Maud: I am Jack's Greediness

It is entirely possible I've been a little too optimistic lately. The last few weeks of our semesters are always packed with debates, presentations, essays and – of course – exams. From now on, it'll be one long, exhausting sprint to that May 20 finish line.

This isn't news to me. Still, for a while I managed to ignore this knowledge in favor of more instant gratifications. Being late for class because you were having lunch at Crostini, settling down on SeventySeven's terrace after that one class that runs 'till six o'clock, a Barrel night with a four-hour aftermath in a Roggeveen common room… all nice things, sure, but not necessarily beneficial to one's GPA.

One of my neighbors once asked me (rhetorically, in a voice that betrayed a sense of disbelief and mild exasperation) that surely I wasn't planning on maintaining my first year's GPA throughout my entire RA career. But to be honest, I am.

I never used to be very ambitious; as soon as I realized I'd get through Dutch high school without too much effort, I settled for grades around the 70% and 80% mark. Here at RA, that lazy attitude has vanished. Aside of the obvious positive effect of being able to choose subjects I'm interested in, it's immensely motivating to have professors that are actually interested in what I have to say. They want my input in class and in my essays they want me to argue something I believe in. Right now, for example, I'm analyzing one of my favorite novels – Fight Club – for my Stylistics class. I think that's pretty damn great. And because RA's environment is so motivating, I want to get high grades. I want to live up to it. I'm not going to settle for a B anymore. These three years, I'm collecting A's, as many as possible.

The downfall here, of course, is that I want too much. I'm greedy. I want A's. I want to write great papers. But I also want to enjoy the sun and to have friends visit and to relax and to sit in my flower-patterned arm chair with a good book or an episode of one of my favorite TV shows. I want it all. Oh, and I also want to sleep for at least eight hours a night. Pretty please. With a cherry on top.

My point is, it doesn't really work that way. If I get distracted while writing my essay and end up watching the movie adaptation of Fight Club instead, I'm not going to get that A I want so badly. If I stay out 'till half past six I'm not going to get my eight hours of sleep. It's all about instant and long-term gratifications. Chocolate might make you feel good for about five seconds, but on the long term, carrots are just so much more nutritious and generally healthier and better for you.

…in that same vein, I'll stop working on this blog now and continue working on my essay.

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 Greater Good

By the time you read this, the Culture Week of 2011 has come to an end. It’s something RA organizes every year, to celebrate the diversity we have here and to connect with the other people in Middelburg. The money that is raised by the activities goes to charity – this year it goes to the Roparun team from Vlissingen.

The week kicked off with a concert in Schuttershof and offered beautiful, fragile guitar songs as well as sixties-inspired music that you just had to dance to. Not to mention RA’s own Roosettes – their version of Lean on Me gave me goosebumps! A few days later, I attended a Taizé meeting, even though I am not Christian. For that reason, not every aspect of it appealed to me, but it had its moments. Also, this week is about trying different things, right?

Right. The craziest thing I did this week was not a part of the Culture Week, but another project that raises money for Roparun. A group organized workshops in… poledancing! Two friends and I signed up, trying to cover our nerves by making lots of bad jokes. Let me tell you, it is one heck of a work-out! Once you get the hang of it, it’s great to just spin and spin and spin, but before that… Not only is it exhausting for pretty much every muscle in your body, if you hit the pole with the wrong part of your leg or foot you get huge bruises. It’s been a few days but my right leg still hurts like hell whenever it touches anything (that includes my pants). Walking has never been less fun but hey, sometimes you gotta sacrifice yourself! As painful as my days might be, at least I can fall asleep peacefully, knowing that I’m making the world a better place - one bruise at a time.

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.

Micha and Committee Work

Sometimes being in a board is quite hard. Especially when you have to organise an event, whilst you do not have the time to do so. It has already been abnormally busy with the TEDx talks livestream here

http://www.tedxutrechtuniversity.com/

and normal meetings.  Last Sunday I also arranged a lecturer to come here to talk about the International Stop the Tar Sands Day (I'll later on explain what it is). However due to the fact that I had quite some papers to do I completely forgot to arrange a room for the lecture! In the end everything ended up alright, we went sitting on a terrace on the market square instead :-).

