Things every student recognizes

In the meantime, I have been free from the UvA for quite some time, but I wandered around there longer than is good for me. It's too embarrassing to say how many years I have actually studied, but believe me when I say that at one point I could have had my mail delivered to the UB (University Library) better than at home. But no more. I never picked up my diploma, but it is there (I hope) and nowadays I have my mail delivered to the Amayzine editorial office. Sort of. And as wonderful as I find that, sometimes, very rarely, I do think nostalgically back to the time of exams, lectures, essays, and papers. Are you still in the thick of it? Bet you recognize these things too? And for the rest, welcome to this trip down memory lane.

Breakfast? What is that?

Admittedly, I still am not really a breakfast person, but during my studies, it was a complete disaster. I often forgot to eat because I only woke up at 1:00 PM, and then it was already snack time at 4:00 PM, so I started and ended the day with bitterballen and cheese sticks. Or pizzas delivered at home, of which the leftovers served just fine as breakfast the next day.

Morning lecture? What is that?

Lecture from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM? Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

Pasta, chicken, tomato, mozzarella: I am a top chef!

I must say here that I still don't really cook often, but I no longer stockpile pasta, mozzarella, chicken, and tomato. Then I would cook the pasta, throw a spoonful of green pesto into that pan, add some cherry tomatoes, some ready-made chicken from the Appie, and mix it all together, et voilà, a meal! At least four times a week.

Tomorrow deadline, start today.

Every. Single. Time. I never learned the whole “start on time” thing. If I had to submit 8000 words on Marxism as a philosophy of praxis on Tuesday, I would check what that whole praxis was on Monday. And no, it wasn't the hardware store (damnit).

Next week exam, today buy my books.

Books are expensive, it takes forever for them to be delivered, and usually, you can get quite far with copies. Until the exam came, then such a book was quite handy. So I would go with a stomachache of panic to the bookstore hoping my books were still there. Often they were, and it turned out fine, but I still don't understand why I didn't just order those things at the beginning of the semester.

Cozy studying together.

So I lived in the UB, and spent the whole day there drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes with 300 acquaintances. Really, the UB was a party, sometimes I would deliberately go to another library because I didn't know anyone there and I could study more.

All days vacation (except the week before your exam week)!

Yes god how wonderful was that, in theory, you could decide not to attend lectures for three days. Sure, you have mandatory working groups and that kind of stuff, but you could also skip those. Sometimes. And when your teacher started to complain, I always made sure I was mega up to date with the material so “you see, I'm really not behind.” The week before your exam week is HELL. I literally sat in the library from 8:30 AM to 11:45 PM, with little break, and crammed 8 weeks of material for 4 subjects into my head. Super effective yes.

Red Bull Red Bull Red Bull Red Bull Red Bull Red Bull

If I didn't have Red Bull sugar-free, I couldn't study. Really, I drank so many of those blue cans, it's a miracle my heart hasn't given out yet. Red Bull once created a sort of pop-up library in a building that was about to be demolished. They were open from 8:00 AM to 2:00 AM and there was FREE Red Bull. After day three, I seriously left the building with palpitations. The combination of mega study stress and free Red Bull is just deadly.

Note for my dad: dad, if you are reading this, it's all a lie. I was always neatly in lectures and the UB from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Really.