OWee day 1: Curiosity, nerves and ‘looking forward to studying’

For some people in Delft, the groups of nervous OWee members that cycle past their windows and doors is a sign of the approaching end of summer. Apart from the two mentors at the front, they appear a little lost. They are new to the city that will form the backdrop of what many believe will be the best years of their life.

The OWee – the annual introduction week for prospective students at TU Delft and the Delft branches of The Hague University of Applied Sciences and the InHolland University of Applied Sciences – started on Sunday afternoon. Parents dropped their offspring with laden rucksacks off at the Aula. The attendees meet their group around the Aula and pick up their wristbands, with minors getting one in a different colour. They can chill the whole week in the adjacent Base Camp.

The week starts peacefully with an alcohol free barbecue on the bank of the Schie river. The barbecue is completely plant based for the first time after vegetarian became the norm last year. The annual Parade passes the attendees during dinner. This has become the main way for the student associations at TU Delft to present themselves to the new batch of students. Each association has its own decorated float with members partying, stamping, dancing, playing volleyball or skateboarding.

From 17:00, the groups arrive at the beer tables one by one. While waiting for his mentor to return with barbecued sausages a little further down, Koray (20, Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management) says that he “does not really have any expectations of the OWee”. As a football player, he mostly wants to see the football clubs.

Another person in his group, Syp (19), took part in the introduction week at the Technical University of Eindhoven last year and says that he is glad that the OWee is more informal. He is interested in enjoying fun evenings and is looking forward to playing his trombone in a student orchestra. He tried a social association last year, he says laughing. “But I discovered that this was not the best choice in your first year.”

While the student associations’ floats pass by, Mariëlle (18) says that she is looking forward to getting to know the student associations during the OWee. She is interested in doing something sporty or musical. “I don’t really know exactly what I want so it is great that there are so many options.” Another member of her group, Daphne (18), is mostly “looking forward to studying” this first OWee day, even though she had to quickly run to the station to get hold of an OV bicycle (bicycles that are for rent at public transport hubs, Eds.). She still lives at home, in Waddinxveen, which is an hour away by train. She says that to some extent Delft resembles her village: “So quiet!” A boat trip through Delft is high on her wish list, as is going to occasional parties. But she has to see if this is doable. “There are not that many trains to Waddinxveen.”

It’s not only students who pull up chairs, neighbourhood residents join the dinner too. Virgiel members Friso, Hidde and Maarten received an invitation in the letterbox of ‘De Elfde Poort’, their student house, and grabbed the opportunity to enjoy acting as first year students again. Given that there are no new lodgers this year (“we are renovating”), the OWee this year would other seem far away for them. But they will “hang out at the shop” say the three housemates.

Right next to the dinner and the Parade, a group of neighbourhood residents stand at round bar tables full of snacks, drinks in hand, in the garden of Fred-Anton Knoop on the Oostsingel. He explains that this started three years ago ‘by chance’, but that was so enjoyable to have drinks with the new students that it has become an annual event on the first OWee evening. But don’t call it making a virtue out of a necessity. Knoop “enjoys it sincerely”. It helps that, as a TU Delft alumnus, he knows what student life entails. He was a member of the Delftsche Studenten Bond student association. “But that was more than 30 years ago,” he laughs.

Are the attendees nervous? Not really, say the students who we spoke to. Curiosity and a ‘let’s just see what happens’ mentality dominate. And this may well be the best way. Everything is possible at the OWee.