So before I begin explaining what the  International Stop the Tar Sands Day actually is I should perhaps first begin with explaining what tar sands are. Most of the time when you start talking about the tar sands people think you talk about Tarzan. However sadly enough the tar sands aren't as great as Tarzan. Tar sands are basically oil mixed with clay, these tar sands can be found in Alberta, Canada. The reason why tar sands are so interesting to oil companies is because you can get oil out of these sands. For oil companies oil  equals money. So to get these tar sands companies engage in massive open pit mining; basically removing everything on top of the tar sands. To clarify I added some pictures which say more than a thousand words.

So now that the tar sand idea is a bit clearer I'll move on to the lecture(r). The lecturer was Derek Leahy, a Canadian born now living in Berlin. Two years ago he first got involved in clime change, by going to the Copenhagen climate talks. Now he is organiser/initiator of the International Stop The Tar Sands Day. He is just like you and me, and managed to get this international day of the ground with demonstration worldwide.

Derek explained us a lot about this day, as well as how it is to organise an international protest. However as time moved on it more turned into a discussion from which everybody learned in my opinion. Perhaps that was also because we were sitting on the terrace ;-). I would love to tell more in detail about what we talked about, however there will already be an article in the Tabula Rasa, as well as a clip in the CampusNEWS so I think I should stop here ;-).

I will posts some links or pictures as soon as these articles are available. Besides this I feel the urge to promote the event myself as well a bit. If you are interested or just want to know more feel free to contact tarsands.amsterdam@gmail.com. The demonstration will be the 18^th of June and it's going to be a great amount of fun.

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

Ilse and Glorious Insanity

Everyone goes mad. All around me voices exclaim Essay! Test! Paper! Exam! Presentation! Debate! Discussion! Quiz! Dinner! When?! Tonight! Can't! Tomorrow?! Sure! Meeting! Drinks! Read! Study! Listen! Watch! Learn! Move! Sit! Sleep! Wake! Eat! Coffee! Energy! Sun! Finals! Summer! Not yet! Plot! Trip! Visit! Lecture! Class! Break! and people seem to be running around in circles thinking everything follows Murphy's Law and dropping everything at the prospect of actually finishing a task and looking far too worried about everything. This is RA at its best. The insane paradox of everything being impossible and yet everything being accomplished shows the gorgeous chaos that is studying.

I continue reading on websites the comments of people who got stuck in the 1970s and still think university students are all about drinking and sleeping in and general laziness. An interesting opinion, I must say, and one completely foreign to all who are familiar with the University College concept in general and RA specifically. The total madness of RA shows that through dedication, hard work and an incredible amount of personal craziness everything is possible. Apparently Aristotle once said that genius never goes without a bit of madness. Having observed several of my fellow students and quite a few of my instructors, I think it would be fair to say that Aristotle wasn't far off. Which shouldn't be taken as an expression of any idea that we are all geniuses, which I know is untrue. However, so many people I met here over the last 20 months brim with brilliance and most of them are, well, not mad, but indeed possess quite interesting personalities. What should be taken for truth, as well, is the infectiousness of insanity. And this particular insanity, I must admit, I find glorious.

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.

Alyssia looking forward to what lies ahead

It’s been a while since I last posted a blog! Well, we’re heading towards the end of the semester (4 weeks left!) and now the real work starts. A math project, a poster for anatomy, analysis of cortisol, amylase and heart rate for my group’s research paper on cognitive dissonance & stress response, another paper.. And of course we have to do presentations on all of this, and then all 4 courses have finals as well…

Yeah, sometimes it feels overwhelming, but the fact that there is an awesome last year coming up makes everything worthwhile. Not only is the summer break insanely long (as always), I’ll be leaving for the US of A in August and – as far as I hear from others – I will have a great time there!  Although I will mostly be in Nebraska, I have planned a trip to NYC, visiting my intraweek mom who studies at NYU now. Can you imagine that? NYU! Such a dream!

I’ll be back in the Netherlands right before Christmas and then it’s only one semester to go! Finishing up my psychology track, my stats minor and my language requirement, leaving exactly one nice spot for an IRP. I cannot wait.

Last year, here I come!

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.

Maud and the Public Apology to Barrel

Dear Barrel,

I still remember the first time we met. I wasn't at RA yet; I was visiting a friend. She took me to see you. I was so charmed by your whole dark, grungy, underground atmosphere, by the general idea of all these students gathering in their own student bar to dance and chat and, yes, drink away their stress. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, and we did, too.

