Almost every college student has seen the cool university movies that Hollywood sends our way every year or so. Being at university for the first time or starting an exchange program in a new city can be great, as American Pie and other movies show us.
It generally means a continuous party and great sex stories, with some occasional studying in between. This is the typical Hollywood college movie storyline: boy leaves his family home and goes to college, boy meets girl, boy loses girl (because he behaves like a moron), boy reforms, boy gets girl back…’The End’! Great movies, but that’s where the storylines end. The part they never show us is haggard boy lost between all the techniques he tries to impress a girl, while he drags his sorry ass to every single party or gathering a girl could possibly be at! This unfortunately is the reality for many guys here at our university – especially here, considering how few females there are at TU Delft and in Delft as a whole.
So, this month, a new batch of international students arrived on TU Delft’s campus – a nice mix of new foreign students either starting their Bachelor, Masters or exchange program. But no matter how long they’ll be here, they are definitely the center of attention this month. And in our small TU community, it’s easy to spot the new students. If you’ve been here a while, it’s pretty easy to spot a new face (especially a pretty one), but apart from that, new students are usually the ones you find hanging out alone, especially at lunch time, or simply looking clueless as they wander around from faculty to faculty.
Sure, new students can generally expect to receive a warm and friendly welcome to TU Delft from senior students, but this is also often accompanied by a certain ‘special interest’. The kind of special interest that makes you smile with a weasely look on your face when you see a newcomer. The weasel smile that says your first routine week at university is in fact the start of a new and exciting challenge: the pursuit of a beautiful new student who has just arrived on campus!
Anyone who says the new students aren’t being noticed and rated in our minds like some reality show is a liar. It’s hard not to notice new students, especially the single ones among them, and if it happens to be a good looking new one, well…how about that!, there are suddenly so many friendly guys around who more than happy to show her where Lecture Room D is, or how much fun lunching with a stranger can actually be! All of last year’s unsuccessful daters now have a new chance to score!
This hawking and hunting of sexy new students happens every year and everywhere, at every university across the globe, and boy is it fun to watch. Take for example the various parties held during the past two weeks for new students, Dutch and foreign. At the party, everyone’s getting to know each other, with the usual small talk: ‘What faculty are you studying at?’ ‘Did you find a house yet?’ ‘Have you joined a student society?’ But it’s the responses of the senior student the newcomer is talking to that determines his ‘Level of Weaselness’ (LOW), which measures the intentions hidden in the senior students actions and words towards the new student. A high level of weaselness is achieved when the senior students says, for example, ‘I also study Civil Engineering, but I’m in my fifth year!’ Aha…so what’s a 5th year student doing at a party for first-year students, you might wonder? It’s certainly not only to make a new friend, as he’s had five ears to do that. A low level of weaselness, however, is perhaps a senior foreign student who is simply trying to find a new student from his home country – or maybe that’s just my excuse? After all, I confess, I was at many of those parties organized for new international students this month!
So, new TU students, watch out for the weasels out there. And as for my fellow weasels, try to keep your LOW low, boys, because now they know and will be on the lookout for weasels like us!
Tarek Ghobar is from Lebanon. The next ‘Tarek’s Diary’ will be published in Delta 32. He can be emailed at: t.ghobar@tudelft.nl.
Almost every college student has seen the cool university movies that Hollywood sends our way every year or so. Being at university for the first time or starting an exchange program in a new city can be great, as American Pie and other movies show us. It generally means a continuous party and great sex stories, with some occasional studying in between. This is the typical Hollywood college movie storyline: boy leaves his family home and goes to college, boy meets girl, boy loses girl (because he behaves like a moron), boy reforms, boy gets girl back…’The End’! Great movies, but that’s where the storylines end. The part they never show us is haggard boy lost between all the techniques he tries to impress a girl, while he drags his sorry ass to every single party or gathering a girl could possibly be at! This unfortunately is the reality for many guys here at our university – especially here, considering how few females there are at TU Delft and in Delft as a whole.
So, this month, a new batch of international students arrived on TU Delft’s campus – a nice mix of new foreign students either starting their Bachelor, Masters or exchange program. But no matter how long they’ll be here, they are definitely the center of attention this month. And in our small TU community, it’s easy to spot the new students. If you’ve been here a while, it’s pretty easy to spot a new face (especially a pretty one), but apart from that, new students are usually the ones you find hanging out alone, especially at lunch time, or simply looking clueless as they wander around from faculty to faculty.
Sure, new students can generally expect to receive a warm and friendly welcome to TU Delft from senior students, but this is also often accompanied by a certain ‘special interest’. The kind of special interest that makes you smile with a weasely look on your face when you see a newcomer. The weasel smile that says your first routine week at university is in fact the start of a new and exciting challenge: the pursuit of a beautiful new student who has just arrived on campus!
Anyone who says the new students aren’t being noticed and rated in our minds like some reality show is a liar. It’s hard not to notice new students, especially the single ones among them, and if it happens to be a good looking new one, well…how about that!, there are suddenly so many friendly guys around who more than happy to show her where Lecture Room D is, or how much fun lunching with a stranger can actually be! All of last year’s unsuccessful daters now have a new chance to score!
This hawking and hunting of sexy new students happens every year and everywhere, at every university across the globe, and boy is it fun to watch. Take for example the various parties held during the past two weeks for new students, Dutch and foreign. At the party, everyone’s getting to know each other, with the usual small talk: ‘What faculty are you studying at?’ ‘Did you find a house yet?’ ‘Have you joined a student society?’ But it’s the responses of the senior student the newcomer is talking to that determines his ‘Level of Weaselness’ (LOW), which measures the intentions hidden in the senior students actions and words towards the new student. A high level of weaselness is achieved when the senior students says, for example, ‘I also study Civil Engineering, but I’m in my fifth year!’ Aha…so what’s a 5th year student doing at a party for first-year students, you might wonder? It’s certainly not only to make a new friend, as he’s had five ears to do that. A low level of weaselness, however, is perhaps a senior foreign student who is simply trying to find a new student from his home country – or maybe that’s just my excuse? After all, I confess, I was at many of those parties organized for new international students this month!
So, new TU students, watch out for the weasels out there. And as for my fellow weasels, try to keep your LOW low, boys, because now they know and will be on the lookout for weasels like us!
Tarek Ghobar is from Lebanon. The next ‘Tarek’s Diary’ will be published in Delta 32. He can be emailed at: t.ghobar@tudelft.nl.
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