My Life as Lisa: Follow me!

No, this is not an advert for twitter. Actually, this is not meant as an advert at all, it is purely an expression of the highest excitement possible. And I am a person that can get reaaaaally excited, so beware!

I am planning a movie. Of course, I have always been a huge fan of whatever CameRA does, but now finally inspiration struck me to complete my own masterpiece (hopefully). I will film our very own Doctor Who Episode! It seemed a bit of a silly idea at first, a whim of the moment, not a real plan. However, the idea haunted me so much (case of inception?) that I could not get rid off it anymore. And after I figured out how to solve some technical problems that would be inevitably linked with this project I thought: Why not? and could not be stopped by any human creature alive.

Anyhow, it was also clear to me that no matter how fantastic I find this idea, a movie is an enormous project. Such a project with RA students that never have time to even help out their closest friends for 10 minutes? How would that ever be possible? Furthermore, it is a Doctor Who Episode, we need a complete soundtrack re-recorded or composed not to violate any copyrights. Yeeeeah, sure, Lisa, dream on. Is what I thought.

I also thought asking never hurt anybody, so I did, expecting to get a. an awful lot of rejections b. no email at all.

Dear reader, you have to understand: As amazing as RA students are, they just do not reply to their emails. Don’t ask me why it is too hard to send a short one-sentence-notice about something very important, but apparently it is for 80% of our oh-so-busy-students (yes, I know we are busy, but so am I, don’t use this as an argument!). So, I wrote this enthusiastic email about how much I want to film this Dr. Who episode and who was willing to help with basically anything. Before I clicked on “send” I asked a friend: Do you think I will get any replies to this? He said: Don’t count on it, please don’t be so sad if not.

1 minute later my mailbox informed me with a little bleep that there was an email. And another one. And another one. And another one! I felt a bit like Harry Potter jumping around all these letters from Hogwarts. So many emails! Replies to me asking a huge favour from people, to give me a lot of their time, a lot of their energy…and they were all willing! Those who would not help out even replied as well, congratulating me to the idea and wishing me good luck with the project.

If you see someone singing and dancing through Eleanor, it will be me. I am so happy. All this support that I had never expected but secretly hoped for so much! All this enthusiasm, I am so, so, so glad!

Also, I hereby want to utter a warning:
Be careful. Aliens will invade Middelburg soon. You have three months time to evacuate, or prepare to meet a Timelord and his companion. Watch out for a blue telephone box.

Lisa Theresa is a theatre&media studies student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. She is a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project  (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

My Life as Lisa: Campus News

I cannot end this semester without saying anything about Campus News.
Ever since the committee CameRA, of which I am a proud member, mentioned that this project needs an adoptive parent, I have been working on plans, schedules, scripts and interview questions for it. Campus News, I was convinced, should happen, be, and develop into a really cool little video show that people look forward to every two weeks. I even made my parents buy me a camera to do the required filming – it was certainly not the happiest day of their life when they passed the cashier, but I hope the result makes them a bit proud and happy of their investment.

As the semester ends, so does the first season of Campus News…I call it the first season because there will be another two seasons, for sure. I will not give up on this project as long as I am still a student at RA! I truly hope that when I graduate, I have found an amazing team and someone capable and enthusiastic to take over the project and hopefully the tradition that we have built up until then. Campus News started with an episode about intRAweek, celebrated Valentine’s Day, explored the horrors of Midtermweek, rejoiced life in spring, followed the elections and tried to catch some bunnies. Moreover, there is an awfully long episode about the movie ‘The Successor’, but I particularly like it. I don’t know how I feel about all these viewers being so happy about the introduction of this certain episode (go and check it out if you haven’t seen it yet), but I scripted it, so I try not to take it personally and take it as a compliment.

At the moment I am collecting comments and suggestions for the episodes to come in the next semesters in the Campus News Box in Eleanor. I hope you all have somewhat enjoyed it and in the next semester it will be even more awesome! The first season was a jump into the cold water (quite successfully though, luckily), the second season can only mean even more fun and entertainment to come.

