Every night of the Intreeweek in a sports hall: “Sleeping is the first thing I'm going to do when I get home”
Intreeweek is drawing to a close. Hundreds of first-year students have already spent five nights sleeping in the gymnasiums of the Universum sports center. Today another festival is scheduled, and tonight the final party. How did they sleep and what were the highlights of the week? “I woke up with a pounding headache every morning, that was no good.”
Bianca (18, psychology)
The Italian Bianca skips breakfast and has already packed her bags. In a hoarse voice she begins to talk. “I slept, it wasn't the best sleep of my life, but I managed to continue. I skipped breakfast. They have bread here with raisins, I don't like that. I prefer good coffee for breakfast. There are places here in Amsterdam that do serve that.
In a moment I'll check in at the Student Hotel, I'll stay there for the rest of the year. It was a nice week. I couldn't do everything, because we weren’t able to participate. There were too many people for some activities. But the week did fulfill its purpose. When you go to a completely new place where you know no one, it can be scary. To then meet people and make friends in the first week, that's kind of reassuring. What do I think of Amsterdam? It is very expensive! But beautiful, and I like it here.”
Wouter (17, in three weeks 18 “so I haven't been allowed to drink yet, actually”, psychology)
“How I slept? Shit, really horrible. I woke up every morning with a pounding headache, that was no good. After a party I prefer to sleep until twelve or one o'clock. When the climbing walls light up at half past seven, the music starts at half past eight and they start bleating in your ears at nine, it doesn't make me happy. During the day you can't take a quick nap either, so that's what's really got to me in the last few days. So sleeping is the first thing I'm going to do when I get home.
I enjoyed the sports activities here in the hall the most: deadlifts, rowing, climbing, that sort of thing. I did think there was a bit much vegetarian food. You can't call a vegetarian BBQ a BBQ. Other than that, just satisfied that I went to Intreeweek, got to know the city, did pub crawls. The final party is the best, that's where you look forward to the most. For me, something came up, so I'm going back to Heerhugowaard.”
Hugo (18, cultural anthropology)
“I had earplugs in the last few nights, that helps a lot. Only the light is annoying. Last night I was in at three o'clock, so that's still reasonable. Tonight, we'll see. I went to Museumnacht yesterday, that's what I remember. To photography museum Foam. We could take our own pictures with props, that was really fun. We had stood in line for an hour for that, so then we didn't go to the other museums.
What was unfortunate is that everywhere there were more people than the Intreeweek had expected. We were supposed to go by boat on Wednesday, but there were only five boats with room for thirty people each, while at least a thousand people were waiting on the quay. So then we just left because it took too long. I didn't become a member of an association. I don't find the whole concept very appealing either. That’s not for me.”
Samira (21, art history) and Noa (19, art history)
Samira: “The night took some getting used to. You do sleep reasonably well because you are tired from the day. It is difficult because people come in at night. Actually, I slept okay, the hours we could sleep.”
Noa: “The toilets and showers were all clean, there were power points, so that was pretty good. But the fact that you have to pack up everything up in the morning and then put it down again in the evening, that's kind of annoying. I did sleep better than I thought.”
Noa: “The week was fun, meeting lots of people, doing new things. Some things didn't work out, like with the boats. But if you get in line on time, it usually works out. We went to the Van Loon and Allard Pierson museum. For art history that's perfect, of course.
Samira: “We didn't know each other yet. But we are in the same mentor group. You notice that you really bond with everyone. You sit together all day and you do all kinds of things together so it goes really fast.”
