I am back in England for Christmas and here until I begin my next 3-month internship in the south of Italy but I thought it's a good time to reflect upon living in Amsterdam and my thoughts of the company Bookingpetz.
Amsterdam is a fantastic multicultural environment and home to a wide range of start-up companies. The Netherlands being an economically rich country in the European Union has masses of potential for new businesses to thrive and fantastic for international schemes such as Erasmus. Despite Amsterdam being a capital city, travelling in and around the city whether it involves public transport or foot can be done with ease, which was convenient when travelling to work, even if I was on the other side of Amsterdam's IJ river.
No city however is exempt from criticisms. Cities that have high economic prowess tend to be fairly expensive whether it would be eating out, food shopping, renting or public transport, not to mention finding a place to live in such a high demand city took me a month to secure. I realised within my first two weeks that I had to adapt my financial strategy even with the Erasmus grant, for example: walking to work almost every day, researching the best shops for food shopping and managing general expenditures for social occasions. With adaptation however, I was able to enjoy living in the Netherlands without the need to panic about financial situations.
As for my thoughts and opinions of Bookingpetz, I like how it promotes itself as an international environment for its internships they offer, taking advantage of Amsterdam's easy international connectivity. With this it is easy to connect people with multiple unique talents and there is a great chance to combine talents in projects. The company is receiving viewing traffic as I hoped, however the online platform has yet to be launched. My concern is that if the company pursues marketing but the platform itself isn't made a priority, it could make our social media accounts become spam whilst questions will be raised about the platform's progress. I will continue to monitor the progress of Bookingpetz after the Christmas holidays to see how they progress.
Overall I can say that Amsterdam is a fantastic hotspot for Erasmus internships. There is a wide range of internships to select from and a fantastic city to live in. The multicultural environment of the Dutch capital will make anyone feel welcome. Living in the Netherlands has been a great first impression of the Erasmus experience and I look forward to the new challenge that awaits me in the south of Italy!