Lastly I want to say that Campus News is more than happy about any new members (just contact me!) and your input! The box will still be up for the last week, so this is your chance! If you miss it, I am sure you will figure out how to find me anyways.

Lisa Theresa is a theatre&media studies student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. She is a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project  (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

Micha goes WWOOFing

So this blog it is finally time to explain what I am going to do this summer. It is completely not university related, however it is always great to see what you can do if you have so much time on your hands.

This summer I am going two months to Sweden to go WWOOFing. No this is not barking like a dog, but than written in capital letters ( however you do pronounce WWOOF like that). WWOOF stands for: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms: WWOOF. http://www.wwoof.org/

WWOOFing basically means that you go to an organic farm, and you work there. Even though it is unpaid, you get a roof above your head and food. So it is volunteer work. The equation is very simple: you donate us your work, and we will give you food, roof, and knowledge about organic farming. If you are not interested in learning some organic farming skills, than don't do this. But if you do, please do so ;-)! So what am I going to do? I am going to take the train to Copenhagen, and than take the train to Malmo, where my journey through Sweden will start. I will first stay somewhere near Uddevalla, which is on the west side of Sweden. Here I will stay two weeks, after helping here I will travel all the way to the middle of Sweden, where I will stay in Mora. After staying there for a almost six weeks, I will travel through the rest of Sweden. Go to Stockholm for example, and some other places I still have to think about.

The picture on the map is absolutely not definitely, but this is the plan as I am thinking of it right now... oh how do I love 3 month long holidays!

My name is Micha, I am a first year student focussing on anthropology and sociology.

Ilse and the End-of-Semester-Blues

As much as I dislike midterms do I like end of terms. Especially the final two weeks in which you buckle down to finish those last bits – polish that last essay before you hand it in, sit down to your last exam, finally finish that course book... two weeks, immense madness and you are constantly reminded of there being 'only two weeks left!'. You are aware of the upcoming deadline and the endless three-month stretch of 'freedom' that lies beyond. You know you will never have to take the courses you don't like but really do need for your major ever again – in my case, anything abstract with numbers – and you will end that awesome course – for which you have suffered through three other courses in the previous semesters just to fulfill the requirements – while thinking 'Week 15? Really?!'. The end-of-semester parties are coming up, all kinds of events, three months of endless sunshine – and it's actually a bit sad. You also realize that you again spent 15 weeks of your life having a marvelous time and it's again over. You think to yourself 'only n semesters left! Oh my, does time fly!'. You know that the three months of freedom also mean three months without RA, three months that are torturously long. It's interesting that we interpret these months as free, since I haven't encountered any student yet that plans on doing nothing. All are going to do some awesome internship, summer course or will work and/or travel et cetera. It's a very double feeling. Pleasant, but saddening. Not really a blues, actually. More like... a big band song in minor key. But that doesn't sound as good.

Ilse is a second year social science student with an interest in law and law enforcement with an interest in many different sorts of media.

My Life as Lisa: Extra Work

If you pass my door you might hear uncontrolled, hysterical laughter. Excuse me if I am loosing my mind, but I have to do extra work. Yes, my dear readers, you have read correctly: Extra work.

Until now Roosevelt Academy was quite alright, survivable, only for one reason…because we knew at least that the teachers understood us. That they worked themselves to near-death-experiences just as much as we do. I do not want to say they stopped working, because they most certainly have not, but at the moment I have to do such a lot that I am loosing my faith in “seeing a light at the end of the tunnel”. Actually my agenda says for the 20^th, the last day of the semester: YAY YOU HAVE SURVIVED!....well, have you?

The thing is, I am taking a few courses at the moment, for which all the end-of-term-evaluations should have the result “it is a good course, but one assignment/essay/presentation/exam less at the end of the semester would do”.

A teacher even assured my course that one of the various tasks will be scrapped because it is actually not doable…next semester.

