During November, Patrick Ostendorf and I participated, on behalf of the fachhochschule faculty, in the "International Business Week" hosted by Rotterdam University for its business students. I was quite impressed with their gracious hosting and the manner in which the programs were run. The speakers were outstanding, including people from all around the world. If I had known how good the presentations were going to be, I would have done something different with classes so that I could have attended more of the week. Patrick and I went by train to Rotterdam on Sunday afternoon. The conference started at 10 on Monday morning, and we each gave 2 presentations on Monday afternoon. There was a wonderful dinner at a soccer club for speakers on Monday evening. All expenses were paid for in that the Rotterdam University paid for our lodging and meals, and Bielefeld paid for our train tickets. We came home again on Tuesday afternoon.
This is the business school dean, Dr. Michael Molier, opening the conference. He was a wonderful host and made arrangements for me to talk with the people in the international students' office, which I'd given up on because I had not made prior arrangements, between my presentations on Monday afternoon. Furthermore, he evidently told one of his professors that I had expressed interest in her presentation topic during lunch because she came directly to me during the evening and asked if I was the American who had asked about her topic.
We found 2 boxes of materials, the tote bag in the upper left hand corner, and the blue book, wrapped as a present and about an inch thick, in our hotel rooms on Sunday evening. Quite an impressive start!
This is a view of one of the main student areas on the first floor of the university building, taken from the second floor.
Another view of the student computer/lounge area
Not knowing Dutch, I'm not quite sure what these boxes are about but they looked impressive!
The business department is apparently supported by many prominent companies who are in the university's business club, and various rooms were named for different companies.
First floor students area. There were plugins for computers nicely situationed between the tables.
The room was full, with almost 50 seats, for my first Monday afternoon presentation. The second presentation, at 4 p.m., only had 4 people. Most of the students were from countries which had little or no snow, so I think the title of my presentation mentioning skiing and sled dogs made have done more to entice student attendance than anything else. I spoke on how I teach management skills via the academic service learning methodology by having students help manage the ski marathon and the sled dog races in Marquette.
Patrick's presentation on international law issues, in the auditorium
Another picture of Patrick presenting. He and I were presenting at the same time so we couldn't hear each other's presentations, but my presentation ended shortly before his so I took pictures. This was his first professional presentation. Patrick is a lawyer, has been involved in international legal business, attended school in London for a year, and speaks English quite well but with a British accent, as you would expect. It is his first year teaching here. We had fun traveling together.
These two people are in charge of international students. I have just misplaced the woman's business card...her first name is Tinike and she was very helpful. The man is Leo Klienbannink, the course director of international studies. Tinike had come to my presentation; you can see her toward the front and the middle of the picture of the class.
Patrick and I laughed about this. Our hotel had this sign right by the front door....Brainpark??
The hotel room was luxurious, in my opinion. I was impressed with the reading lights built into the headboard!
The other side of the room. I had trouble getting the TV on and found out later that I needed to touch any number after turning on the power in order for the TV to come on. The same thing happened later when Christine and I were in a hotel in Flensburg.
The bathroom was nice, and this was the first or second time I encountered a glass door covering just half the bathtub to act essentially as a shower curtain. Every shower I saw in Europe had a mobile shower head that you could detach from the wall.
The part of the room across from the desk. This couch looked so lovely that I had hopes of watching TV and cross-stitching, but our dinner Monday evening was so late that I never did get to do it!
A duplicate if I don't get this removed!
The Dutch trains are yellow and blue rather than red or silver as they are in Germany.
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