Exchange student at Wageningen University and Research

September 2019 – January 2020 Ylva Eriksson Agronom – Livsmedel (Food Technology) Swedish University of Agriculture Science – Ultuna but not anymore. Since the university has

Introduction increased their number of students a lot Why the Wageningen University & during the past years, even Dutch students Research? sometimes struggle to find a room. If you I chose Wageningen U&R since they have are going on exchange during autumn, start got several courses in Food Technology looking at Facebook already in May/June. which suits my program very well Join the Facebook group “Wageningen (Agronom – Livsmedel). They are also Student Plaza”. You can also sign up with ranked as the far best agriculture university room.nl (https://www.room.nl/en/my- in the world, 2017/2018. Furthermore, they room/log-in/ ). If you sign up as soon as you have also been nominated to the best get accepted to go on exchange, you can be university in the 15th years in a quite sure to get a corridor room. If you row. don’t own a Maestro Card, make sure to get one before you arrive in the Netherlands or get a Dutch bank account ASAP. Several of shops in Wageningen don’t accept Master Card, Visa or Visa Electron. To be able to get a Dutch bank account, you have to first register at the municipality in town. When you have got your Dutch BSN – number (takes 1-2 weeks) you are then able to get a Dutch bank account. It’s very easy to book a time at the municipality (https://www.wageningen.nl/english ) and open a bank account, it just takes some time.

One of the campus buildings, Forum Arriving to Wageningen It’s easy to travel to Wageningen. You can take a train straight from Schiphol to the train station Ede-Wageningen. The university had organised free transport from Ede-Wageningen to Wageningen before the AID started. You just filled in a poll on Facebook which day and around what time you were planning on arriving to the Netherlands. Students picked us up with minibuses at the train station and drove us

to our new homes, very service minded! It takes approximately 15 min by car to go

Preparations from Ede to Wageningen. Start looking for accommodation in time! Wageningen University used to help exchange students to find accommodation The University Courses A week before school started, the university I took four courses during my exchange. held the Annual Introduction Days (AID). Case Study Product Quality was one of All students were divided in a “Buddy them. This course was a group work group” that you did all the activities with. together with a Dutch company. My group We were 16 people in my group and ten worked together with Terschelling nationalities. The week was very well Cranberry. They needed help with the organised with games, both at campus and staining in their juice bottles and wanted a in town, sport activities, dinners, outside new ready-to-drink juice to put on the movie and parities. I recommend students to market. The group also had a budget which participate during the AID, it’s an easy way made it possible for us to go and visit the to get to know new people and the town. company in Harlingen. The second course was Food Microbiology. We learnt about pathogens and possible hazards in food. The course also included lab work. All groups chose three food products and tested them for Salmonella, Campylobacter and L. monocytogenes. The third course was Food Chemistry. This course also had a lot of lab work. You could choose to either work with barley, soy or apple and peanut and extract proteins, lipids or carbohydrates. My fourth course was Insects as Feed and Food. Very interesting course since SLU doesn’t provide this type of course (yet). We learnt why insects aren’t consumed on a regular basis in the Western world and how insects can be used and consumed in the future. All courses had high quality and I felt that I learnt a lot. I could transfer all my credits to my grades back home. AID festival area on campus

My lovely AID group during the beer cantus The chicken sample tested positive for L. monocytogenes Wageningen and the Netherlands Wageningen as a town is quite small and nothing is further away than 15 min on the bike. A market is held every Wednesday and Saturday. They offer a lot of cheap vegetables and fruit, and you can also find cheese, bread, meat and fish. It is also close to nature and the river Rehn. In general, it is very easy to travel in the Netherlands. You can use the same travel pass on all the busses, trains and trams. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague are approximately 1 hour away with train. and Maastricht are really nice cities to visit too. Traveling to nearby countries in Visited the cranberry company we worked Europe e.g. , Belgium, together with, in their factory in Harlingen Luxembourg, France, is are also very convenient. Dutchies are very good at Student life English, both in cities and on the Wageningen offers several activities both “countryside”. Dutch people are famous for during the week and weekends. The sport being very honest and straight forward centre offers hepas of sports e.g. handball, when they are talking. Don’t be too football, swimming, lacrosse, land-hockey, offended, they are just being Dutch and gym and fitness etc. I joined the handball doesn’t mean anything bad. team. Besides trainings, the team organised several of activities to get a good team spirit. There are also several of student Summary associations (like Uppsalas nationer). I am very satisfied with my exchange. I feel Wageningen has an association for like I have gained a lot of experience, everyone. Joining a sport or a student knowledge and new friendships. I think that association is a great way to get to know everyone that get the possibility to go on an new people. exchange should take that chance. The Netherlands is quite easy to acclimatize to as a Swede, even though it is a bit different. I would like to thank the course coordinator at Wageningen, Ellen de Jong, the course coordinator at SLU, Sabine Samples, and the Mobility team at SLU for all the help and support. Also, many thanks to the Erasmus that made it possible for me to go W.H.V. Centauri Handball on this exchange.

Cheese at the weekly market in Wageningen

Trip to Luxembourg

Christmas market in Maastricht

The Lumen building on campus

Block houses in Rotterdam