By Emma Overmaat
Design Manager
While most UCR-students were still enjoying their winter break, a new group of enthusiastic students arrived in Middelburg; some of them ready to begin their three-year adventure while others here only on exchange for a semester. On Tuesday the 28th of January, their IntRoweek began and the students were divided into three different families: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, but the week quickly came to a close.
Lewis Dean summed up IntRoweek in one word: “Awesome!” Exhausting, that too, added his family members, but first and foremost awesome! The Ugly family thought RASA had done a great job in organizing fun activities, including a city tour of Middelburg, different games such as capture the flag and many delicious dinners. Because there were only three families, the new students got the opportunity to get to know almost everyone. Nevertheless, some students felt that they were left on their own when it came to the technical and practical issues. For instance, Kayleigh Mathey says that opening a bank account and registering at the municipality was not easy for everyone, including herself.
However, the first-semester students are very excited about life at UCR. So far, they seem to be enjoying it. They find the people to be friendly and the courses quite interesting. Yet, the workload at UCR seems to be somewhat overwhelming. One of the first semester students, Carolin Anczykowski, told Tabula Rasa that she feels drained by the schoolwork but also that this was expected from UCR. “I worked on my Stats homework till 2 am yesterday night”, she said. Another student, Daniël Podzimek was surprised to hear that he had to pick a topic for a paper already in his first week but he is sure it will all work out.
During the upcoming three years that the new students will be attending UCR, they expect to not only become more confident but also learn how to be fully independent. The international students also hope to learn some Dutch along the way. What it is exactly they want to study at UCR, most students do not know yet. Daniël Podzimek mentions not knowing what to study as one of the reasons for coming here. Tabula Rasa wishes all the new students the best of luck at UCR!
Emma Overmaat, Class of 2015, is a Sociology and Linguistics major from Amersfoort, the Netherlands.
