I am fine with my report being published online: YES
ANR:297133
Name: Doreen Verbakel
E-mail: d.w.m.verbakel@tilburguniversity.edu
Exchange semester:
Fall 2015
Academic year: 3
Host University: University of the Free State
Country: South Africa
C’est L’Afrique
I GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
I have studied in Bloemfontein, the judicial capital of South Africa. It sounded like a big place,
but there was literally nothing. It was not a very lively city, but it sure was interesting, and
looking back it added an extra value to my exchange. Furthermore, it is located in the centre
of the country which gives you a better possibility to travel to different parts of the country
without losing days of traveling. There is not really a specific city centre, but the university
was close to all the big shopping smalls. The campus was big enough, so that you had to
drive a car, or walk 20 minutes from one side to another. The campus had beautiful spots with
fountains and gardens, but you could notice it was built a long time ago, as you could see the
colonial influences in the architecture. There was a big area at the campus where you could
get food and drinks, although the food was mostly fastfood or not really healthy. In the
shopping malls there were many restaurants and ordering a venison steak is a must! Going
out was all right. There is no such thing as a street where all the bars are, they are spread all
over town. It sometimes feels as if you are living in the 80’s, but I did have the best time of my
life. This was mainly because of the friends I made there, who were the best part of my
exchange! They have taken me to places where I would have never been without South
African friends. At the campus there was a gym and a swimming pool. The latter I used a lot,
but the first was a bit aged and more for bulky rugby guys instead of tiny girls like me. The
thing that differed most from Tilburg was the fact that you had to go everywhere by cab or car.
Mainly, because of safety issues and the distances you have to travel to things. During the
day it is safe to walk, but at night I would highly recommend to take a taxi if you do not want to
get robbed.
There are many different students differing from Phd, to bachelor students. The studies also
differ from medicine to agricultural studies, the same goes for the level of difficulty of courses.
One moment it is really hard but without any homework, and the next it is like high school with
a lot of tiny assignments that keep you occupied forever. This depends fully on your professor
and the course you choose. There weren’t many exchange students and most of them were
dutch or from Belgium. A few from France and Italy, but this was not a shame as we had a lot
of South African friends. I do have the feeling I got engaged in the culture, both black and
white. (Do notice racism there is still a thing). The campus is mixed, but you will never see a
white person talk to a black person. I apologise for this division I make, but I am using the
words the people there used for each other to clarify what the relations were like during my
time there.
II PRACTICAL INFORMATION
I have received the pre-arrrival information from the host university, very late, if not at all. First
of all the contract between the universities was expired and needed to be renewed, which
caused a lot of troubles for me, one was that it made me miss my flight to South Africa. The
pre-arrival information was basically an email that said I would get a pick up at the bus
station. Nothing so far on my courses or housing, that would be arranged there. There were
many difficulties with the international office from the UFS, which even led to the exchange
coordinator of the UFS being fired.
The 80 euro student visa took ages to arrange, and I would highly recommend to start on
time. The embassy in The Hague is very unreasonable and unorganized. If you hand in all the
required documents you will mostly likely be send back because you are missing a stamp or a
signature somewhere, where it was not asked for. Basically be prepared to cry. I had to go
back myself 4 times, what even led to me missing my flight. Other exchange students
experienced similar chaotic events.
My arrival in South Africa was horrible. I would recommend booking a straight flight to
Bloemfontein instead of to Johannesburg and then taking a bus. Save yourself the stress. My
pick up at the busstation never happened. The exchange coordinator mailed me a phone
number that I should call if I would arrive at the busstation so that I would get a pick up.
Unfortunately he forgot a number, so I had to take a taxi to the university. This was amazingly
scary as I had been travelling for 2 days, I was tired, it was at night, and there were only
creepy people around the busstation, and I also did not know if I could trust the taxi’s there.
So on a lucky guess, I did arrive at the university. There the security had no idea I was
coming, and there was no message what so ever in my inbox that said what to do next. So
the security brought me to the campus hotel where I stayed in the weekend. Only Monday I
got a reply from the exchange coordinator that he arranged a for me, but by that time I took
my own initiative and found accommodation outside campus. That Monday I had a meeting
with the exchange coordinator, who said that he was very disappointed in me for not calling,
which ofcourse was impossible with the wrong number. When I told him this he would not
believe me, and he told other students that I was lying. This is one of the many reasons why
he also got fired afterwards, because this was obviously very unprofessional. Besides that
there was nothing much arranged. When I asked him when I could pick my courses, he
fetched a student from outside and told him that he should show me how to register etc. This
boy also didn’t seem to enthusiastic. That Saturday we did get a city trip which was nice to
help me meet other exchange students, and to help me find accommodation outside campus.
This was the point where I made my first friends and I am still happy I joined this, even though
I was not allowed to go in the first place, because of my late arrival. So to summarize, the
university was very unprepared, but 99% was because of a faulty staff member. After all the
incidents he caused the university was very determined to find a new capable person for his
function.
