Signs and making friends

I saw on the rug website that you collect stories and pictures for Selwerd I, II and III. As I have lived in all three buildings I thought I can share lots of interesting facts with you.

·         First half, year one in Groningen Kornoeljestraat
·         Second half, year two Selwerd II
·         Finally second, half year three in the remaining one

However, turns out back in that time I did not own a smart phone and therefore have not really many photos from that time. Then again, I do have some fun facts and still attached a handful of pictures. The photos show that Kornoeljestraat had an issue with cockroaches. The other four photos are from Selwerd II, where I was also Penningmeester for a while.

·         In Kornoeljestraat I lived with one German guy, a French lady and 10-13 Chinese people. It was super dirty, I cleaned up the whole kitchen and put sign everywhere, like do not throw your leftover food in the urinal as it is only to take a piss for man. Also, I translated all the sign to Chinese and hanged it around everywhere. Funnily, the floor on the other side of the balcony saw that through the windows and asked me to do the same thing for their floor as they also struggled with the Chinese not cleaning up the kitchen. In contrast a couple of floors below was a whole Spanish floor, where it smelt always after weed and the main entrance door to the floor was always open. The German guy from my floor and I used to go there to play FIFA on their laptop with two controllers. Also, from the other floor across the balcony I met a Estonian girl which I used to see for the first couple of months of university. All in all, it was a great place to meet new people

·         In Selwerd II lived only Dutch people. This was great for me to improve my Dutch and to get more integrated with the local culture, like reading poems and playing gift switching during Sinterklaas. Then again, to be honest I learnt Dutch playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo Wii until somebody stole it – it was a sad day for all of us. As I was also Penningmeester and one of my floor mates ran the bar downstairs it was a really cool time and the messy living room somehow was less of an issue, even it was actually really dirty. Just before my now wife and me left Groningen we came back to the bar once more and my wife tapped her first beer in her life, which was also fun. Probably still the best living situation while I was in Groningen. When my brother came to visit we organized a huge floor party for the whole house, so somehow unexpectedly my brother had a huge birthday party with lots of guests without him knowing a single person. During his visit he also took a taxi back home and was too drunk to realise the right building. Therefore, he crashed in the wrong building, but right floor in one of the two other building until he realised the next morning by looking out of the window seeing the right coloured building. In Selwerd II I also used to see a girl from one floor below for a couple of months.  Selwerd II having a bar was really nice to meet people, where I also met that girl

·         The last stay way probably the shortest and the least exciting as I was busy planning for my master and just coming back from exchange before leaving again. Still I made another friend in the new floor with who I stayed in touch. He showed me how to stream soccer games online. More funnily one of his best friends slept with the same black American exchange student a year before I did in my second year – after all Groningen is a small place. However, shortly after I met my current wife in the last semester at Groningen and as I had bedbugs in my room I stayed mostly at her place.

To sum it up, all the three Selwerd buildings are horribly dirty (just thinking about the always broke disgusting washing machines…), but a good place to enjoy student life and make friends. Finally, I did find a handful more photos from there.

Marc Feth, BA economie en bedrijfseconomie, Honours 2012

Find all the Selwerd stories (in Dutch) here>>>