By Anna Szczełkun Opioids are a class of drugs that comes from poppy plants and affects a specific receptor in the brain. The history of opioids goes way back, and we have evidence of poppy plants used a couple of thousands of years ago. Ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Persians used it as a painkiller, but also…
Smallest cinema of the Netherlands!!!!
By Marije Huging When walking drearily on the almost-empty streets of Middelburg after a 16:00-18:00 class, you realize that you forgot to buy food. So you go to the supermarket in the dark to pick up ready-made pasta, a vegetable for nutrition, and some candy, which you can open on the way back for comfort…
Humans of UCR: Fenna Capelle
By Maud Smulders I have to admit I was quite nervous when I came here. It was new, I came right out of high school, and I obviously didn’t know anyone. I have never been particularly good at adapting to social situations. But it has been amazing, to be honest, I never expected it to…
What Salmon Teaches Us about Connection
By Friederike Uebel Another week of pondering on the impermanence of life and the interconnectedness of all things goes by. Through life’s up and down’s I find peace in this knowing. Trusting that there still are more interwoven relationships keeping another in check, than we are collectively destroying. I am thinking of how silly…
Grades are Dumb
By Arya Mehta I know this is quite a cliché/cheesy opinion column article in college magazines or even high school publications but I think in Week 11, when we’re all struggling to get to the finish line, this serves as an important reminder that our grades don’t define our worth or predict our future. I…
The Facade of Diversity at UCR
By Junghyun Song UCR is an international honors college of Utrecht University. That is what it says on UCR’s website and on the Internet if you look it up. Besides all the other reasons, this purported international community boasted by UCR was a determining factor that made me want to come here. However, my anticipation…
Mothers Or Not
By Lucia Bertoldini Controversial topic alert! The other day, in the midst of my -rather desperate!!- research for an anthropology paper, I came across an interesting article by The Guardian. The author was talking about the implications of the USA abortion legislation, in which the States recently had signed a document known as the Geneva Consensus…
Fairy Tale contest: Beatrice
LitRA, in collaboration with Culture Co, held a fiction contest a couple of weeks ago. The theme was ‘fairy tales’ and submissions focused on retelling fairy tales from the writers’ home country. The winner of the Fairy Tale contest, exclusively revealed here, was Boudica Gast. She won with her retelling “The Beatrijs”, a medieval Dutch…
Whilst Online Shopping Sites Are Doing Well in This Season, Local Businesses Are Not Exactly Thriving.
By Marije Huging I must say, writing about Arts & Culture whilst the government has just shut down the entire sector is not the easiest thing. As I was about to write something about the opening of the smallest cinema in the Netherlands located in Middelburg (!!!), the cinemas closed, so an opening is not…
What’s Up With Poland? – A Report From The Front
By Anna Szczełkun Poland is experiencing the largest protest since the fall of communism in 1989. Tens of thousands of Poles are on the streets, and not only in the major cities, but across the whole country, and they are furious. As a person born and raised in Poland I can’t stop thinking: how did…
Racism in the Netherlands – Through Gloria Wekker’s “On White Innocence”
By Arya Mehta The Netherlands is often portrayed as this safe, liberal haven with its egalitarian ideals and ‘colorblind’ values. But, as Gloria Wekker, inspired by Toni Morrison, points out in her lecture on “White Innocence” (linked in the bibliography, fantastic read), this colorblind outlook does not translate into non-racism. In fact, it does more…
The Solution is Mushrooms
By Friederike Uebel Seriously my thought 20% of the day and hey, I confess, it spilled out more often than I wanted throughout the last 6 weeks of the Engineering Project 1. When I reveal my love for mushrooms, I am used to encountering some ignorance and stereotyping at least 4 out of 10 times….
Through Rolling Landscapes & Acquaintances IV- Tippi Hedren
Through Rolling Landscapes By Fenna Capelle Through rolling landscapes I found a path I needed to pursue It reached out as far as my mind could bear to let it free Like a doubtful sceptic who, in dreaming, knew not where to turn to And I followed it to the last caress of its sheer…
The Lurking Presence of Big Brother in UCR Facebook Page?
By Anonymous The University College Roosevelt Facebook Account (UCRFBA) should not be a part of nor should be interfering with the “Welcome to UCR class of 2023” Facebook page. This is the first time they have been included and involved. This was not the case for the “Welcome to UCR class of 2022”, and the…
Distance Teaching: How Have the UCR Professors Coped With Online Classes?
By Junghyun Song As a student myself, I tend to think and write about the problems arising from online learning only from the perspectives of students. But a single narrative is dangerous as we do not get the full picture of how different groups are affected differently by the pandemic. As such, I figured that…
Humans of UCR: Derin
By Maud Smulders I’m a dude, who lives in Bagijnhof 3. Occasionally I cook things, I love making people food. Well, not make people-food, but make food for people. I wouldn’t make people-food unless someone asked me that as their deathwish. Recently, I made a hot sauce and people seemed to like it. Then I…
We Need to Talk about Mental Health
By Marco Segantini After writing about the value of cartoons and some of my favorite movies in my previous articles for Tabula Rasa, it seems strange to now sit and write about mental health. I almost wish I could be here writing about “The great friendship between Teddy and the dragon” (those that attended the Budget…
‘Unnamed’ & Deep into the Green
‘Unnamed’ By Fenna Capelle Time may brag, for she transcends the ages Refuge lean on angels enclosing her Bounty can rest in taking her wages Tempt resilience, she’ll refuse to stir They fought with reason and conquered it all And have laid siege on love and fantasy, That dare not think of a thing so…
Celebrating Women’s Health Awareness
By Karina Bukuri It is the first day of breast cancer awareness month and the first time I am celebrating. Being 19 and diagnosed with a non-cancerous breast tumor really changes something in you, it sorts of shifts your perspective on things. By saying this, I don’t mean the dramatic, ‘I think I am gonna…