By Amée Zoutberg Looking back on 2018, I feel that one of my greatest lessons learnt came about a month after receiving my UCR diploma. Which was great. Really. I painfully discovered that in three years of sacrifice and voluntary enslavement to the academic system (for that sweet, sweet 3.5 GPA), I had in no way…
About the HAC Christmas Market: Bringing the December Festivities to our Front Door
By Mieke Pressley The end of the semester is drawing near. Before long, we’ll all be dressing up in our best clothes for the Christmas Gala, before splitting ways for our well-deserved Winter Break. But before that, there is one penultimate event to keep an eye out for. An event that brings all the coziness…
Is Science Undemocratic?
by Andrea Undecimo A new truth has emerged: science is not democratic. This is at least what a famous Professor of Microbiology and Virology at the University of Milan, Roberto Burioni, has proposed in his book, published last year, whose title could be roughly translated as “The conspiracy of the ignorant: why science cannot be…
Monkeys, Millennials and Meditation
By Vanessa Bade Because of my easily distractible nature, I am very cautious and selective regarding the apps I download. However, that principle proves ever more difficult in a world in which a new app is developed seemingly every minute and my self-discipline challenged equally frequently. I must admit, I am a sucker for a…
Ikumen: Normalizing Stay-at-Home Dads
by Jedidja van Boven Because the last two weeks of the semester are upon us, I was wasting some hours on YouTube, as you do. I stumbled across this video titled ‘’How To Put a Baby To Sleep’’, and despite the fact that I am in no way responsible enough to have a child, I…
Productive Procrastinating: Period Dramas
By Alice Fournier There is nothing quite like procrastination: we all love it, we all hate it, but why not hate it a bit less by making it useful? And better yet, by turning our brains into a semi-on/semi-off mode whilst watching other people’s very complicated lives. History nerds, here comes your period dramas list,…
THEATRA: The Christmas Plays
by Maran van den Oord It’s cold outside, lights are everywhere to be found, and the market square is home to a huge pine tree once again. This can mean but one thing: Christmas is coming. But more importantly, THEATRA’s Christmas plays are just around the corner! Devils, ghosts, and prisoners; these plays (and one…
The Beauty of Difference – I
By Andrea Undecimo Being so used to the diversity that forms our small University, we sometimes forget what it really means to come from a different background, to have had another upbringing from ours and ultimately to see the world from a different perspective. Part of the educational process is, I believe, to put oneself…
Bohemian Rhapsody: Exciting Biopic, or Moralistic Tale?
By Amélie Minnaard SPOILERS AHEAD Bohemian Rhapsody, the new biopic about Queen from the perspective of Freddie Mercury, has been surrounded by controversy for years. In 2013, Sacha Baron Cohen, who was originally meant to play Freddie Mercury, quit the movie over creative differences with the remaining members of Queen. In 2014, director Dexter Fletcher…
California: Camp Fire and Cannery Row
by Jedidja van Boven The end of 2018 is fast approaching, and it feels like every year gets more intense, with crazier headlines, angrier politicians, and biggerhashtags. 2018, too, was already a record year in many ways- and not always in the good sense of the word. For example: a record total surface area burnt…
First 10 weeks out of 90: A B8-Talk with our Latest Members
By Mieke Pressley At the start of the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Charlie walks into his high school, counting the numbers of schooldays until he graduates. Our time at UCR can be measured in a similar way (although, granted, UCR is neither a high school nor as hellish as Charlie imagines high…
The Craziest Lawsuits EVER Filed (You Won’t Believe No. 3!)
by Jedidja van Boven The field of law seems to be dealing with some sort of image problem. It’s usually depicted as a stuffy, boring discipline where old people in ill-fitting blazers discuss fraud and tax evasion. Sometimes, however, exceptions pop up in the international news scene. There have been weird lawsuits all over the…
Nacht van de Nacht 2018
by Liam McClain I grew up in a neighbourhood that, like many other neighbourhoods in America, took Halloween very seriously. With the candy and the dressing up, Halloween quickly became my favourite holiday. I still remember my disappointment when I learned that Halloween wasn’t celebrated in The Netherlands (aside from the occasional black cat or…
A Night Under the Stars- the Nacht van de Nacht
by Andrea Undecimo Have you ever wondered what it feels like to walk in the streets at night with only the stars to light your way? What it looks like to be guided by only the starry sky and the moon? Indeed, we are so used to artificial lights that we sometimes forget about all this;…
Pittsburgh and the Polish Sun
by Jedidja van Boven The American daily newspapers were still being flooded with stories on migrant caravans and Saudi journalists when a new report came in on 27 October: The Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had been the site of a hate crime that cost 11 lives. Classified as the worst anti-Semitic attack…
Life in Bubbles
By Vanessa Bade Growing up abroad, I was sent to small private schools for most of my high school career. Every four years, it seemed as though I was leaving behind a country and its culture, ready to emerge into another one. Really, though, all I was adopting and leaving behind was my school environment;…
The Low-lands vs The Land Down-Under: How does Australia compare to the Netherlands?
By Sanne van Veen Although Australia is basically on the other side of the world, the differences between Australia and the Netherlands are fairly minimal. I have listed some of the major difference between the two for future guidance if you ever visit Australia! Wildlife Cows, sheep and horses are a pretty rare find in…
“What the Future Holds”
By Farina Shaaban It’s that time of year again! In weeks 9 and 10 the AAC will be hosting the annual “Future Weeks” events. Whether you want to continue your studies, take a gap year or go straight to work, this program, with lectures and workshops, should help you figure out your next steps. “Future…
Cold Cases: The Law of Winter and The 1974 Disappearances
by Jedidja van Boven The Bellingshausen station, a Russian outpost on King George Island, Antarctica, doesn’t exactly make headlines often. However, when researcher Sergey Savitsky, stationed at the isolated facility, was charged with attempted murder of a colleague last week, the media started paying attention to the most remote location where crime reports could possibly…
Our Small World
By Anonymous This photo tells the story of a small town, surrounded by fields and the ocean. In the centre of it all, a university filled with students from all walks of life. I think we quickly forget how small our world is, and how beautiful it can be if we just choose to look…