The tented camp on the Bornsesteeg at the edge of the campus is starting to become an established tradition. It is a solution for students who haven’t got a room yet. Or who are going to go on living at home, but don’t want to commute during the AID. Until recently there were cows in this field, so you have to watch where you pitch your tent. There is always a fresh cow pat not very far away. Welcome in Wageningen.
Cold
Lara van der Burg from Scheidam is sitting peacefully outside her tent looking forward to what’s ahead. And warming up a bit, because she was cold tonight. She’s already slept one night here. ‘It was very cold. I didn’t bring a sleeping bag. It didn’t fit in my backpack and actually I thought it would be very hot. I hope the weather stays reasonably good.’
I am looking around a bit but I’m not in a hurry
Lara van der Burg, Nutrition & Health student
She doesn’t have a room yet. ‘I am looking around a bit but I’m not in a hurry. I can stay with friends in Renkum, or with a cousin of mine who is coming here too. He is living with friends in a house the parents of one of them have bought.’ She also wants to wait and see how much she actually needs to be in Wageningen. ‘All that is not very clear yet.’
Lara van der Burg is going to study Nutrition & Health. That was not the plan before the coronavirus outbreak. She intended to study computer science. ‘But I wasn’t totally sure about that. When a friend of mine wanted to go travelling in Asia, I decided to take a gap year. Work for six months, and then travel for five months – that was the plan.’ It turned out differently.
Corona
She had been on the road less than a month when the coronavirus outbreak started in Asia. The two friends were forced to go home. ‘Since then I’ve been giving a friend some tuition. And while I was doing so, I realized how much I like biology and chemistry. It would be a shame if I never opened those books again.’ And so she changed her choice of degree subject. ‘It was really due to the coronavirus that I made this decision.’
It was really due to the coronavirus that I made this decision
Lara van der Burg, Nutrition & Health student
The introduction is about to start and the tented camp is beginning to fill up. Van der Burg is looking forward to the AID, even though some of it is online. ‘No, I didn’t bring a laptop. I didn’t want to leave it in my tent. But there is wifi and they have assured us you can follow everything on your phone too.’ She will see how it goes.
