A number of people (mostly Dutch people) have asked me why I decided to study in Groningen, especially when they hear I had a choice between Groningen, Berlin and Vienna. Perhaps they assume most Americans would seek out a larger, more cosmopolitan city instead of Groningen. Well, the Netherlands has the highest percentage of bicycle use in Europe (26% of all trips), and Groningen has highest percentage of bicycle use in the Netherlands (38% of all trips) - Groningen is a perfect place for me to study!
A huge component of my research is simply using the bicycle network. I live about 1.6 km (1 mile) from the city center and 5.4 km (3.3 miles) from campus, meaning I spend a good amount of time on my bike. It has taken me a while to get my bearings in a city with small, winding roads and street names I can't pronounce, but I'm slowly getting there. For the first three weeks of school, I used a different route to get to campus each day. The nice thing is that bike lanes and bikers are everywhere, so I felt safe no matter what route I took. The bad thing is that I wasted lots of time trying to get to class. My strategy consisted of finding someone with a backpack and following them - sometimes it worked great, sometimes it led me to the middle school/high school. Just this weekend I had a breakthrough and decided on the best route for getting to campus, no backpack following required. Small victories! Next mission: memorize street names and learn how to pronounce them.
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