Voting-in

I read about Duwo’s plans for the new vote-in policy. It made me think about the time that I was looking for my first room. Actually, about all the rooms that I lived in as one thing that I learned then was that you often cannot choose your housemates.  This can be troublesome at first, but it can also bring good things.

When I finished higher general secondary education and left the province of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen for Utrecht to become a chemistry teacher, I luckily had priority in the vote-in evenings. It was simply not possible to travel up and down between my village and the big city of Utrecht, so the SSH student housing agent gave me priority at the vote-in evenings. It was a sort of fast track for people from the provinces.

But while I saw myself living in a cute canal house with pleasant housemates, after 10 rejections I had to make do with a room in Odijk that I could get through my then boyfriend who studied something related to cars at the business school in Driebergen. You can just guess what I’m going to say – it was not a match made in heaven with my new housemates. They talked about snoops, their hip expensive cars, and fathers with important jobs. I had two part-time jobs on top of my studies, and a public transport pass.

While ‘home’ in Odijk was not always wonderful, I did learn from the experience. The main thing I learned was that there are completely different worlds than my own. I took this lesson with me when I moved to my next room. Unfortunately, after just one month I had had enough of the course at Utrecht and decided that I ‘simply wanted’ to study chemistry.

Very amicable, but none of us had ever heard of a cleaning rota

After de-registering from Utrecht, packing my bag, travelling back to Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, and seeing an angry mother, under slight pressure, I took over the room of my sister in Vlissingen. She had left to do a master’s in Tilburg, and what then happened was that I continued studying at the University of Applied Sciences Zeeland and had new housemates. It was very amicable, but none of us had ever heard of a cleaning rota – or of responsibility – and so while cooking, some ‘flavours’ regularly dripped out of the extractor fan into the pan – good for building up resistance – and about 32 rubbish bags on the balcony stank.

After that were Vancouver, Delft, and finally Eindhoven. Every time it was a new house and new housemates, each of which had new customs. Sometimes they were fine. A DSC house in Delft gave me a glimpse into a world that would otherwise have been closed. I now know what vertical drinks, Kriminele (three-day student party) and the jobs of the Hj (Huisjongste or newest resident) are. I also then learned that I really wanted to do a master’s. But then in Eindhoven.

It was sometimes hard. In Eindhoven, my exam weeks often clashed with the dubstep that was necessary for an artist in training. You get that I did not stay there long. In the end I ended up in a small flat – which was then doable – and I chose a hairy, four legged housemate.

And now I read that voting-in at Duwo is less free. Students may have more choice, but at the same time they have less freedom. It’s actually quite contradictory. It is great if you can choose your future housemates yourself and feel an immediate click. But to be fair, when there is not much choice, you do get to know people who are completely different to you. It can sometimes be painful, hilarious, or completely gross. But it is always an opportunity to learn.