So I do still have to survive these admittedly almost impossible courses….and do extra work! The last semesters I knew that if I worked myself crazy, it would be rewarded. This semester I have to do extra work to earn the grade I deserve.

Professors, give us a break! Only because we are young does not mean we can perform supernatural amounts of work. We might be young now, but if this goes on like it is now for the next year, we will age faster and all look like this soon:

I don’t know if anyone cares for my opinion, but I don’t think it is a particularly enjoyable sight. Please, just be so sensitive as to give us time to use Anti-Aging Cremes.

Lisa Theresa is a theatre&media studies student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. She is a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project  (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

Micha and Trying to Find a Job

As you might have noticed, I already mentioned twice that I would reveal what I was going to do this summer. So far I didn't say one single word about it. This time I will not yet completely, I will tell you about how it has been to find a job for during the summer holidays.

The last weeks I have been thinking about what to do during my 3 month summer holiday. Considering the fact that it is such a long period I thought about working, that would earn me some money which I could use to... yeah you can guess it: go on a holiday next winter/summer! In Middelburg there are quite some outsourcing agencies, such as: Tempo-team, Manpower, Creyf's, & Adecco and some more. I decided that it would be best to just visit them all. Most of the replies I got were in the category of: we are sorry we don't have anything. I must admit though that perhaps saying that I don't want to work in the horeca, or as a cleaner eliminated a lot of job possibilities. Why not work in the horeca or as a cleaner you might think. Well, I'll be honest, I've got a phobia for jobs in cafeteria, first of all, I always think that I might drop something, or secondly forget all the orders placed. In the case of cleaning, I guess that my almost traumatic, but very rewarding,  experience with cleaning hospitals led me to reject such a job.

So what did I find? I found some jobs to work in a warehouse, or with truck drivers, as well as collecting books from high schools and repackaging them, as well as some other jobs. I almost went for the job were you help the truck driver, however thanks to some critical thoughts from my family and friends I decided that it would probably be more traumatic than the cleaning due to the overdose of boredom. Instead I dumped all the job agencies, and just ignored them, and considered something else. Which I would love to tell you immediately, however it will take quite some time to explain so I will do it in my next blog ;-).

My name is Micha, I am a first year student focussing on anthropology and sociology.

Maud and the RA Bubble

Here at RA, we live in what we lovingly refer to as 'the RA bubble'. Not only is Middelburg pretty tiny, the Roosevelt Academy – with its 600 students – is an exceptionally small university by Dutch standards. Contrary to popular belief, this has far more advantages than disadvantages. I initially went to a regular Dutch university and got out of there faster than you can say "college drop-out". Although the system admittedly works for a lot of people, the whole mass-studying idea, the idea of not a single soul caring whether you pass an exam or not… it didn't work for me. It demotivated and depressed me.

No, RA is much more the place for me. Small. Personal. Small because it's personal, and personal because it's small. The same goes for Middelburg in general: you can't walk into town without running into someone you know, and quickly get on a first-name basis with the employees at the places you frequent. I'll gladly take that over being a number any day.

But of course, every advantage has its disadvantage, and that's what I discovered last Thursday on the train. The ticket inspector stopped by and scanned my public transport pass that allows me to travel for free during the week (but not on public holidays). I was already holding out my hand to accept it back when he said, "Hey, you should've bought a ticket today."

"Excuse me?" I said.

"You should've bought a ticket," he said. "It's Bevrijdingsdag—Liberation Day."

"Is that even a public holiday?" I spluttered, only to receive disapproving looks from the other people in the compartment. I tried to save face by tacking on, "I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I go to an international university, we're generally unaware of what goes on out here," but for some inconceivable reason this only deepened their frowns.

Once at Rotterdam Central Station, I was confronted with another oddity: there were loads of kids on the train. This is usually not the case. However, it was only when I was at the movie theater later that night—usually quiet during the week, now packed with people—that I realized the majority of Holland is currently on break. Or, well, realized… my brother had to explicitly inform me of the fact that it's 'May vacation'.

