At January 31 about 230 students arrived at Hanze Campus for their stay in Groningen. Debbie want to meet as many new friends as possible, Bayram is eager to volunteer at a real Dutch farm.
Bayram Sevim (23), Turkey
‘One of the reasons why I chose to study in this part of the Netherlands is that I’m very much interested in farming. I’m from an agricultural business family. I hope I will be able to do volunteer work in vegetable farms here and see how the Dutch highly reputed production system works and what it costs. Maybe I will start a farm in Africa, I don’t know yet, I’m also planning to set up companies, a factory in plastic bags for instance. Anyways, I’m young, I don’t have a family yet. I can take risks at this age, so this is the time to do it.
‘Two days ago I arrived at Amsterdam Airport. It is my very first time in the Netherlands. I travelled to Groningen by bus, much cheaper than the train. I liked the scenery looking out of the bus window: wind turbines, meadows with cows and sheep.
‘What struck me is that Groningen is much quieter than Amsterdam, I really like that. I am staying at Simplon Hotel for the time being. Yes, still trying to find a room.
‘In Turkey I study International Business & Management at Yeditepe, a private foundation university in Istanbul, I’m in the fourth year. At Hanze I will follow the exchange programme Account Management & Marketing Planning till 1 July. I’ll go for it.’
Debbie Adeyemo (20), Nigeria
‘Thanks for your compliment about my English. English is the second language in Nigeria. We speak it in schools and for official purposes. With friends and family, I usually speak Yoruba.
‘Ibadan, my native city, is the third largest city in Nigeria, it has three million inhabitants. I took my A-levels there and after that went to Cyprus straightaway. I follow the Bachelor programme in Business Administration at the American College in Cyprus.
‘Last year I started to search for countries and universities where I could follow an exchange programme. Hanze seemed like a good place to meet many people. I also found that students do a lot of team work. I like that.
‘I arrived not a day ago. It’s very chilly compared to Cyprus. Everything is a lot bigger than Cyprus. I have to get used to that. I saw trains and huge numbers of bikes. But I haven’t moved around a lot so far. I will probably do so this weekend with some people I just met here.
‘I got a temporary room from the International Student office, but the person who rented it is arriving from China tomorrow. I have an appointment with a staff member from the housing office this afternoon who might be able to help me.
‘My father has a security business in London. I’m planning to do my master there when I finished my bachelor in Cyprus. I also want to earn some money in the UK. I’ll need that to be able to fulfil my big dream of setting up a business somewhere in Nigeria.’
