FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Netherlands! It can be tough to move to a different country (possibly accross the globe), so the international students of Thalia (you'll learn more about us later) have given their best to come up with any information that they wish they knew before arriving here. There will be more informative opportunities that you don't want to miss, during and after the Orientation Week, but this should serve as a guide before. 

NB: The Orientation Week is also named "Introduction Week", or abbreviated: "Intro". It's more likely that you will see the those terms here. So we'll be referring to the week with "Introduction Week" from now on.

ARRIVAL, MOVING AROUND AND HOUSING

Introduction Week starts on the 18th of August, so clearly you might want to arrive a bit before. There are two important things to keep in mind, and one less important. The less important one is to arrive here early to visit Nijmegen. Of course, you are free to do so, but during the Introduction we will move through the city quite a bit and in that process your mentors are going to show you around. This brings us to one of the important things: moving around. As you probably know already, here we cycle everywhere. And by everywhere, we mean everywhere. You will need your bike during the Introduction from day 1, so you might want to arrive here earlier just to secure a bike. Thousands of students come to Nijmegen, out of which around 5000 participate in the Introduction, so they will look for a bike either the day before, or in the first day of the Intro. Good thing to know: "Fiets" is Dutch for "bike".

Your options are: 

Remember that having a bike is the important part. Most of the time, it will come with a back wheel lock, but if it doesn't you'll need to buy a bike lock chain separately (5-10 euros, from Action, Decathlon, Hema etc.). It is also highly recommended that you buy a phone mount, for less than 5 euros, from Action.


Now that we have one of the important problems solved, we have to go to the other one: housing. If you are lucky enough to have a room here, plan your arrival a day before the arrival (you can spend the night in an air bnb), unless you think you can perfectly fit everything in one day. If you have a private landlord, discuss this thoroughly. If you have a room at SSH&, the keys for your rooms are picked up on Sunday 18th of August (unless you are informed differently, always double check). This overlaps with the first Intro day, but in the schedule there will be an allocated time of 2-3 hours where you can pick up your stuff and move it to your new room. If you're staying at SSH, you will definitely need to arrive before the Introduction starts, because the keys are handed out in the morning (from 10:00 till 15:00, or 17:00; again double check) and it will most likely be physically impossible to do it all in a day. If in the unfortunate case that you do not have a room here, your options are either to spend the week in an airbnb or with a friend. In case none of these solutions is feasible to you, contact the Introduction Committee of Thalia (they are the ones that probably redirected you to this website) and they will try to find a solution for you, but this should be absolutely your last resort.

I AM GETTING THERE BY PLANE. HOW DO I GET TO NIJMEGEN?

You will most likely have arrived at one of the following airports: Brussels International, Eindhoven, Amsterdam Schipol, Dusseldorf International, or any other airport in the Netherlands. If you arrived in the Netherlands or Brussels, you will most likely come here by train. From Germany, you will most likely be looking at a combination of busses, or busses and trains. Although it can seem overwhelming at first, don't freak out. These are also popular destinations for tourists, so the personnel will definitely speak English. The easiest way to plan your route is via google maps. Alternatively, you can also use other apps such as NS and 9292, but since these require a bit of getting used to them, better stick to what you are familiar with.

You can pay for the tickets at a ticket machine. I am not entirely sure if they accept cash, but they should accept payments by Mastercard, Visa or other debit cards (more on this topic later). 

OVPay is also supported in all trains and buses in the Netherlands, allowing you to pay using Maestro, V Pay, Mastercard or Visa.

HOW CAN I PAY FOR STUFF IN THE NETHERLANDS?

You might have noticed that we made a distinction between different types of bank cards. If you look on your bank card you should see a logo of either Visa, V Pay, Mastercard of Maestro.

As a rule of thumb, any debit card that uses V Pay or Maestro should work anywhere in the Netherlands.

Visa and Maestro are slowly being adopted in the Netherlands and only work in some places. For example the Albert Heijn (the biggest grocery store chain) now supports debit and credit cards from all four providers.

HOW CAN I USE MY PHONE TO MAKE PHONECALLS, SEND MESSAGES AND USE INTERNET IN THE NETHERLANDS?

To get around via google maps, stay in contact with us, your mentors and your group  and all other things the internet has allowed us to do, it will be necessary for you to have a working phone with a SIM-card and internet during the Introduction Week. For most international students from the EU it should be possible to simply use your own SIM-card (at least for the first few weeks) as roaming within the EU was made possible without any extra charges, but we do recommend to double check this for your own contract. Also keep in mind that this mostly holds for Internet and not for normal phone calls and SMS to numbers outside of your own country-code.