Now, I could chalk all of this up to the fact that I've been ridiculously busy this past week. By now you guys might have concluded that I'm just dense and ignorant of what goes on around me in general. I myself am blaming the RA bubble, though. It's charming, but not always convenient when you have to get back to the real world.

My name is Maud and I am a second-year student of Linguistics & Literary Studies. These are a few of my favorite things: books, sneakers, loud music, and coffee.

Ilse and the Hogwarts of Zeeland

The other day, a friend and I had a very short conversation on  how RA is like Hogwarts. Well, actually, we said something about how some instructors here are like Hogwarts professors or were – this was our most probable conclusion – informers for the Ministry of Magic.

It's not a new comparison, either, RA and Hogwarts. Our gorgeous old main building is very old, though still much younger than Hogwarts (1500 vs. 1000 AD – making the castle pictured in the movies actually a bit anachronical, more in line with the time our building was built), with some halls that do in fact resemble some of Hogwarts' halls (sigh... if only we could have our meals in the Burgerzaal!). That's not all. Our four campus locations are fairly easy to compare to Hogwarts Houses, with Bagijnhof being like Hufflepuff, the place where all the sociable people are, Driewegenhof being Slytherin (we have our reasons) and the unresolved issue of whether Koestraat or Roggeveenhof is Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. This works especially well since we, like the teens of the Wizarding World, live on location. Also, Hogwarts has about 600 students according to J.K. Rowling – as many as we do. Our Dean even once referred to Jan Peter Balkenende's Convocation Speech as 'the homecoming of Harry Potter'.
Of course, there are many differences. For one, we don't learn any magic here (Yeah, I too was shocked to learn that. Also, if Time-turners really exist, I call dibs.). We're a University, not a Secondary school. We have no evil wizards and witches roaming the grounds (though I do suspect the science students of being evil geniuses) – we don't even have grounds or a proper forest or lake. We utterly lack inter-house/-campus location competitions. We don't have poltergeists or any normal ghosts (but I have heard rumours of hauntings...).
However, all these differences are for the better (except for the lack of magic bit. And the houses. And the ghosts.) since it means we are left with a student body of 600 students, devoted to their studies (thankfully we aren't all little Hermione Grangers, that would be scary... imagine all the hair!) and their friends, pretty awesome teachers (and, I am pleased to inform you, none resemble Dolores Umbridge) and a whole bunch of other stuff. I'm sure any real witch or wizard would feel right at home and the Ministry of Magic would be pleased. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go and find me a mad scientist. They're in terribly short supply nowadays.

Ilse is a second year social science student with an interest in law and law enforcement with an interest in many different sorts of media.

Micha and the Last Week

My last blog post was dedicated to making money through doing nothing. Or as they call it: “making money when you sleep”, well if you take that sentence very literal, I wouldn't have earned as much money as I would have liked to. Which can be translated to: I want to sleep...

The last week of the semester is beginning, something I hardly noticed until yesterday when I ordered my train tickets for my holiday. Another time I will tell you about my holiday, however, the last weeks of semester are for a lot of people here synonymous with not so much sleep, and a lot of work.

Compared to last semester I am actually doing great now. Last semester I somehow managed to stay up till 2 at night working, most of the days. This semester that habit has changed drastically. Through a bit more efficient planning, I stayed up only once until 2. Which can also be explained through the fact that it was pre-election night, which lasted quite long. However this pattern of super-early sleeping (compared to last semester) is starting to fall apart. Past Monday I stayed up until 3 am working on a paper due on Tuesday. Not something I prefer doing, most of the times I like to have finished them way before so I have all the time to think about how great it is to be done with it ;-). However this time it was inevitable. Next week it might be similar, for next week I've got a huge amount of homework. The last  week will be a continuous period of time dedicated to homework! Which definitely makes me look forward to my summer holiday.

My name is Micha, I am a first year student focussing on anthropology and sociology.

Maud and Week 13...

09.59 am Ewan McGregor is in your kitchen. He is wearing an awful mint green apron and making an omelet.

