The Netherlands, and Maastricht especially, is really cool because even though the national language is Dutch, everyone speaks English. This is partially because English is taught in schools, but also there are lots of international students here. People like me definitely appreciate that we can usually figure out a way to communicate with others. But because Maastricht is very close to both Belgium and Germany, I hear a lot of French and German as well.
Because the Netherlands is part of the European Union, they use the currency euro, much like all other European countries. They actually do not use credit cards anywhere, so that was a really big change for me. I'm used to getting to swipe my cool piece of plastic, but I really like only using cash or debit cards here because it's been good for teaching me how to manage my money.
A bottle of water costs a little more than one dollar, depending on where you are.
