Due to the global pandemic that is still going on, many students are unable to travel home for the holidays like they usually would. Thus, we wanted to find out what students are up to instead for the holidays. Whether this means staying in Leeuwarden, spending the time with Dutch friends, family or going home but quarantining for two weeks, we want to know how they will celebrate the holidays.

* This blog was written before we went into lockdown.

Kirsten Kaman, student MSc Tourism Geography & Planning
Hi! My name is Kirsten Kaman. I am a Dutch student in the Master Cultural Geography: Tourism Geography and Planning. As the Christmas holidays are coming up, I was asked what I am going to do during the holidays and during the hard lockdown here in the Netherlands. Currently, I am at my parents’ house in a town near Rotterdam, but I live in Leeuwarden for my study. For the holidays I decided to go home to “celebrate” Christmas. I will spend Christmas Eve with my parents and both my sisters where we will have a great dinner, we open the Christmas presents we bought for each other and continue the evening with playing some games. The other Christmas days, we would normally visit my grandparents, and invite them for dinner, and visit other family members. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 restrictions, we will not invite or meet them this year, but I think we will definitely call them!

The remaining days of the Christmas holiday I try to relax as much as possible, try to spend as little time as possible on my study and try to spend most of my time with my family at home! Stay safe and enjoy the well-deserved break!

Eleftherios Flevaris, student MSc Multilingualism
This year, I am planning on spending the holidays with my family in Greece. However, I must admit that the following weeks will be quite critical. I am, of course, referring to the impact of the coronavirus and all the instability in everyone’s travel plans. Besides, spending the holidays in the Netherlands would also be a great idea! There is still so much to explore and although the workload is quite a lot for all of us in the Master in Multilingualism, there is still some free time we could all devote to ourselves, to get some rest, reflect on our goals for next year and accomplish new things!

Precious Aturu, student MSc Sustainable Entrepreneurship
For my Christmas holidays, I will be going to Ghana to visit family and check on my business! After this Master I will relocate there and so try to go as often as possible, but Corona really slowed me down.

From March to October, the borders of West Africa were closed, so I couldn't visit my family in Nigeria or Ghana, which sucked. So I'm very happy I get to go to Africa again and be home for a few weeks!

Hendrik Willemsen, student BSc Global Responsibility & Leadership
As I think everyone, I am looking forward to the break, not just for Christmas and New Year's Eve but also to have time to relax. Just like the years before I will write christmas cards to friends, family and acquaintances to send to them at the beginning of the break, this is an important (familiy) tradition. I always design the cards myself. When classes finish, I will go home. For me this means I will still be in Leeuwarden but with my family. We are going to spend Christmas with a limited amount of family. Before New Years Eve I will also write a letter about the whole year, another tradition of mine. The rest of the time I will use for a lot of sports, family and unfortunately also a bit of school work.

Lucas Haitsma, student Governance Law in Digital Society
Hi! My name is Lucas Haitsma and I am currently pursuing an LLM in Governance and Law in Digital Society. This holiday I will be driving with my girlfriend to Brussels to see my dad and younger brother. Normally, I spend Christmas with my mom, however, she lives in Thailand and due to COVID-19 and the travel restrictions in place it is not possible to go there or for her to come here. So this year I will be spending it with my dad instead. Due to the lockdown there we will mainly stay at home, but nevertheless, it will be nice to spend some time with the family.