10.00 am Your iPhone bursts into song and you swipe everything off your nightstand in surprise. You automatically press 'snooze', but the rational part of your brain chastises you—"No snoozing! You have so much to do! Why didn't you set your alarm for eight o'clock?"—so you get up. Thankfully, this part of the day does not require much cognitive involvement: you're so used to your morning routine that suddenly it's

10.20 am and you're showered and dressed and sitting at your desk with your toast. (Almost-burnt, the way you like it. Or has it become the way you like it because it always burns anyway?) It is around this time that you start wondering why you were dreaming about Ewan McGregor; you don't even particularly like the guy.

You start up your laptop and check Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, RoAc-mail, ohnotheydidnt, and PostSecret even though it's not a Sunday.

You check them all a second time.

11.00 am Reluctantly, you continue studying for the exam you have the next day. You've already covered 100 pages! Shame you have 150 more to go.

14.00 pm Whoops, late for class. You make up for it by acing your presentation. You try to sneak in some studying while other people are presenting, but it makes you feel like a bad person so you don't get a lot of work done.

17.30 pm Okay, fine—one drink at the Sev. Just one. A diet coke. For your mental sanity. And because you aced your presentation.

18.00 pm You skip hallway dinner so that you can continue studying. You plow through even though you seriously doubt that knowledge about Iranian cinema in the 1960s will ever contribute to your life in any way.

21.30 pm Seeing as the mental sanity argument worked before (see 17.30 pm), you use it again, this time to go for a run and take a nice, long shower afterwards.

22.30 pm Unfortunately, the bright red EXAM! on tomorrow's page in your diary has not sprouted legs and ran off. You make a mental note to ask your diary to teach this trick to the contents of your fridge, and continue studying.

01.00 am Fifty pages and several Facebook chat conversations later, you start to feel a little tired. You have a coffee and take a nap.

01.20 am The internet was right about the great effect of drinking coffee right before a twenty-minute nap. You feel amazing. You feel amazing! You're on top of the world! You're going to nail this exam!

03.30 am You kind of want to die a little.

04.10 am DONE DONE ******* DONE YOU ****** TOLD YOU I'D GET THIS DONE I AM GOING TO ACE THIS EXAM.

04.15 am zzz

Important Health Hazard Warning: Please Read

The stunts and activities performed in this blog were done by professionals and under the supervision of professionals. For your safety and the protection of those around you, do not attempt any stunts you read in this blog. In case you really do value your mental sanity, make sure to keep up with all the reading for all your courses. Preferably, summarize everything as you read it to ensure you'll have enough time to revise properly. While you're at it, write all your papers in or before the midterm break for some extra leeway. Alternatively, you could just plan well, but where's the fun and spontaneity in that?

My name is Maud and I am a second-year student of Linguistics & Literary Studies. These are a few of my favorite things: books, sneakers, loud music, and coffee.

Kelly and the Power of Blogs

Last year, I took a course on Life and Travel Writing. I analyzed Jim Beaver’s memoir Life’s That Way for my final paper. It consists of the emails that he sent around to family and friends while his wife fought against cancer. She lost the fight, but Beaver kept sending updates around to inform people about how he and his daughter coped with their loss. It’s a bittersweet book, and I’ve had to put it aside several times because I couldn’t see the pages anymore through my tears.

I ‘liked’ Beaver on facebook, so I can follow his work and the updates on his personal life. Occasionally, he shares really interesting links. Such as the one I read during lunch break today:

http://penmachine-bu.appspot.com/www.penmachine.com/2011/05/the-last-post

I hope my eyes won’t be all red and puffy anymore by the time I get to class.

Kelly Meulenberg (class of 2012) studies Arts & Humanities, focusing on Literary Studies and Theater & Media Studies. She is also a writer and filmmaker. Other passions include music, food and traveling.

