Day 1: Lectures, Politics and Culture

Hi!

Today, my internship at the RVO began by joining a group that participated in the Dutch Visitors Programme (DVP). This group consists of representatives from the following countries: Qatar, Ethiopia, India, South-Africa, Brazil, Kenya, Ukraine and Russia as well as two to three supervisors, who arranged this week's programme. The topic for this specific programme is 'Food security and Agriculture'. The day started at 9 o'clock with an introduction to food security and agriculture by Hans Hoogeveen, the Director General Agriculture from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. This first lecture was followed by another lecture, which was an introduction to the Netherlands and to the DVP by Vin Morar, who is a lecturer at TSM Business School Twente. After this morning programme we then had lunch at the restaurant Watertuin in Naaldwijk. After lunch, we headed to the Binnenhof for a short walk followed by a tour through the Parliament by Rein van Lieshout, a Political Assistant from the VVD. The day ended with a meeting with Eric Smaling, Member of Parliament from the SP. At 18:45 I could cycle to my family, after a long, informative and above all interesting day.

I have learned more about the issues that are faced when dealing with food security and the perspectives of all eight countries. I also had the opportunity to hear about the jobs of most people from the group and what their connection is to the topic and to the programme. I also learned a lot about the different cultures. If you would ever like to marry in Africa, then do not be scared if 800 people turn up including your uncle's, neighbour's best friend. And if you do not have good food at that same wedding, you will be remembered for years as the person with the bad food. Furthermore, it is absolutely insane, according to some, that our Prime Minister works in such a little tower and goes there by bike. Of course, the weather over here is the worst, luckily the representative of Brazil has invited me there to enjoy the better weather. But do know that a journey of a couple of hours is considered very short. So, if someone in Brazil tells you the sea is just a small drive away, then do not be surprised when two hours in you are still driving. To conclude, there were a lot of cultural differences that became obvious.

I have had a lot of fun today at my internship and I hope that this will be the same the coming week. After this first exciting and exhausting day, I now have four days left in The Hague!