Now that you’ve arrived in Delft, been to the first lectures, established yourself in your space box cubicle or the comfortable one-man cell of the Rolla Holla penitentiary, you’re probably sitting around wondering what to do on those long, cold lonely Dutch nights.
And if you’re not, well, you should be. For Dutch-speaking newcomers a lot of information is available, but unfortunately you, the foreign English-speaker, are stuck with the ‘Visiting Student Guide’, which is about the only English-language guide to the city you’ve got and which devotes a staggering six pages to the broad issue of ‘Student life’, listing the student clubs and student associations, and further mentions the existence of TU Sports Centre and Cultural Centre.
You should know by now that the Dutch are a very organized folk and that almost all of the student life in Delft takes place at student societies. There is a brochure, Binas, which provides extensive descriptions of these societies, but which of course is available in Dutch only. The following therefore attempts to give you quick summary of some societies, highlighting the most… unusual ones.
Student societies are roughly dividable into the more traditional ones, which are also the largest, the Christian societies, and the smaller, more bizarre societies. Aegee is the European student association with which you are probably already familiar. Then you have the DSC (Corps) and Virgiel, which are the largest and most traditional Dutch student societies, but their brutal pseudo-military introduction periods, which can cost you numerous bruises and alcohol poisonings, and their rather elitist, conservative spirit, make them pretty unattractive for the average international student.
Sint Jansbrug is a large society, which exploits the same terrible drinking habits as DSC and Virgiel but is rather less conservative. DSB is an early splitting of DSC and is a smaller, milder variant of the latter. DSBers are however heavy drinkers, too. I shall not refer further to the Christian societies: if it is God’s will, you shall find them.
If you happen to really, really like water, then De Bolk is the place for you. They sail and play underwater hockey and are engaged in other watery activities. Nice people, albeit rather childish. Krashna Musica is based at the Cultural Center and is what the name suggests . a music club. The Koornbeurs, which bravely labels itself as an Open Youth Society, is in fact a very nice place with surprisingly diverse members and activities, and also runs a popular cheap student restaurant (‘eettafel’). Outsite, the gay youth society, organizes the ‘Queer Dance Club’ parties and takes part in international gay youth conferences. They welcome everybody: there is no ‘gaydar’ at the entrance.
According to a friend, who is also a prominent scout, Delftsche Zwervers is “a scouting club, which denies being one.” This means they do all the things scouts do, but have no scouting structure, which is surely a plus for adult students! One of the weirdest places in Delft if not beyond is Wolbodo, which incidentally is the only society to have an English-language entry in the Binas. “Listen to all safety announcements and try to forget them as soon as possible” is the most normal line from their entry.
It is only during the Owee, the pre-study introduction week, that one can become a member of the larger Dutch student societies. The smaller ones are more flexible on this issue: you can visit most of them without being a member. The large student societies also have many sub-societies, engaged in activities like stand-up comedy, music and sports, some of which are open for non-members as well.
Michael Afanasyev, Israel, BSc Aerospace Engineering
Now that you’ve arrived in Delft, been to the first lectures, established yourself in your space box cubicle or the comfortable one-man cell of the Rolla Holla penitentiary, you’re probably sitting around wondering what to do on those long, cold lonely Dutch nights. And if you’re not, well, you should be. For Dutch-speaking newcomers a lot of information is available, but unfortunately you, the foreign English-speaker, are stuck with the ‘Visiting Student Guide’, which is about the only English-language guide to the city you’ve got and which devotes a staggering six pages to the broad issue of ‘Student life’, listing the student clubs and student associations, and further mentions the existence of TU Sports Centre and Cultural Centre.
You should know by now that the Dutch are a very organized folk and that almost all of the student life in Delft takes place at student societies. There is a brochure, Binas, which provides extensive descriptions of these societies, but which of course is available in Dutch only. The following therefore attempts to give you quick summary of some societies, highlighting the most… unusual ones.
Student societies are roughly dividable into the more traditional ones, which are also the largest, the Christian societies, and the smaller, more bizarre societies. Aegee is the European student association with which you are probably already familiar. Then you have the DSC (Corps) and Virgiel, which are the largest and most traditional Dutch student societies, but their brutal pseudo-military introduction periods, which can cost you numerous bruises and alcohol poisonings, and their rather elitist, conservative spirit, make them pretty unattractive for the average international student.
Sint Jansbrug is a large society, which exploits the same terrible drinking habits as DSC and Virgiel but is rather less conservative. DSB is an early splitting of DSC and is a smaller, milder variant of the latter. DSBers are however heavy drinkers, too. I shall not refer further to the Christian societies: if it is God’s will, you shall find them.
If you happen to really, really like water, then De Bolk is the place for you. They sail and play underwater hockey and are engaged in other watery activities. Nice people, albeit rather childish. Krashna Musica is based at the Cultural Center and is what the name suggests . a music club. The Koornbeurs, which bravely labels itself as an Open Youth Society, is in fact a very nice place with surprisingly diverse members and activities, and also runs a popular cheap student restaurant (‘eettafel’). Outsite, the gay youth society, organizes the ‘Queer Dance Club’ parties and takes part in international gay youth conferences. They welcome everybody: there is no ‘gaydar’ at the entrance.
According to a friend, who is also a prominent scout, Delftsche Zwervers is “a scouting club, which denies being one.” This means they do all the things scouts do, but have no scouting structure, which is surely a plus for adult students! One of the weirdest places in Delft if not beyond is Wolbodo, which incidentally is the only society to have an English-language entry in the Binas. “Listen to all safety announcements and try to forget them as soon as possible” is the most normal line from their entry.
It is only during the Owee, the pre-study introduction week, that one can become a member of the larger Dutch student societies. The smaller ones are more flexible on this issue: you can visit most of them without being a member. The large student societies also have many sub-societies, engaged in activities like stand-up comedy, music and sports, some of which are open for non-members as well.
Michael Afanasyev, Israel, BSc Aerospace Engineering
Comments are closed.