My Life as Lisa: and then I woke up married to an ugly pineapple

Have you ever watched Ice Age? Monster, Inc.? A Bug’s Life? The Hunchback of Notre Dame? Ratatouille? Tarzan? Finding Nemo? Mulan? Okay, I think you get the point…Though, may I mention one more? HOP – you might not have heard of that one yet, but it seems like one of the cutest movies that exists. Why am I listing those endless movies? People that know me better will probably not very surprised; I am a film-student and all I do all day long is listing movies, plots, actors, characters, music and so on and so on all the time. People that know me will probably have shut down their listening-modus already at the beginning of the this paragraph, merely for self-defense purposes. I promise though to everyone who has read this so far, the conclusion of this list will be worth it.

I was going to meet Peter De Séve, the man who created the characters for all those above mentioned movies. He also draws the covers for the New Yorker, a highly prestigious and sophisticated magazine. Believe me, those covers are brilliant. There is so much detail in them! If you feel like procrastination, why don’t you visit Peter’s website and look at all the amazing things he did?        

You might wonder whether I was nervous. I will make the answer to this very simple: Hell yes! Nervous, excited but most of all incredibly happy. After the first ever email of him, I was so happy and excited that I jumped against a shelf. You can imagine in which state I was in at that moment, on the train towards Utrecht.

When I arrived, it took a while for me to find the university where the lecture would take place and strolled around there. Oh and there on the other side of the street was Peter De Séve. I made my way towards the door of….wait, what?

There on the other side of the street was Peter De Séve. Alone. No Groupies jumping on him. How could that be? After recovering from at least two heart attacks, I summoned all of my strength and went towards him. He immediately treated me like an old friend. I got three kisses on the cheek (“That is how you do it in the Netherlands, right?”) and we went inside for the technical check up. The rest of the day I was by his side, I felt like a real V.I.P.

I like to think that people wondered who that girl by his side was all the time. Most likely they did not but I like the idea. And, you can be sure, I like-liked the day!

Sadly, it was over much too soon. Okay, actually there was nothing to be sad about after all; even though it was unfortunate that this day would ever come to an end, there is absolutely nothing to complain about. I can certainly say I left to Middelburg with a big smile on my face.

P.S.: His lecture was amazing, if you want to see a bit of it, you can check out the bunnies! episode of campus news that can be found on youtube/the website.

 Lisa Theresa is a theatre&media studies student, minoring in Statistics merely for the sake of insanity. She is a second year at Roosevelt Academy and apart from work in other committees head of the Campus News Project  (www.ra-campusnews.webs.com).

Kelly and...Now What?

Monday morning, 8:45 AM. On my way to class (a little late), I once again realized how much I hate early classes. Really, I’m not a morning person. I quickly slipped into the classroom, muttered a “sorry” to the professor and sat down, praying that a cup of coffee would magically appear on my table. Nothing happened.

After a while, the class (one of my Literature courses) engaged in a discussion about the position of writers. To what extent are authors a product of their generation, and to what extent can they transcend the problems of their time and provide readers with refreshing views on the situation? Of course, as a writer, this question interests me very much. However, at the same time, I don’t exactly see myself as a sort of role model. I don’t believe that if someone wants to hear the voice of my generation, they’ll think of me.

Then I felt my cell phone buzz. A text message. (Yeah, I wasn’t exactly a model student either today…) And that’s how I heard that Osama Bin Laden had been shot.

As soon as I came home I checked facebook to see the reactions of my friends – the children who grew up in the aftermath of 9/11. Some were really excited, others disappointed that he won’t be punished for his actions. I talked about it with my roommate. I remembered a conversation in London last week, about the way we’re used to exhausting security checks in airports even though these measures are still pretty recent.

Of course it’s a good thing that this villain won’t trouble us anymore, but we shouldn’t forget that he’s not the only one. He was but one pawn in a very complex game. Only time will tell what’s going to happen to global politics now; only time will tell what’s going to happen to you and me. But I am absolutely sure that years from now, we’ll still remember this day.

Kelly Meulenberg (class of 2012) studies Arts & Humanities, focusing on Literary Studies and Theater & Media Studies. She is also a writer and filmmaker. Other passions include music, food and traveling.

