Accommodation in Groningen 2.0
You chose for a study programme in Groningen and you already have the permission for your programme?! If you can answer those questions with a ’yes’, you should start thinking about your new home in Groningen.
Finding an appropriate accommodation is not easy, especially in Groningen. Looking for accommodation in the peak season - August and September – can be a nightmare. We therefore advice all international students to try to arrange accommodation AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
There are two ways of living in Groningen:
Tips & Tricks: How to find cheap furniture
At some point everyone has to face the challenge called find the perfect accommodation in Groningen but even if you manage to do that there is the additional trial to buy some furniture because most of the rooms in Groningen are not furnished and it is up to you how comfortable and pretty your home is going to be. Even when you are international student, living in some of Housing office’s student houses keep in mind that they are providing only the basic furniture like a bed and a table and in most cases students prefer to add some personal touch to this almost empty picture, so let me give you some tips and tricks how to deal with the matter.
The first solution and most expensive one is going to the good old IKEA, which is situated at Sontweg 9, a little bit far from all major sights of the city but can be reached with busses 9, 22, 73 and 76. The IKEA in Groningen is one of the biggest in the Netherlands and offers a great variety of products, in other words the possibility not to find what you are looking for is very little, the price is a different question.
The opening hours are:
Monday –Frida: 10am–9pm
Saturday: 9am–8pm
On Sunday it is closed.
Even if you don’t have what to buy there, still it is interesting to just visit since it can definitely you’re your boredom at least for one full day.
Moving on our next and cheaper option is buying second hand furniture. I will recommend Mamamini, which is a shop for secondhand stuff; you can find everything from junk and clothes to reasonable furniture. Keep in mind checking if some kind of bugs hasn’t decide to claim your new sofa for theirs. In Groningen there are three Mamamini stores for you to choose. Be sure that all of them have completely different furniture compare to the previous, so if you don’t find something that you like in the first who knows maybe you will be lucky in the second. Here is a map to check the locations or you can just Google it for yourself.
Last but not least, is to buy your furniture from other students; normally this is the cheapest solution.
First you can have a look at the different student houses, typically there are sell-advertisements on the ground floor but I don’t really believe that anyone will really start going from house to house just search for someone’s old chair, so let’s go to the more convenient option.
You can join the Facebook group “For sale in Groningen”, where people offer you their old stuff on quite reasonable prices. The variety is not limited to furniture only but you can buy a bike or something else. The group is all in English and all the items offered are shown on photos for you to know what exactly you are buying. In addition, you can negotiate the price if the seller is willing to do so.
With this my little lecture is over, I wish you good luck in decorating your perfect room!
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Getting a job after graduation
At the beginning of the year one of my professors told us: “Being a master student is a full time job!”. Everything was true. Plus, I would like to add that you will work a lot of “unpaid overtime” hours and weekends in order to successfully graduate.
Searching for a job as an international student is again a full time job. So, in order to make your life easier I would like to give you some tips and tricks from my job hunting experience.
1. Monster.com – is probably the biggest job board available. It has many options and filters that will help you find your dream job faster.
2. LinkedIn – the well-known social media platform for jobs has some limitations when it comes to search filters, but you can find many companies posting their announcements here.
3. iagora.com – is great a great tool to find internships, graduate programs, but also jobs. Before paying the premium features, please search the announcement on google. Sometime you will be able to find the original job description and to apply directly on the company website. For example: Step1: premium job announcement: “Site Editors are the final stage in the deal creation system, giving each (COMPANY NAME) its own web page.” Step 2: google search for “Site Editors are the final stage in the deal creation system, giving each”. Step 3: google search results number one – the company name is Groupon UK. Step 4: go to groupon website and apply directly by avoiding to pay the premium fee.
4. graduateland.com – this website is focused on graduate programs, but also jobs. A lot of jobs available in Denmark.
5. graduate-jobs.com and milkround.com- other websites for graduate programs.
6. European Institutions – keep an eye on the major European institutions: European Council, European Parliament, European Central Bank, etc. They are often recruiting.
Good luck!
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Checklist for the newcomers
If you plan to study in Netherlands be sure you checked everything before your arrival.
Nuffic website provides a great checklist for this.
Here is the link: http://www.nuffic.nl/international-students/how-to-prepare/checklist
Good luck!
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Flower market + farm animal invasion
Every spring, Groningen becomes the host of an enormous flower market for a day. The flower vendors take over a large part of the city centre and thousands of tourists from other towns and neighbouring Germany make their way. Be it for buying some flowers or just for a walk, it is fun to see the market.
One thing I surely did not understand was why on my way home I became a witness of Groningen being invaded by farm animals. Not really something you see every day!
Mind the bike!
We all know that Netherlands is the most bike friendly country in the world.
So, how many of you know the real “power” of bikes in Netherlands?
I just discovered some important tips and tricks regarding biking in this beautiful country. I thought it would be a pity not to share this with all of you, so here we go.
Netherlands has an amazing infrastructure. And I am not talking only about highways and airports.
Since the spring in here a bike trip sounds like a good idea for escaping the rush of the city.
On this website: http://www.nederlandfietsland.nl/fietsrouteplanner you can plan your bike trip using the magic tool provided. You can actually travel across Netherlands using just bike paths.
http://www.bikemap.net is another website that provides bike routes that you can enjoy with your friends.
Here is a short movie about the bike paths and their use in Netherlands.