Experience report
Name: Dario Feijen
E-mail: d.j.h.feijen@tilburguniversity.edu
Exchange semester: Spring 2015
Academic year: Third year bachelor
Host University: Universidad de los Andes
Country: Bogotá, Colombia
TOPIC: Admission, arrival, housing
I arrived one day later than I planned because of a delay in Amsterdam. Luckily my parents could
inform our contact person in Bogotá on time (we have been there before). She arranged my pick-up
from the airport so the pick-up also was rescheduled to the day after. I knew the taxi driver from my
earlier experiences as well so he took me to the nearest place to withdraw money, bought some small
things with me for the next day (food, clean water, toilet paper) and guided me to my accommodation.
My accommodation for the semester had been arranged by the contact person as well, since the
university doesn’t provide for housing. They only gave the exchange students a list of private housing
addresses we could choose from. Our contact person checked the list and chose the accommodation
that was the best in her opinion and we arranged everything (rent, documents etc.) before my
departure. I lived in the neighborhood right next to the university so I could walk to the university
every day. The neighborhood I lived in was a safe one with lots of restaurants and bars.
I arrived three days before the introduction period to settle down with my new place to stay, getting to
learn the language etc. We had a three day introduction period with the usual stuff (welcome, campus
tour, getting to know everyone) but the introduction program also included some Colombian specifics
like a salsa class, a small language class and information about safety measures you should keep in
mind (how not to get robbed, what to eat and what not, don’t drink from the sink etc)
TOPIC: Location of university/city
The city of Bogotá is really big so it’s divided in several neighborhoods (barrios in Spanish). The
university is located right next to the mountain Monserrate. Some of the classrooms are even build
up-hill so sometimes I had to climb a lot of stairs to get to my classes. The sports centre is build the
highest but it’s the best place to do sports since it includes a lot of sports. The best place to go out,
dance and shop is the zona T (or zona red) because that neighborhood contains the most bars, clubs
and it has a large shopping centre. Eating and drinking can be done everywhere since the food is very
good and very cheap. The interesting things to see are the parliament buildings, the university and to
climb the Monserrate. Bogota is a very big city, so there is much more to see and to do when
compared to Tilburg.
TOPIC: Academics
I had some big problems with choosing my courses. I chose some courses before I left but when I
came there some courses were cancelled or too full so I had to choose some new ones. The courses
I chose before I left were General Theory of the State (Teoría General del Estado) and Constitutional
Law (Derecho Constitucional). I liked these courses the most since they gave me the best inside of
how Colombian people think about their own state and states in general. Both of them also had an
overlap with the courses I followed in Tilburg. For me, Colombian Constitutional Law was the most
interesting and even if you hesitate to learn something about the Colombian state I would recommend
it since the course also contains general topics that are very interesting. I chose in first instance
International Law in Spanish but because of language problems I switched to the English course of
International Law. Actually I think the professor of the Spanish course offered me the switch because
of her lack of knowledge of the English language rather than my lack of knowledge of the Spanish
language (I will come back to this topic later). The English course was very interesting but in my
opinion a bit easy when looking at the knowledge I already had from my years in Tilburg.
Nevertheless at the end of this course we had to do a moot court which I really liked since I’ve never
done a moot court before. I liked this part of the court the most and because this took most of the
time of the course in general I would definitely recommend it. The last course I took was a random
one of the ones left available for me. It was about Colombian family law and since this course was
very in-depth I found it very hard. Also it was a subject I didn’t find interesting.
A very remarkable thing was that of the courses I took only the professor of the English course had a
good knowledge of English. The other three seemed to have quite a low level of English. This made
those courses a lot harder since I had to explain myself in Spanish, had to write everything in Spanish
et cetera. Only the professor of Constitutional Law took the effort to explain information twice when I
didn’t understand it or to help me when I had problems. The other two did little effort (Teoría General)
or no effort at all (Family law).