Ilse Feels Whelmed

It's hardly my favorite movie (though I enjoy watching it when I'm feeling down) but '10 Things I Hate About You' does have one of the better questions ever asked in films; 'I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?'. A small bit of internet research told me that yes, it is possible. 'Whelmed' apparently is an archaic, somewhat poetic word and means 'submerged' or 'overcome'. Overwhelmed, then, is a hyperbole while underwhelmed is an understatement. If that's the truth – the Internet never lies – then I feel terribly whelmed at the moment, as in, there's so much stuff to do at this particular moment but I know I can handle it. I am submerged in homework, but as the Zeeuwse motto says; 'I struggle and emerge' ('Luctor et emergo'). I am whelmed. Interestingly, the answer to the question in the films is 'I think you can in Europe.' Well. Isn't that the truth.

Ilse is a second year social science student with an interest in law and law enforcement with an interest in many different sorts of media.

Maud's Guide to Surviving Middelburg

It's great to see our blogs get cross-posted to the Roosevelt Academy Facebook page! This means they can reach a lot more people. However, the main purpose of this blog is to give prospective students an idea of what it is like to study at RA. With them in mind, I have compiled a list of ten of important places in Middelburg. Many of these I mentioned before in my blogs.

Eleanor, Franklin & Theodore

Rather than Building #1, #2 and #3, our university buildings were named after various Roosevelts. The funky names were undoubtedly implemented to cause hilarious situations when giving directions to non-RAers. I don't think I'll ever forget "to reach the IT helpdesk, one must enter Eleanor from the rear".

Arguably, our best building is Eleanor. This is where people assemble during the day in coffee and lunch breaks to discuss class or other important matters—all in English, of course. At night, productivity reigns supreme for those of us who study best in public spaces with a handful of kindred souls. Eleanor also has Wi-Fi!

Crostini

Four-hour class sessions on Wednesday would not be the same without Crostini, a tiny Italian store where everyone goes for its delicious sandwiches. (The Filet USA is particularly good.) Added advantage: RA students get a 10% discount.

In the sun on the wooden bench in front of Crostini, with the humming sound of a needle floating by from the tattoo parlor across the street… this is where you get to feel far away from the RA bustle for one blissful moment.

De Drukkerij

A huge bookstore with a café at its center, de Drukkerij gets cool points for its decent English books section, its toasties, and its free Wi-Fi. Last but not least, we can buy our textbooks here with discount.

Ko D'oooooooor

Ko D'oooooooor, popular among students, is a small coffee place with an art gallery attached. It serves great coffee and is a little more study-friendly than de Drukkerij. I love both, though, so it will always remain a struggle to decide where to settle down with my laptop and study books.

Hit me or the kind lady behind the counter up for the internet password!

Barrel

After last month's public letter of apology I have little left to say about our very own student bar, except: go there and drink the Brugse Zot beer they're proud to currently have on tap.

Rooie Oortjes

It's Friday, 8.45. You're in class. The person next to you has hazy red eyes and smells distinctly of cigarette smoke and various kinds of alcohol. You wince sympathetically when they explain, "So I ended up in the Oortjes last night…"

The Rooie Oortjes is where party-goers flock together after closing time of all other places. Expect to meet a lot of intoxicated people here. I can never help but wonder how often said intoxicated people fall down the stairs that lead to the toilets.

Seventy-Seven

Out of the many bars Middelburg has to offer, a lot of RA students have adopted the Seventy-Seven as their pub of choice. I personally cannot be positive enough about the Sev. Between its great atmosphere and the bartenders' awesome taste in music, I have never even felt the need to give any of the other pubs a shot. (Rooie Oortjes doesn't count!)

A Domani

Unlike the other places on this list, A Domani doesn't really have places to sit. It makes up for this disadvantage by selling amazing ice cream and, more importantly, coffee. If you hurry, you can make it to A Domani in your break and return victorious with a large cappuccino. Even better, if you do this ten times and don't forget to collect stamps on your card, you get one for free!

