Allergic to this working life!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Little Bit of Culture:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Experimenting with the culture obviously means \u2026 FOOD!!!<\/p>\n

A quick introduction to Dutch cuisine from the friendly faces at work include:<\/p>\n