By Zoë Goldsborough
As someone who moved from one middle of nowhere to the next, I am used to hearing the question of what one could possibly do where I live. When I still lived in Friesland, I simply answered with “nothing but cows.” Now, here at UCR, I usually try to justify my answer with how great the sense of community is. Sadly, most of the time, outsiders do not understand this. To me, this is a wonderful example of what is commonly known as the ‘bubble effect’. In Middelburg we students live in our own little bubble, isolated from the big cities, massive shopping malls and, sadly, other people our age that do not follow the same study. Geographically, we are also isolated due to the single train track providing an exit from Zeeland, with trains that seem to demand blood sacrifice in return for actually running when it matters. However, a big part of our ‘tribal’ culture is also psychological.
After just one semester here, I have already noticed that my priorities started to shift. Things inside UCR suddenly became massively important, something outsiders simply cannot understand. In the ‘normal world’ a genius prank that someone pulled is perhaps funny to their friends and some people they know, but when you only have 600 people in one place, everybody is involved. A nice example of this is something that happened quite recently involving bikes and a roof – an incident that by now has probably made the rounds several times.
I personally find it fascinating how completely absorbed one can get into the bubble. It is like the bubble has tiny bubbles inside of it, and the deeper you go, the harder it is to get out again. Until suddenly you find yourself gasping in shock about a remark that person A allegedly made to person B when you actually have never met either of them. I especially notice this when I have not been ‘outside of UCR’ (a.k.a. Home) for a while.
I do not go home very often – because of Friesland and that one train track- and thus I am starting to get used to life inside the bubble. For international students this must be even worse, since outside of the breaks the UCR bubble is basically their goldfish tank, they run into the same people every 5 minutes.
A fun thing about the bubble though, is that it creates a strong “we”-feeling – the UCR tribe. The us versus them effect is way stronger when most others your age are two hours away by public transportation. Basically, you can see our community as one big inside joke. No one outside of it really gets it, but to us its great fun. By living so closely together and sharing such a massive part of our lives, we can easily relate to one another. I suspect this is what UCR intended to achieve by having its students live on campus; in that sense, UCR was very successful.
However, in my opinion, it also requires a bit of caution. Especially when it comes to meeting new people. In theory, 600 people is the amount of people a person can know by name and face. However, this is of course assuming that you have no friends outside of UCR whatsoever. But who needs those when you can have roughly 600 friendly acquaintances, am I right? (The bubble is good. All praise the bubble,)
All jokes aside, what I am hinting at is that in the bubble one tends to acquire knowledge about a person before ever meeting them. In less fancy words: gossip. Here at UCR you can meet someone of whom you have already heard half their backstory (and sexual conquests) of which probably a mere ten percent is actually true. I believe this is something a lot of people tend to forget. Gossip circulates like crazy here; obviously, just because you heard it, does not mean it is true. I have tried to make that my mantra. Of course I like to hear gossip, but once I meet the actual person that is the subject of it all, I try to erase all bias and see for myself what my opinion of them is. It is a pretty fool proof method, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.
Lastly, some more advice for you, which in my opinion should be the UCR mantra: Break the bubble! Just once a month or so, take the train somewhere – anywhere – else. For example, you could go home with someone else for a nice change of scenery, take a city trip; and yes, contrary to popular belief, The Netherlands actually has multiple cities, and Belgium is a stone’s throw away. There are many ways to remove yourself from all the UCR drama. Also, try out the various InterUC events, where all the University Colleges’ bubbles mix into an even bigger bubble.
So, make an effort to escape from our bubble – even if it is only for a short time. Tabula Rasa even has an entire section dedicated to this, so check out the Out&About section. There is plenty to do just within your direct surroundings, you just have to muster the courage to actually go and do it. Do not worry; afterwards you can come back to the safety of our lovely campus and dance around the UCR totem pole.
Zoë Goldsborough, Class of 2017, is a Science Major from Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
