My Fulbright experience here in the Netherlands has been as good, if not better, than I ever would have hoped for. In the interest of not writing a novel, I will divide my Fulbright experience into three categories: research, cultural involvement, and Fulbright.
The primary reason why I chose the Netherlands for my Fulbright was because I wanted to do microalgae research. I am happy to report that my research is living up to my high expectations. Currently, I am researching how we can use microalgae and cyanobacteria mixed cultures to create more robust cultivation systems in the context of removing excess nutrients from greenhouse drain water. During this project, I have had to opportunity to employ many of the skills I learned during undergrad and previous research experiences while getting to learn new experimental techniques and playing with algae! In terms of the people that I get to work with, I got really lucky because my research group is great. From an academic lens, my research group is much bigger and interdisciplinary than any group I have seen or experienced back in the US. This translates into a wide variety of projects and lots of different types of lab equipment (which is super nice). My group is also very social, we have many borrels (Dutch happy hours) and activities, and we even go out parties like King’s Day or go to museums together, which has made my research experience even better.
When I was writing my Fulbright application, I decided that one of the ways that I would “culturally engage” with the Netherlands would be to join a band/orchestra. Of course, I wasn’t being held accountable to this statement, but I decided to join one of the orchestras on campus. Unfortunately, there weren’t any openings for flutes (which I play), so I decided to learn the euphonium and join on that instead. Learning the euphonium has been a unique challenge, but I am glad I joined the orchestra because it has been a fun way to pass time and a good way to learn more about Dutch student culture. In addition to playing music, the orchestra hosts activities, the most notable being overnight rehearsal weekend, which is essentially band camp in the forest with a lot of Dutch food, such as boterham (sandwiches with toppings like cheese and hagelslag), snert (pea soup), hutspot (mashed potatoes and carrots with sausage), kroketten, and vlaa (pudding), a costume party, games, and of course music.
I think that a lot of people forget that a big part of the Fulbright experience is the connections that you get to make with other Fulbrighters. I am fortunate that the Netherlands is a small, well-connected country because it makes it possible to see other Fulbrighters almost every weekend. This is great, because I have found that most Dutch people do not actually travel very much within the Netherlands, so it is nice to have people to travel and be tourists with (I have been to around 30 museums and almost every province!). Additionally, we are all here researching and studying such different topics, and it is cool to learn new things from everyone and even support one another at events related to our projects.
Of course, I have hit some roadblocks during my Fulbright experience, but I do feel like I have grown from those challenges, and I think that I now feel more confident in navigating (adult) life and foreign countries. In this aspect, I would encourage potential Fulbright applicants or those about to start their time abroad (Fulbright or otherwise) to not be afraid to not be afraid to try new things, take the jump into something you might think is awkward or not your cup of tea, or just make the phone call because some good memories and unexpected results may come from it.
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This is a picture of me and my friends eating Thanksgiving dinner! Since Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, I decided to host it for all my friends. A lot of the foods that we eat for Thanksgiving are not super common in the Netherlands, so it was a lot of fun to introduce new foods to everyone and incorporate some “non-traditional” foods that other people brought. I think that the most popular foods were pumpkin pie and stuffing which makes sense because they are delicious! |
| This is a picture looking Wageningen from the Rhine. The city of Wageningen is very similar to Corvallis, it is a university city in the middle of nature and agriculture. The main difference is that Wageningen has a lot more water (which is pretty true for most of the Netherlands), there are way more bikes, and the nature is not as wild |
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The Netherlands Fulbright Commission planned some outings for us to go on to learn more about the Netherlands. This is a picture from one of those outings when we visited Tweede Kamer (Second Room), which is the Dutch version of the House of Representatives. During my time in here, elections and government formation have happened, so it has been interesting to learn about the differences between the Dutch and American government systems. |
| As I mentioned, the great thing about being a Fulbrighter is other Fulbrighters! My friend studies the Dutch salt trade and learned about this historical battle reenactment up in a city she visits for archives, so a bunch of us went to check it out. There were people dressed like old-timey Dutch and Spanish people, a maritime battle, sea shanties, and cannon firing. |
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This is a picture of me and my euphonium section doing some practicing. My section has been helpful and patient in my acquisition of euphonium playing skills! |
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The last week of April and the first week of May are very exciting weeks in the Netherlands because they contain King’s Day and Liberation Day! King’s Day is like a country-wide party where everyone dresses in orange and holds flea markets. Meanwhile, Liberation Day marks the end of WWII and is a huge day of parades and parties in Wageningen because the capitulation of Germans forces in the Netherlands was signed there. Both holidays were lots of fun and made me glad to be OSU alumni because I had an abundance of orange clothing. |
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This is a picture of me with other Fulbrighters at the Keukenhof. The Keukenhof is kind of the premier garden of tulips in the Netherlands. Even though it was chalk-full of people and there were sporadic downpours throughout the day, it was super beautiful. Tulip season is relatively short and I do not live close to the tulip growing areas, so I tried to make the most of it by also going on a bike ride through the tulip fields! |
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My microalgae growing!! No explanation needed because it is just so beautiful and fabulous! |
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Bridget Price
Class of 2023
Honors Chemical Engineering and Bioresource Research
Fulbright U.S. Student Program Study/Research Grantee - the Netherlands