Monday

This Monday, the new semester started. Most UCG students went home or on a trip during their week off. I went on a trip as well. I spent my entire week off snowboarding in Italy and came back on Sunday. I must admit that I spent the entire Monday morning in my bed, recovering from the ski trip and getting some much needed sleep.

After eating some breakfast it was time for my first class of the new semester: Policy Making in the EU. I took this course because I’m focusing on politics and international business, so I thought it would be nice to know a bit more about the European Union. This lecture lasted for two hours and by the time it was over it was already time to have dinner.

Together with two good friends from UCG, I decided to make burritos for dinner. I always try to avoid having dinner on my own, it’s just more enjoying to have dinner with others. Also, it is because at home, dinner was always the time where my entire family sat together and talked. So I guess it reminds me a little bit of home to have dinner with my friends.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning, I (unfortunately) had to wake up at eight o’clock in the morning to go to my math classes. Considering that math is by far not my most favourite topic, this morning was very tough for me. We worked on linear equations or something, I must admit that I didn’t really pay attention. So, after two very tiresome hours, I could finally go to my first Arabic class. UCG, offers apart from the regular programme, the World Language Programme. The World Language Programme is optional, but if students are interested in learning a foreign language they can sign up for this programme. In total our year had four options: Arabic, Chinese, Spanish and Dutch. I’ve always liked learning new languages, so I decided that I wanted to do Arabic or Chinese. In the end, I chose for Arabic because I was more interested in Arabic speaking countries than in China.

Being back home, I had the choice between working on my overdue work (I’m quite a procrastinator) or sleeping. Of course, I chose to sleep. When I woke up, it was time for me to go to the gym. I hadn’t worked out in an entire week because of the ski trip, so I felt extra pressure to go. After my workout at the gym, which is located at exactly the same place where all the first year students live, I had to hurry because I was supposed to meet a good friend from high school who’s also studying in Groningen. I think it’s important to stay in contact with my friends outside UCG. It sometimes happens that University College students have a tendency to stick with each other. I must say, that I also hang out a lot with other UCG students. I mean, you live in the same building and you see each other all day. However, I still think it’s important to have some contacts outside UCG.

Wednesday

On Wednesday, there was not much going on. I spent my morning doing work and my class of International business started at 14:00. International Business, being my main interest, was the course I looked most forward to. Unfortunately, the class is a four-hour straight class, which is a little too long if you’d ask me. Even though it’s quite fun to learn something if you’re interested in it, it’s hard to keep paying attention for 4 hours in a row. After the International Business class, I joined the ‘Aelous big trip announcement dinner’. During this dinner, the travel committee of our study association announced the destination of their next big trip. They planned this event in cooperation with ‘the sleeping lasagnas’, our cooking committee. The sleeping lasagnas made a nice three-course Greek dinner. So obviously, after seeing the Moussaka, everyone already guessed that the destination of the next trip would be Greece. Caerus regularly organises dinners for its members. If you want to learn more about Caerus, you can follow this link: https://www.caerus-ucg.com/association/home

Next week’s blog post I’ll continue with this one.

Thursday

On Thursday it was time for maths for social sciences at nine o’clock in the morning, again. In the afternoon I had a meeting with my project group. Apart from the regular courses, UCG also offers projects in its programme. All these projects try to tackle a societal challenge from multiple aspects.

I’m in a project called ‘Once Upon a Time’, this project is all about Children’s literature. Basically, what we are trying to achieve, is to develop our own piece of children’s literature dealing with challenges of the modern society, such as discrimination or gender equality. At the beginning of the year, we had to do research on children’s literature to get an understanding of what we are dealing with. However, now that the research is done, the fun part, which is the writing of our piece of literature can begin!

Apart from our regular group meetings, where we work on our project, UCG also offers us workshops. Today, we had one of those workshops. During this workshops, we learned about filming and video editing. It took us four hours, but it was really fun to do. Firstly, we were taught how to make a good video with our smartphones while making use of different angles. Secondly, we had to bring these skills into practice and shoot a short video. 

Friday

This Friday I only had two hours of policy-making in the European Union. During this class, I had to present a report that I had written about my last class. I presented about the European situation after the Second World War and how the following events resulted in the establishment of the European Community of Coal and Steel. I really liked doing research on this matter because I also get to learn more about history, which I have always liked as a subject.

Later that day, I just hung out with a few friend because I did not have anything scheduled. After that we all had dinner and prepared for a party we would have later that night.

This night, some people leaving in our student housing organised a massive 80’s themed party. Some of the organisers were UCG students, but there were also other people living here who help organising this stunning event. Personally, I am not really a big fan of 80’s music, but parties are always fun, especially if there are a lot of people. At some point, there were so many people that people were just partying in the hallway because there was no space left in the kitchens. As far as I know, everyone had a really fun time and we partied until five in the morning. That’s probably the only thing I do not like about the Dutch party culture, parties always and really late. This party already ended late, but some pubs and clubs in Groningen are open until six in the morning!