First Day of School.

There's a kind of travelling you can only do alone. One that involves wandering the streets aimlessly without a map, getting lost, and finding your way back again. You can only do it alone because walking is like talking to the streets. It's taking time to take in what is in front of you and thinking of how people could have come up with such architecture. I love just walking down the cobbled streets and feeling the soul of the place, thinking about the multitudes of people who have passed by the very same road. What secrets did these stones witness? What grandeur? Or what pain?

Today was the first day of school at Maastricht University. I was the only one taking Accounting Information Systems and Internal Control (AIS) in this block, so I went to school alone on Bus 1. It was slightly strange at first to be doing something alone, and yet it was peaceful at the same time because there was no need to create conversation. Simply sitting on the bus, looking at the other commuters and enjoying the scenery outside.

It was confusing at first to get to the class because level 2 of Zone E was actually at level 1 of Zone F. I went instead to level 2 of Zone F, only to find that it led to level 3 of Zone E. A slight frustration yes, but it was quickly overcome by the cautiousness of a first-day student, wanting to find his classroom before lessons started.

The way the tutorial was conducted was foreign to me. There are 14 people in the class, and one tutor. We basically read 2 short passages from the Block Book, or what would be called a course outline in NUS, and then had to see if there were any 'difficult words' and 'problem statements' underlying these two passages. With the identification of the problem statements, we went on to discuss them and to say what our understanding of these problems were. Those that we could not explain away became 'Learning Points'. That, was basically the summary of The Maastricht Approach - Problem Based Learning (PBL). Interesting yes, but terribly confusing. You never know if you got anything correct until you actually read up on it.

After the very short session of school (it lasted 45 minutes when it was slated for 2 hours), I wandered to the Student Services Centre for a cup of coffee and a croissant. The idea was to pass the time so that I could wait for Orange Bike to open. In the meantime, I also went around the Market looking for the bookstore to see how much a textbook would cost me.

And then I got lost. And I loved it.

I found old churches looming in corners of the street, I saw a beautiful suspension bridge that I never knew was there, and then there were back alleys of cafes half-open because it was still early in the morning. Waiters were sweeping the streets preparing to open, and some others were laying the tables. There were inscriptions on the walls I couldn't make out which looked like memorial stones to famous people that I don't know. The air was cool, and there were canals coming out in between houses sometimes. I felt like I was in some place that I only read off old books.

I finally did manage to find the bookstore in the church, only to find that an AIS textbook would set me back by €51. That is about SGD 100? Money that I cannot bear to part with, especially in a place as expensive as the Netherlands. I'd have to consult the rest to see if we could share a textbook or perhaps I would have to photocopy the book off the library that I don't yet know how to use.

With all my things settled, I found my way back to Orange Bike to get my repaired bicycle, and it was off home! Not before I lost myself again though.. And that was an adventure too, because I got to see Malpertuisplein from the other side, and I got to go to random neighbourhoods.

Perhaps I'll enjoy Maastricht after all.