“My Home is My Castle”

By Lisa Rückwardt
Staff Writer

Living on the Middelburg campus has its costs, and there are the yearly problems with Woongoed. However, we should be thankful to actually have student houses and, normally, enough places organized for all of the incoming students. In addition, Middelburg is far from being the most expensive city to live in; in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Munich, and many other places a life as a student sets larger financial constraints. For some, the lack of (affordable) student locations is problematic, for others it might be a possibility for more creative student housing.

In Vlissingen, L’Escaut (the equivalent of Woongoed) recently took over the trend you could observe for example in Amsterdam and The Hague: Containers. They fit to the habor atmosphere of Vlissingen and are situated next to the main shopping street and close to the pubs. Costing slightly more than student rooms in an apartment for three, they include, however, a bathroom and kitchen just for one. Unfortunately, the containers were not finished as planned and thus the HZ had to find a temporary accommodation for the ones who signed up for a Container room. They hired a ferry, which was placed in the water close to the university, with cabins for the students until the containers were finally ready last year. Also in Berlin, Germany, where there is a shortage of apartments in many cities, the containers have been introduced and they even offer a small garden that is maintained also by the neighborhood. Some other cities thought about hiring a ferry for the students as well.

To raise awareness and to protest against the shortage of student accommodations, German students lived and displayed themselves in shop-windows with displayed furniture or on the market square where they brought desks and beds to show that there is no other space for them to go. Organizations like “Camelot” or “Young meets Old” profit from this situation and offer brilliant ideas. Students are allowed to live in elderly homes for a low price and the promise to contribute to the community. An additional positive aspect is the mutual learning experience and the lively environment for the older inhabitants. It is not something for everyone though and if you prefer your own space, why not be a live-in guardian in an apartment, public building, villa or even castle?

Once registered on the European website for house-guardians, Camelot, you can apply and then take care of any kind of building (also schools or offices) for very little money. On the downside, there are certain house rules, like no excessive partying and no smoking, and you have to pass an interview before you can move in. I would be curious, however, what it would be like to live in a castle, for example in Limburg, with the only task to scare off unwanted guests and to keep the building well-maintained and heated. The spacious buildings can become quite scary and maybe a rather lonely. After breaking up with his girlfriend, Joe Pearce from Wales bought himself a small and old sailing boat to live on, fixed it and lives in a habor for a pound a day. In the “babe magnet”, as stated in an article, you have very little space, but the freedom of living wherever you feel like, having transportation and a holiday home at once.

There are many more possible accommodations for students that are affordable and quite the adventure. Not only is it worthy ´to consider unusual housing, hotels, Bungalows, Camping sites and the lot are also not the only accommodation for holidays. But I will leave that up to you to find out some interesting places and possibilities.

Lisa Rückwardt, class of 2015, is a Law and Psychology major from Dortmund, Germany.