One of the most important lessons you learn while living abroad is how to get used to almost anything and how to have fun anywhere. Whether you are eating a cold cheese sandwich as lunch, biking in the rain or cooking for the first time, you find ways to enjoy it. Or, at least this way you'll start appreciating your home country.

Food, housing, transportation, weather etc. are the first few things to understand. Here are some tips that can be proven handy at time. There are many super markets like Albert Heijn, Aldi, Lidl, Jumbo where you can find all food items. www.opentot.nl is an excellent web portal to check the opening hours of these super markets and other stores. Other than that there are many Turkish, Indian and Chinese super markets as well. Do visit the ‘Kruisstraat’, very close to TU/e campus, as you can find almost everything there including restaurants, super markets, electronic items, second hand shops etc.

For weather forecast www.weer.nl and www.buienradar.nl are useful sites. Second-hand products are very common in the Netherlands, www.marktplaats.nl is the most popular site, while www.open-market.nl and other numerous facebook groups e.g., ISN Eindhoven, Second hand Eindhoven!, Commodity Market Eindhoven, Get Together Eindhoven! are also good.

Transportation happens mainly by bikes, get yourself an ov-chip card for public transport. www.9292.nl is good for buses, www.ns.nl is for trains, do make use of cheaper train group tickets or day tickets to discover the Netherlands.

I wish all the new international students a very warm welcome to Eindhoven.