This brings me to another important point in the education system of Los Andes: groupwork. My group
partners (except from the English course) had little to no knowledge of the English language. This
made it very hard for me to participate in the group work. Most of the people I worked with were very
eager to help me the best they could but unfortunately most of the Colombian student refused to
switch to English. Another point I didn’t like was punctuality. Colombian people tend to do their thing
at the very last moment but for me this was very hard since I had to do a lot of stuff in little time in a
foreign language that is not English. Therefore the workload of the papers, group work, presentations
was very hard for me. The education system of Los Andes differs a lot from the Tilburg University
one. In Tilburg you only have to pass a final exam with sometimes one or two assignments. At Los
Andes a course contains exams, presentations, papers, group work and a final exam all of a very
small part of the final grade. I think the Colombian system is good to develop skills in practice but it
contained to much. I had to made papers and group work every week for every course so I takes a lot
of time for just a small amount of the final grade. Therefore I prefer the system we have here.
I am happy with my results for the Constitutional Law course and the International Law course. I
regret failing the General Theory course since I think I could have passed if I took more effort for the
assignments. The Family law course was terrible. I think failing this course was not only because of
me,
The campus of Los Andes is really big and very nice. I liked the facts there were places to study in
every building and I did spend a lot of time in the Law library. Also, the sports centre is really big
which I liked a lot.
TOPIC: Social life
Most of the social activities for the exchange student took place in the first month. After this month
there were little to no activities anymore which I think is quite a shame. I did have contact with the
Colombian student since I was the only non-Colombian student in my classes. Most of them were
very nice and tried to help me when I asked them. I also made a lot of friends among the exchange
students. Since they were also on their exchange we could get along very good. I did travel to other
places some of them with my roommates, other trips were with other exchange students. I am glad I
did some travelling since this was not my intent before I left.
TOPIC: Living costs
My rent was almost the same as in Tilburg which was very nice since I paid my exchange with my
own money and some money my parents gave me. The costs of living in Bogotá were the same as in
Tilburg (rent and food, sometimes going out). In Los Andes they don’t work with text books so I didn’t
have to spend money on that. Most of the compulsory reading I could find on Blackboard or print out
in the Copy shop for little money (around €2). I would definitely recommend to not hesitate on
spending money on traveling. If you go abroad outside of Europe I would say it’s almost a shame if
you don’t go travelling.
TOPIC: Culture
I think it was halfway during my exchange when I had the so-called culture shock. The fact I had
some classes at 7 in the morning (so you have to get up at 6), the fact that it took my lots of time to
read my compulsory reading and the fact that working in groups was very hard gave me sometimes a
tired feeling. The most remarkable thing for me was that only 25% of the people (maximum) on the
university could speak English (including professors). My Spanish was not bad (I got better every
week) but it took me more time to read, write and talk. The Colombian students just had that
advantage in combination with the fact they were more used to massive work load. Luckily this was
only on academic level. Apart from that Colombia is a really nice country to live and I think I finally
developed the Colombian part of me. I now understand how to live like a Colombian person and I feel
like the people accepted me from the beginning and at the end they saw me as a part of them.
TOPIC: Personal development
The thing I like the most is that my Spanish is actually quite good now. I can have more in-depth
conversations and I can read on academic level. I also feel I have grown myself more. It’s the first
time I’ve been on my own for such a long time (although it didn’t feel that way thanks to my
roommates and some people I got to know) and I think I did handle it quite well. I am glad I took the
time to travel since this wasn’t a part of my original plan. My worst experience was that I got robbed
but my fellow Colombian students told me everyone can be a victim (even the Colombian) and they
felt obviously bad for me.
TOPIC: Tips for future students
I would definitely recommend an exchange period. Not only for your academic development but also
your personal development. You learn how to handle your stuff, to work with people from all over the
world and you will get to know people from all over the world.
I would recommend Universidad de los Andes because overall it’s a good university but I would warn
everyone about the workload and the lack of punctuality and English there. If you solve this problems
the first weeks you are there, you will have a good time there. I think lots of people would recommend
to learn some Spanish but even with the basics you will come really far since Colombian are really
nice and eager to help. I will definitely go back.