Settling In and Studying in Rotterdam

The growing pup - big paws!

Howdy folks! Just wanted to let you know what we've been up to.

Lucky has been growing quickly - although I still carry her down two flights of stairs from our apartment, the notion is growing in me that this will be a losing proposition over the long haul.

Lucky has been going to dog training school three days a week. I help bring Lucky there for the hands-on component, after which Marloes attends the theory component. Lucky is getting better at listening and generally behaving. Marloes is using a special 'clicker' to train Lucky to perform several tricks.

We have otherwise been sprucing up the apartment with some furniture. Marloes has been painting as well. A great thing about living in Holland now is that we have had time to catch up with family and friends. We've visited Marloes' mother, Luce, and husband, Peter, several times - they have been very helpful in assisting us to get our apartment setup. As well, we've been able to visit with JP and Miriam Ligtenberg (JP is Marloes' brother) and our nephew and niece, Pieter and Elise. We have been pretty busy settling in to the apartment and dealing with all the logistics of 'registering' in a new country, but look forward to more visits with family this year.

As far as travel, the weekend of September 6th we went to Bruges in Belgium to attend the wedding party of friends - details are available here.

Pieter Ligtenberg!

Door knocker on Rapenburg near apartment

Meanwhile I have started my classes at the Rotterdam School of management in, yep, Rotterdam. There are 17 students in the year-long course, including me. It is quite an international crew, with people from India, Taiwan, and Russia, as well as from South America and Africa. I'm the only American, which is a great experience for me to interact with the increasingly global world.

We will cover a host of finance-related topics this year, including risk management, econometrics, corporate finance and investment management.

The are three days of lectures per week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The commute to school involves biking to Leiden central station, taking a train to Rotterdam and then taking a street tram to school. This takes an hour and a half, so I'm glad that this is only three days a week as the commute is a bit far. While distance by car would be 44 km/27 miles, road traffic would make the car likely slower.