Despite this positive first experience, I haven't visited you often during my own time here. Sometimes it's because I have class at 8.45 the next morning. Sometimes it's because I'm simply too busy. And I have to admit that sometimes I just don't feel like it. Ask me to stop by Barrel and my instinctive reaction is to scoff. Barrel? Barrel is either deserted or far too busy. Barrel is a bit of a guilty pleasure, like the hometown disco your circle of friends has long outgrown but sometimes gravitates back to because of the €1,- beer. Every once in a blue moon you find yourself there, but you're always slightly embarrassed to be seen among the throngs of fourteen-year-olds who managed to get in somehow. When you run into someone you know, both of you shrug apologetically. Yeah, I don't know how I ended up here either.

But, my dearest Barrel, I was wrong. You're not like that, and I owe you an apology.

Barrel, I'm sorry for never giving you a fair chance. I'm sorry for being part of the reason you're so quiet sometimes. I'm sorry, and I hope you will allow me to redeem myself. Because, dear Barrel, you see, I've been visiting you more often these past few weeks and I have (re)realized that you're pretty damn amazing. Your drinks are cheap, your couches are comfy, and when there are people around you pretty much guarantee a good time.

The problem is that people are not always around, especially not early at night. But staying at home will never fix that. What will? Going to the movie night and hanging around afterwards for a beer. Getting a group of friends together and meeting in Barrel instead of the Sev. Nodding rather than scoffing when someone asks me to stop by. That will fix it.

You've got so much potential, Barrel, and I'm one of the people who are starting to realize that more and more. I promise you I'll be more positive about you from now on. I'll come over more often. I'll try to make other people do so, too. Because when it comes down to it, it's great that we've got our own student bar here, and we should make as much use of it as possible.

Yours truly,

Maud

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 Lists

Anyone out there who knows me should be aware of the fact that I keep a number of lists. I feel they help me organize my thoughts by taking out all that is unnecessary to memorize at that specific point in time – for instance, I throroughly enjoy writing up To Do Lists and then crossing off all that is on there. My two favorite lists, though, are my To Read List and my To Watch List. As the names might suggest, the former is a list of all works of literature and non-fiction I have yet to read. At the moment it is highly populated by English Literary Classics but if you have a suggestion I am very much willing to put it on there, it just may take me a few years before I get round to reading it as I am currently trying to put on there all the books all my RA instructors have ever recommended to me, which is a task of significant magnitude as it means I have to sort through three-and-a-half semesters of class notes. The latter is a list of all significant films. Perhaps I should also put a few tv series on there but as I am still in the process of working my way through all CSI:Miami episodes and after that wish to catch up on CSI:NY, Vampire Diaries, White Collar, Chuck, Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, I feel I have my work cut out for me. Most of the films on the list are found in the IMDb Top 250 or have been recommended to me before, though I also at times hear films mentioned not to me but to others and then still wish to see them, so I put them on the list and get round to seeing them probably 10 years from now. Either way, all of this is in a massive Excel-document that also holds lists of Things To Do Before I Die (Since I merged it with Places I Want To Visit Before I Die it consists mostly of locations, though it also has activities like 'eating blowfish' and 'bungeejumping' on there), Classes To Take Before I Graduate (Of course, there are far more than I could ever have time for) and Things To Do Before The End of the Semester.

Now, it's the last one that worries me. Whenever I observe the growth of the list (it seems to perform that feat all by itself) I feel somewhat anxious and fear that I will still be working when the semester is over. Strangely enough, I feel like that every semester and every time I still manage to pull it off. Of course, pulling that off also requires me to have total disregard for the state of my room (which is why I feel incredibly reluctant to invite my parents over in the last few weeks of the semester) and the weather outside and anything else that may distract me. The result is then a forest's worth of essays, more exam results than the total of all exams in the last three years of high school and a severe vitamin D deficiency. And you know what? I wouldn't change it for the world. After all, I chose courses I am interested in. Writing papers is then no longer a massive task, but something of an enjoyable effort, like a sport, though of course it requires an entirely different sort of effort. Exams – yes, well, no one likes exams but most people enjoy getting results back, except for when these aren't as expected.

As for the growth of the list, I tackled a few interesting assignments last week and intend to do a few more this week. Perhaps I will still be able to completely empty the list before the end of the semester. If not – well, I guess I'll then just drag my books and paper and pens and markers and pencils outside and study there. What else is spring for?

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.