The director of the business program here told me that Dutch people differ genetically from Americans in that their body temperatures are naturally about 1 degree colder than us. I don’t know if that’s true, but based on my experiences with heat in this country, I would agree.
As mentioned, Leiden is cold this time of year (it is winter, afterall). When we arrived to our dorms the rooms were FREEZING. My room is pretty big, with three huge, old, drafty windows and there is only one tiny radiator to heat the whole room. Also, from midnight-6am heat in the entire building goes down to 18 degrees Celsius (I think that’s in the high 60s Fahrenheit). And that’s just what the radiators go down to, which means the actual room is colder since the radiators don’t do that great a job of actually heating the entire room. The second day I was here I went out and bought a space heater. Best EUR 29 I’ve ever spent.
The classroom and public buildings are also really cold. I have learned to wear many layers when in class to avoid having to wear my coat the entire session, but even so, I usually end up putting at least my scarf on for extra warmth. I have started bringing my space heater with me to the class I have in Leiden, since it is little and easily portable and campus is only a 5 minute walk. The first time I plugged it in I was worried I would blow a fuse in the middle of class, but no such catastrophe occurred, so now it is just another school supply along with my laptop and notebook.
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