I was supposed to be put in an all girls residence on campus, but as I mentioned before I
found my own accommodation outside campus. This was the best descicion I have ever
made. The residences where crappy buildings, with old furniture, and you had to share your
room with someone else as well. The accommodation I came to stay at was a student house
at Koos van der Walt Avenue and was simply amazing. The house might have been old and
without heating (note most places in South Africa don’t have this) but I had my own big room,
we had a swimming pool, I was surrounded by both exchange students and South African
students, we had a cleaning lady, a living room and a big garden. I felt secure as there was a
big automatic gate as well. I would recommend every student to go to one of the two Koos
van der Walt houses, as you have a lot more freedom and you can stay comfortably. In the
weekend we were able to have poolparties and go out, while the people who stayed at
campus were restricted with a lot of things. Also at the end of the semester some of the
people who stayed in the residences had to find a few weeks of extra accommodation as you
could not stay on campus in the holidays. Koos van der Walt was a little bit more expensive
but still very cheap in comparison with dutch rental costs. It was approximately 200-250
euros. The campus residences where 170-220 euros. But in my opinion the latter is not worth
it.
I financed my exchange with my study finance and a loan I could take from my grandpa. I also
still worked as a student assistant at Tilburg University from a distance.
The living expenses where cheaper than the Netherlands, especially going out for dinner.
Sometimes I would even think that was cheaper than buying your stuff at the grocery shop, as
vegetables and cheese are very expensive there. For a proper restaurant meal including
drinks and a desert you will probably pay about 12-18 euros. And in a fast food restaurant not
more than 4 euros for the biggest menu. Meat was very cheap in South Africa. For a 1kg
impala or ostrich steak you would probably pay 5 euros. A simple pack of chicken filet would
usually cost less than a euro, and the meat was also better than the meat in dutch butcheries.
The braai’s (BBQ’s) where then also my favourite part of the weekend. Every weekend you
could eat warthog, kudu, impala, ostrich, or venison for 3 euros. Going out as well was very
cheap. The only big expenses where taxi rides, that where still cheap, but since we used
them a lot I spend more on them than I calculated before, and the shopping in the
supermarkets. But most money I spend on travelling, which is absolutely worth it. I have seen
many parts of the country. The cheapest way to travel is to rent your own car and to travel
with other students to split the cost.
A short outline of what I probably spend:
- Housing: 250 (including wifi) a month
- Food + going out: 250 (I went out for dinner a lot) a month
- Transport 150 (Taxi rides, plus travelling expenses) a month
- Books: 120 in total
- Leasure: I am not sure, but definitely over 2000 euros, but then again I travelled a lot
and I have done expensive activities as skydiving, which immediately will cost you a
lot of money.
The semester started in July and ended the end of November, which left me a lot of room to
travel afterwards. There was a short mid term break for one week in the middle. And the last
weeks of the semester where seen as the examination period.
The university does not host any social activities, but sometimes students organize some
things. There is also no such thing a s a student association for international students. I did
have a lot of contact with a lot local students, and many of them became great friends. We
went to their rugby games, went to their families, to their farms, and travelled together. As
there were not many exchange students we were in close contact with each other and saw
each other almost every day.
The places I travelled to are:
- Douglas (farm trip, twice)
- Johannesburg
- Krugerpark
- St. Lucia
- Durban (twice)
- Panorama route (many small villages)
- Swaziland
- Drakensbergen
- St. Peter maritzburg
- Cape town (4 times)
- Garden route (many small villages in the south, a must see!)
- Plettenberg
- Port Elizabeth
- Stormsriver
- Oudtshoorn
- And a few other villages, I can’t think of right now
I wanted to go to Mozambique and Namibia, but unfortunately I ran out of money.
I did not really experience culture shock as I was prepared on what it would be like. I have
been to India a year before, and after that I am not quickly surprised anymore. Nonetheless,
there were things that shocked me that I did not expect. My host culture is hard to describe as
South Africa is a mixture of cultures. You have Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, English, and about 8
other different cultures in one country. I spend most my time in Afrikaans culture, which
reminded me of an American, Texas in the 80’s like culture. People were extremely friendly
and loved spending time together especially with new people. They loved eating, drinking and
just hanging out together. Being friends with someone implied seeing them at least 4 or 5
times a week. A big difference between Dutch culture and South African culture is efficiency.
Whereas Dutch people are very punctiual and are expected to work hard and as fast as
possible, South Africans are always late and very inefficient. When walking in the mall you
could see 3 people trying to clean one square meter of floor. One person mopping it and two
trying to dry it by waving ‘’watch out the floor is wet’’ signs. Another thing that I did not expect
to be as bad is the racism. Ofcourse apartheid is not such a long time ago, so I expected
resentment towards eachother, but I did not expect it to be this bad sometimes. You really
could see different gradations of racism amongst people. The older and the closer to farmer
communities, the more racist people were. This did taught me that the way someone is raised
will determine your values in the future, as discussions regarding this subject were useless.
