Today marks the beginning of the third week of classes as I pursue my masters in International Human Rights law. I am currently taking Advanced International Law and International Dispute Settlement. Neither class is that exciting, but they lay the foundation for future learning. I am especially looking forward to International Human Rights law next period and International Humanitarian Law (the Law of War) in the spring.
The academic environment is quite different from what I am used to, both in my undergrad and at law school in the US. The school year is broken down into four, 8-week periods instead of the semester system we have. I have a total of 8 hours of class a week: 2 on Monday, 2 on Tuesday, and 4 on Wednesday. That's right, I have a 4-day weekend every weekend. The Monday and Tuesday sessions are lectures (about 80 students per lecture) from a professor covering the reading that was assigned for the week. The Wednesday sessions (there are two, 2-hour sessions) are what they call tutorials. Tutorials are presided over by a tutor, who has a Ph.D., and it follows what the university calls Problem Based Learning. In each PBL session, which has about 18 students, we discuss the lecture and then the assigned writing. The tutor's job is to guide us toward the (most) correct answer by way of questions. This aspect is similar to the idea of the Socratic method with which US law students are familiar.
The city is decent sized and has about 120,000 inhabitants. It was settled by Romans because the Maas (Meuse) River was easy to ford here. I guess in old Dutch stricht meant ford, so the name of the city is Maasford (like Hartford, where ancient settlers forded the Hart! Or New Hartford, where ancient settlers forded the New Hart!). Apparently there are over 360 cafes within the city limits, which makes getting bored of a specific place very difficult. There are two main squares in the downtown area - the Markt (Market) and the Vrijthof (Free Square). I live right off the Vrijthof with a schoolmate from Washburn as it was the most economical option that kept us near downtown. We live in a 1-bedroom place, so I pay less rent and have a corner of the living room to call my own for the next 10 months. All in all it isn't too bad given the location to downtown and the faculty of law (the school is a 3-minute walk). An interesting fact about Maastricht is that it was supposedly the place where the first dinosaur bones were found. A farmer found some bones and a professor told him he would pay for any bones the farmer brought into town. Once the farmer realized what he had stumbled upon, he didn't want to sell them anymore. Like modern day man, the two went to court and argued about it. To make the court's decision easy, Napoleon, who had occupied the city, took control of the bones and now they reside in Paris.
I haven't really traveled since I've been here, save for a night in Brussels. I didn't have a place to live here in Maastricht yet and the hotels were booked, so I took the opportunity to get out and see another city. I ended going there during the Belgium Beer Weekend, which was frustrating because I was unaware of it and hadn't made plans to go, so the tents were full. This coming weekend is the UCI World Road Race Championship (cycling) that starts right here in Maastricht! As a big cycling fan, my timing couldn't have worked out any better. Hopefully I'll be able to get some autographs and meet some of the riders.
This is the red tower of Sint Janskerk (Saint John the Baptist Church) right on the Vrijthof. It is painted red because it is made from marl, a limestone quarried here in Maastricht. The stone is yellow when quarried, but oxidizes to black after a while. Maastricht was known as the city with the black tower and, being a somewhat posh city, didn't like that and decided to spruce it up and paint it red.
I toured the caves where the marl is quarried and saw this drawing, among many, on the wall (the caption on the picture says, "Napoleon visits Maastricht." What a nice way of putting it.):
That was the scene at the beer weekend in Brussels:
Finally, this is a Dutch cop demonstrating proper form when covering his buddies who are assaulting a car (don't worry, it was a display put on by the police, not a real arrest):
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