Resource-blogger Geert van Zandbrink takes his time to evaluate the Wageningen nightlife in combination with a review of the impact of corona.
For the average Dutch bachelor’s student, the drill for Wageningen nightlife is crystal clear: Monday is year-club evening, Tuesday is home evening, Wednesday is reserved for the debating club or associations. That is, if you are a member. But those that are part of the larger association bubble in some way or another, for example by living in a house with many association members, know this fixed schedule. Finally, the whole gang goes out on Thursday evening, member or not, to open parties at Loburg, Nji-Sri or dancings in the basements of Ceres or KSV: Felisco and Utopia.
When a housemate returns from one of these important strolls, the entire house is all ears.
When corona disrupted the fixed structure of association life, some members found this quite refreshing. It meant your week was no longer pre-planned. There was a whole lot of nothing at all, except what you considered sufficiently essential to risk contracting corona over, so to speak.
I myself had already put my association life on the back burner to create more freedom. Besides, the student home has provided me with sufficient energy throughout my studies. However, since the start of the corona pandemic in March, Wageningen student housing culture has also been affected. Typically, a student house is a home you can fall back on while running this way and that outside. Now, our social life takes place mostly indoors. This may be enough for some, but others may live alone, or with roommates that have returned to their parents’ for the duration of the pandemic. Although I am blessed with my house, I, too, need a break now and then.
Social contacts outside consist of walks with friends, along the dykes or through the floodplains. I now meet fellow year-club members, debating club members or students that I normally saw in a group on a weekly basis, one by one, and one on one. When a housemate returns from one such important walks, the entire house is all ears, eager to hear news from other sources. The remaining news is all related to the house, and not real news at all since you are constantly home.
Corona thus puts social structures to the test. Students are resilient, but even our flexibility has its limits. The most pressing wish may well be to finally enjoy a party again. I, for one, can’t wait to find myself in one of Wageningen’s dirty dance basements.