My name is Maud and I am a second-year student of Linguistics & Literary Studies. These are a few of my favorite things: books, sneakers, loud music, and coffee.

Kelly and London, Baby!

Ah, the Easter weekend. While most people were looking forward to sleeping in and taking a breath, there was one bunch of brave students who prepared themselves for three full days of working non-stop. Well, not really. With my entire Contemporary Dramatic Literature class I went to London, to see and analyze plays, but also to have a good time!

And a good time we had. Hyde Park, Starbucks, Foyle’s Bookstore, Portobello Road, Bizarro’s Italian Restaurant, Starbucks, Primark, HMV, Waterstone’s (we like bookstores), Starbucks, Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden… and did I mention that we went to Starbucks often?

It was a fun and relaxing weekend, because we all tried to ignore the work that was ahead of us. Even when I came back to the Netherlands I didn’t want to think about my deadlines. Sadly they didn’t go anywhere and I couldn’t avoid them any longer. The stress is really starting to kick in again, but I shouldn’t complain: only three more weeks till summer!

Kelly Meulenberg (class of 2012) studies Arts & Humanities, focusing on Literary Studies and Theater & Media Studies. She is also a writer and filmmaker. Other passions include music, food and traveling.

Alyssia and the American Dream

A few more days to go, a few more exams to write, a few more papers and presentations to do.. Yes, there is finally an end in sight!

Not only makes that these last few weeks a lot more bearable, also it means that I can really start to focus on my exchange! It’s only three more months before I leave (can you imagine?) and I really cannot wait.

Last week I met Gary Davis, the head of the honors department at UNK, who will basically be the person I need to go to if there are any problems. He was here in Middelburg and we talked a lot about the awesome opportunities I will have over there! He was very enthusiastic about us coming, he even insisted that I would do undergraduate research in psychology there! As my plan was already to do an IRP in my last semester, this extra semester of research experience will definitely add to my resume. Also, it is even possible to do sports there for credits! Obviously these can’t count towards my RA degree but at least it is nice to have a few hours of sports every week. The choices are unlimited: tumbling, swimming, archery, bowling.. whatever you want.

This exchange just brings so many opportunities. Especially for psychology students it is great! There are so many psych courses that you almost drown in them. There are also lab courses and more practical psychology courses, which we don’t have at RA. Definitely sounds very good to me.

Aside from the academic part, I just cannot wait to have some American food: poptarts, Reese’s cups (although I cannot really eat them.. allergies ugh!), big American hamburgers, pizzas.. I really do hope they have some healthy options there too haha! I can’t wait to see a real American football game, the cheerleaders and all that cliché stuff you see in movies. Because apparently, it is real!

My name is Alyssia and I am a nineteen-year-old second year student. I do an interdepartmental major in Psychology, Cognitive Science and Life Sciences.

Micha is Making Money While He Sleeps!

Heya all!

I just figured out how to earn money without doing anything! Wow, I must admit, it almost sound like I want to get you to buy something very dubious, which promises to make you rich when you sleep. Even though what I am going to talk about, will make you rich when you sleep, it is only for RA students ;-). Too sad for all those readers wishing they found a nice way to earn some money in the summer... Anyway, during the summer holiday a lot of RA students are simply not in their room. During summer, however, there is also the MCTS and a UU (Universiteit Utrecht) Summer School program. Both take place in Middelburg. Students attending these programs need a room. And that is where we come into the picture, as students not using their room, why don't we  sublet our room to a summer student, and earn some money? To be honest I don't know why I shouldn't, therefore I also signed up ;-). The summer student is going to stay here for almost a month. This is absolutely no problem for me since I will be away for 2 months in the summer holiday (when I have the final plans I will of course share them with you guys ;-) ). Thus for current students, and future students: subletting your room is the easiest way of earning some money, whilst being on a holiday!

My name is Micha, I am a first year student focussing on anthropology and sociology.