As a guy from a small rural village, I’d been to Groningen a few times to visit the university before I started, but I wasn’t very familiar with the city. So I gathered two friends and together we signed up for the KEI-week, the yearly week-long event hosted to show every new student in Groningen what the city’s got to offer.

With 5000 new students participating, Groningen was the busiest I’d ever seen it. After struggling to find our way to our accommodation at first (thank you KEI volunteer who showed us the way!), we were all ready to go meet our KEI-group by dinnertime!

First thing on the program was having a meal with our KEI-group and getting to know the other group members. A plate of pasta and some group games later, we were all sharing stories and laughing together. Some of the students in my group were going to the same faculty, others shared my hobbies and interests. At any rate, we had enough to be busy talking all evening. We didn’t get the chance to do because not long after dinner, the next event was already coming up!

Around eight, it was time to head towards the Grote Markt in the city for the grand introduction party. The KEI-week really does live up to its reputation: there was a gigantic party tent in place and the atmosphere was amazing. Together with my new friends, my first night of my KEI-week was one to remember. Singing along with the music, dancing and having a few drinks; we almost didn’t want the night to end.

During the next few days, we visited locations all around the city: the ACLO sports plaza where we could try out all kinds of sports, from dancing (which I did, even though I’m a rhythmic disaster!) to rock climbing to beach volleyball. We also got a chance to take a peek at the student- and study associations and during the pub crawl, we got to know every pub in the city. One of the highlights was the rodeo challenge, where we could compete to stay on a rapidly moving mechanical bull for as long as we could. I managed to stay on a grand total of twenty-two seconds (not my best moment), but one of my friends held on to the bull for a breath-taking two minutes. And with that, he won us a limousine ride to the final party!

And what a final party it was. The theme of the party was Neonsplash, big cannons shot paint into the crowd. That means that we were all encouraged to come in white clothing and that in addition to the music, we’d look amazingly colorful before the night was over. We could also get our own tubes of paint and use it on ourselves or our friends. The party went on deep into the night and due to the atmosphere (all new students having the time of their lives) and the paint, it remains one of the coolest and most unique parties I’ve ever experienced.