For students from outside the EU (or EU students that cannot wait to get a Dutch number) here a few tips:
Always make sure to get the right size of SIM-card, although most of them are the 3-in-1 SIM-cards. Pay attention to the length of contract you are getting into, the longer the cheaper, but of course less freedom to cancel when things change. There are different networks you can choose from and which might have small differences but generally speaking the Netherlands are a country with a very good infrastructure and as far as we know they are all about equally good a.k.a. you will almost always have a good connection. One extra thing to keep in mind (mostly for student from the US), some phones are locked and will not work with the European network. In that case it may be necessary for you to buy a separate phone. 

There are two options for a SIM-card you can choose from depending on how early you arrived and what you already managed to set-up. Assuming you just arrived and did not have time to set up a bank account, a prepaid card will be your only option for now. This will be a bit more expensive, but at least you are connected. You can always switch once you have a bank account. This is also the only option for students below 18 as a contract is only possible in the Netherlands once you are of legal age (so 18). You can buy these prepaid SIM-cards at all official phone stores (KPN, T-mobile, Vodafone etc.) but even at resellers like simple grocery or convenience stores they should be available.

If you do already have a Dutch bank account (and thus a proof of a Dutch address as well) you can use one of these two websites to compare some prices for SIM-only contracts with the filters that you think are suitable for you: This one only is in Dutch, but with google translate you should be fine. This one can be switched to English and some other languages. They should both give the same results, but we did not test it in its entirety, so no guarantees.

The information page that Radboud provides about SIM-cards may also be helpful for you as well.

SHOULD I START LEARNING DUTCH?

Although you will be in an international environment, you will still be mostly hearing Dutch around you. The Introduction is an exception, given the mixed audience. You will only study in English, and our Faculty is probably the most international at Radboud, so on the hallways you will also hear a lot of English, but also other languages. If you can get over not understanding what people are talking about on the street, supermarkets or in the city center, then you will not require knowing any Dutch during your whole stay here. Otherwise, feel free to start learning the basics, but keep in mind that it will be easier to learn it while you are actually here. 

In any case though, it is completely okay to ask people to switch to English at all times. This is widely accepted as normal. Everyone in our studies speaks English and asking them to switch is a completely accepted way of getting around or into a conversation.

I READ SOMEWHERE THAT YOU NEED TO HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE. WHAT DO I DO?

Indeed, you do need to have health insurance, otherwise you will find yourself paying 500 euros just for a sprained ancle. We advise you to first get a month of insurance from your own country that is also usable in the Netherlands (such as a travel insurance), and once you have your BSN number (more on that later), you can get a Dutch insurance.

EVERYWHERE I GO I SEE "BSN". WHAT IS THAT?

It is the unique citizen number that every citizen of the Netherlands gets. You will not need it during the Intro, so don't cram an appointament to get it during it, unless you really want to get that piece of paper with a number as soon as possible. Also, you don't need it to be a student. It is required for a lot of other stuff here (DigiD, some banks, insurance, loans, allowances etc.), but it's stuff that can wait a week. 

I AM HERE AND I WANT TO BUY SOME STUFF I NEED. WHERE CAN I DO THAT?

For food, the most common supermarkets are Albert Heijn, Jumbo, Lidl, Coop, Aldi. If you want to buy over-the-counter medicine, that can also be done at the bigger supermarkets such as Albert Heijn, Jumbo and Coop. There are also more general stores, such as Kruidvat, which have a wide range of products (creams, medicine, small household items), but the food range is limited to snacks. If you want to buy cheap household decorations or appliences, your first stop will probably be Action, then Hema, and then Ikea for bigger furniture. Most clothing stores can be found in the city center, either particular brands or retail stores, such as FootLocker and TKMax.

In the Netherlands, water from the tap is safe to drink, and there are free drinking water taps around the city (for example at the train station).

I HEARD THAT IT RAINS A LOT THERE. WHAT CLOTHES SHOULD I PACK?

Yes, it does rain quite a bit and at the worst possible times, but the bad season usually starts in early November and lasts until late March. August and September still have nice whether, so you can also buy rain-proof clothes after you get here. Water proof clothing is a must, and yes, people here cycle anywhere, be it during rain, snow, or thunderstorm.

I HAVE OTHER BURNING QUESTIONS THAT CANNOT WAIT UNTIL THE INTRO STARTS. WHO CAN I ASK?

If it's admission related, contact the admissions office of the university. If it's housing related, contact the international office of the university. If it doesn't fit in one of these categories, contact the Introduction Committee of Thalia (you probably received a few emails from them and you can recognize them by their mail signature) and they will help you or redirect you.

FINAL WORDS

We hope you are looking forward to the Introduction Week! It will be the week where you will meet most of the new students joining our (your) study, and will also be the place where you will make your first friends here! During the Intro, University also organizes various informative lectures, and after the Intro, Thalia, the student association of Computer Science in Nijmegen will host a longer presentation, where we will go in detail with everything that you need to know to have the best years in Nijmegen. That is also a good place to ask any non-urgent questions, because the session is hosted by older international students, so they might have gone through your issue at some point. Looking forward to meeting you all!