From left: Marta, Naomi, Leon, Anna, Melanie, Siri, Rohit, Ana and Ahmed. Photo Guy Ackermans There are student houses and there are weird and wonderful student houses. In this feature we visit the latter. This time: B2.
House: Beurredeux (B2)
Residents: Ahmed Nakha, Ana Diaz, Anna Gkakou, Leon Munk, Marleen Arts, Marta Boronat Demattey, Melanie Häusel, Michele Cavallero, Naomi Willems, Nicholas Been, Rohit Pawar, Siri Tuinema, Sara Sottoriva, Valentina Verduchi.
UNIque because: The parties here are world-famous (in Wageningen)
Sara: ‘Before Covid we had a rather notorious house party here every year. Half Wageningen came to it. We used to paint the wall of the living room to match the theme of the party. Then we had to look at it for the rest of the year.’
Marta: ‘In the weeks before that party we always sat in a half-empty living room full of paint pots.’
Sara: ‘We’re throwing a party this year but we’re doing it on a much smaller scale because it’s the first post-Covid party.’
Leon: ‘I can’t really imagine what it will be like when it’s full of people here. I feel like you couldn’t get more than 50 people into the house, but the others tell me there were easily 200. I came to live here during the lockdown and I was just glad that at least I could socialize with the others in the house. Otherwise I would have come to the Netherlands just to take online classes on my own throughout my Master’s.’
Naomi: ‘During Covid we turned the guest room into a study so you could separate your private life from your studies. It was quite difficult at times, as you’ve got 13 captains on one ship here, and they’ve all got their own opinions of the Covid regulations.’
Sara: ‘But it was a really fun time too. We painted the game Twister on the floor, and we celebrated 5 May together.’
Naomi: ‘Of course it is a close-knit house on the whole. Relationships have even started here.’
Anna: ‘A couple rang the doorbell recently who had lived here 15 years ago, and dropped in now with their little girl.’
Naomi: ‘We get visitors quite regularly. They say things like, “We lived here in 1992. Can we have a little look?” And they always say that the beer fridge was there back then too.’
Sara: ‘It certainly isn’t the best fridge in the world but it still works.’
Naomi: ‘It keeps the beer cold, that’s all that matters.’
Would you like to be in Resource too, with your UNIque student house? Send an email to resource@wur.nl