At the same time people were very friendly and laid back even though they were sometimes
poor, which made me realize how unnecessary stressful the Dutch culture is. Money does not
make you happy, but friends do, is what the South African culture taught me. I learned a lot
about the history of the country because of visiting many museums and historical areas, but I
would love to back to dig a little deeper into this subject. Furthermore, I have travelled to
many different places as mentioned before. All of the places felt like going to a different
country. The language, culture, and food could differ a lot. Therefore, I would like to go back
to visit more other villages, or to spend more time in these places to get to know the culture
more intimately.As there were no language problems with the local people as almost
everbody spoke English, and with a bit of practice I could understand Afrikaans, it made the
country perfect to meet local people who could help you learn more about the different places.
Personally, I learned a lot from my exchange. Not only academically, but mainly culturally.
South Africa has such a rich history which helps you understand human interrelations on a
different level. I learned to live more in the moment, and to enjoy the people around me more.
The people showed me that realization of your happiness helps you to enjoy it more. This will
also help me in the future as I believe you can work more productively if you are mentally
healthy as well. And you can only be mentally healthy if you are happy and calm.
The only thing that I would do differently on my exchange is being more active in chasing the
documents I needed before my departure so that I would not have lost so much money on a
missed flight, because I wished I could have used that money for more travelling.
It is hard to establish what was my best and worst experience. The worst was maybe the loss
of unnecessary money, but all the amazing experiences made up for it. Amongst my best
expriences are first of all, the friends I made. They are truly the best part of my exchange and
made it wonderful. Furthermore the travelling was amazing. I did sharkcage diving, skydiving,
sandboarding, safaris, whale watching, penguin watching, dolphin watching, jumped of a
stadion, went surfing, climbed a mountain, I did so many things that were out of my comfort
zone. I will never forget the feeling of accomplishment I had after doing these things. And
what made it extra special is that I could share it with life long friends.
III ACADEMIC INFORMATION
Classes are offered in both English and Afrikaans. I followed all my classes in English. I took
all kinds of political and philosophical courses. Amongst them international law and
organizations, political ideology, international economy, and African philosophy. I would
recommend political ideology and African philosophy, they are very hard, but very much worth
it. The teachers are inspiring and in the latter there is a lot of room for discussion. The level of
academics differ per course as I mentioned before. Some are very hard and require a lot of
insight and self study, others feel more like high school with a bunch of useless homework
assignments. Make sure to take 3rd year courses if you want to have something challenging.
Mostly the teaching is theoretical, and is given in lectures. The relation between students and
teachers is quite formal, but as being from ‘’overseas’’as they called it, you get a little bit of
extra attention by everyone. This also means that I was able to have quite informal relations
with some interesting teachers, who would invite me for a chat in their office just because they
were interested in my opinions. I am very happy with my academic achievements during the
semester, although some courses were difficult I did manage to learn a lot there as all the
courses taught me something new and valuable. The exams were not very lengthy, usually an
hour or big exams 2 hours. Mostly questions were hard, vague and essay like, but some were
very easy high school like. Sometimes you needed to now everything by heart instead of just
understanding it.
It was easy to access the library, it opened very early and closed relatively late. Unfortunately
there weren’t many computers, but that was not a problem as I always brought my own
laptop.
Course Name and
experience
Prerequisites
Exam
Major at TiU
BA Politicl
Ideology, difficult
BA
International
Law
and
organizations, easy
BA
Polticial
economy,
intermediate
none
Written
Humanities
Approved
as
(minor/ elective
/ extra)
Elective
none
written
Humanities
elctive
none
written
Humanities
elective
I would definitely recommend going on exchange to Bloemfontein. Mainly, because it will be
an experience different than other exchanges. You will meet a lot of locals, travel a lot and
have many moments that stay with you forever. The UFS is a nice university, but make sure
to find an office campus residence. Make sure to start on time with your visa application as
the office is horrible. When you get in South Africa forget everything you learned in the
Netherlands, just enjoy, don’t stress, everything will always work out. This country is full of
surprises and things you don’t expect. A friend from france always said: ‘’ Aaaaaa, c’est la vie,
c’est l’Afrique’’. Simply, just enjoy the moment, if something goes wrong, it already went
wrong, no need to stress about it. People are very eager to help you out with any problems
you might experience. Do not only hang out with exchange students as the local people are
the most interesting people you will meet there, and I promise you, you will make friends for
life. I am determined to go back in the coming 5 years, as I haven’t grown tired of this country,
and I wasn’t ready to go home yet. It simply was the best time of my life so far.
Contact details:
Can the International Relations Office share your e-mail address with prospective exchange
students, so that other students could contact you for more information? YES
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