Tell me about Norway and the Netherlands

I am doing erasmus exchange program next year, and so far i am very interested in either Norway (Trondheim) or the Netherlands (Delft). It will last one year, as i have no possibility of going for 3 or 6 months only, due to specifications of my university course subjects, but i have the best marks in class, so i can go anywhere i want, which kind of makes it even more confusing and difficult to choose, tho you might not understand what i mean.

The basic constraints here are language and money.

I am extremely fluent in english, and from what i have gathered from people that have been there and know about it, the majority of the classes are in english and people don't have any trouble at all with the language, which is absolutely fine for me.

About money, there are scholarships available, tho i still don't know exactly about values but i know Norway is a bit expensive, compared to where i come from - Portugal by the way - and the quality of life is far superior. The weather is also completely opposite from here. Few hours of sun and serious low temperatures.

Cool thing about Norway is that we can get to travel for other countries or locations inside the country, to work on our projects for short periods of time. I know of some mates that went to Tibet and China for some time.

About the Netherlands, i don't have that much info. Still investigating.

I appreciate all the useful info you can share with me, watmm

:sup:

Both alternatives are alright, IMO. Norway is expensive though and probably be more "exotic" than NED.

i just noticed the pre-registration can't be edited, so i don't i can change the list i proposed in the first place, which was:

1st- Trondheim

2nd- Delft

3rd- Grenoble (France)

got to confirm it, tho.

  On 1/25/2011 at 11:51 PM, azatoth said:

"exotic"

explain please

mountains, fjords, polar bears who roam the streets etc

  On 1/25/2011 at 11:58 PM, Retape said:

mountains, fjords, polar bears who roam the streets etc

beautiful!

I live in Trondheim and work at the university here, I know some erasmus students and they seem to love it here. It is very expensive though.

There's some good music in Trondheim I believe.

  On 1/26/2011 at 12:34 AM, impakt said:

I live in Trondheim and work at the university here, I know some erasmus students and they seem to love it here. It is very expensive though.

nice man.

i am kind of worried about money now, but still waiting on new info here. scholarships from my university are very low and often paid out of time, but i will try to know if i can get some scholarship from NTNU as well.

trondheim is a good place if you're not too picky about the music scene.

  On 1/26/2011 at 12:59 AM, noise said:

trondheim is a good place if you're not too picky about the music scene.

there's you and impakt there right? so it can't be all bad

the club scene is a bit lackluster, though. there's only one place for decent electronic music, although some good artists might pop up during the Pstereo festival. other than that, "Blæst" feature some nice shows sometimes. Wire is coming to play there soon.

I see, I see. Fuck all nothing for good electronic in the US. That's besides the point though. /end derailing

Trondheim is alright for music. There's around 4-5 shows a year that I really enjoy. Been on a good streak the last months; James Blake and David Rodigan. Pantha du Prince coming up in feb.

norway is beautiful, but when people on here say expensive, they really mean it. be prepared to move down a few financial classes - even a lousy Big Mac meal was like $12. Made Denmark seem cheap.

Norway is easily one of the most beautiful places on earth. Go there if you get the chance! If you like doing outdoorsy stuff I cant see why you wont have a blast in the spring. Music wise, when I was there last I caught lasse marhaug playing in a cathedral outside oslo. The good vibration crew also organises great psytrance parties deep in the woods if your into that.

don't think i'll go to Norway. times aren't the best around these parts (my country) and i can't forget that it will have to be for a whole year. i am sure it is a wonderful country, but maybe i will get to visit it in a near future.

will think about Delft, which is one of the most advanced schools in terms of architecture and the technology involved in it.

can you choose anywhere in the world or just europe?

  On 1/26/2011 at 1:05 AM, ganus said:

  On 1/26/2011 at 12:59 AM, noise said:

trondheim is a good place if you're not too picky about the music scene.

there's you and impakt there right? so it can't be all bad

They only play at bi-curious private parties over here, so I don't think they are a part of "the scene". (The scene consists of 90% rock or metal bands, anyway.)

I stayed in Rotterdam for two weeks last summer, and Delft seemed like a nice place. Perhaps a bit quiet, but with Rotterdam and Den Haag 15 mins away, and Amsterdam one hour away, you will have a lot of things to do, and concerts to attend. It's strange that you are considering these two cities, since they seems quite different to me.

Trondheim; far away from the rest of the world, nice landscape/scenery, slow but nice city, expensive. "Excotic" (Long, dark and cold winters, bright summer nights.)

Delft: extremely centrally situated in Europe, boring landscape, not so expensice. Not so "excotic" for a portugese?

Anyway, I'm working at the university here as well, and if you have any questions, you can always send me a message.

  On 1/26/2011 at 2:35 PM, keltoi said:

can you choose anywhere in the world or just europe?

Erasmus programme offers me: leuven (belgium), clermont-ferrand, grenoble and paris (france), delft (netherlands), trondheim (norway), rome, firenze and milan (it), aachen and dresden (ger), la coruña, bilbao (es), prague (cz), bialystok (pl), thessalonikis (greece) and vilniaus (lithuania).

But i can choose from about 25 brazillian universities, couple of north american cities, australia, lebanon, japan.

Nothing in the UK, as far as i know.

edit: but those are external programmes, not erasmus.

im american so ive had a long love/fascination with the whole narrow cobbled anti-car streets of Europe. I just love it. Delft looks amazing and cozy and gorgeous. At least from google maps.

Go to Berlin and you can hang with me :sup:

i love dresden. you won't lack anything in musical/party terms

Norway: real expensive, crazy high quality of life if you get a job, shitty weather

netherlands:

berlin would be wicked. prague would be cool. what about iceland? i've always wanted to go there.

I'd love to go to Norway in summer as I love the great outdoors, fjords, hiking, fishing all that caper. Would love to see the Northern Lights too, but proberbly never see them unless I get a massive load of spare cash I could never justify the cost of going on holiday somewhere even colder and darker than the UK. And the Northern Lights are in the depths of winter.