Our blog team has been living in Groningen for a while now, but we too were once new and overwhelmed by all the things you can do here. We thought we'd list the best things a brand-new Groninger should do in order to make your life a little bit easier. If you don't want to do all forty, just do number #1 forty times.

1. Stay out until the sun comes up - bars in Groningen have no official closing times, so this is not only possible but is advisable at least once in your student life. The sunrise in Groningen is beautiful with a kebab in your hand
2. Ride Bus 15 to Zernike on a Monday morning
3. Ask a (dumb) question in one of your first lectures
4. Climb the Martini Tower
5. Get a bike - from the police auction, swapfiets, or a bike store around Groningen
6. Buy a plant from IKEA - and keep it alive
7. Find a date at the UB
8. Go on a date to the UB
9. Transport new furniture on a bakfiets
10. Go out, completely forget where you parked your bike, walk home, and spend an hour the next day (with a bit of a headache) trying to find it
11. Try an eierbal from the wall (bonus: try a fire-ball)
12. Try kibbelling from a stand on the Vismarkt
13. Try the wonders of Pitt beer
14. Have a beer (or several) at the Drie Gezusters - the largest pub in Europe
15. Have a conversation in Dutch (to help, you can check our vlogger Konrad’s tips)
16. Attend every 9am lecture in a week (harder than it sounds)
17. Visit the USVA and take a course in something you’ve never done before - for example improvised comedy, creative writing, or singing
18. Join an “interesting” ACLO course
19. Ride on the back of somebody's bike AND ride a bike with somebody on the back
20. Fall off your bike - it’s a rite of passage
21. Go to an FC Groningen game, a Donar game, or both
22. Have a conversation in your first week which does not begin with “where are you from?” or “what do you study?” (basically impossible)
23. Complain about the weather - if it is too hot, complain it is too hot. If it rains, complain that it's raining. If it is just right, complain that you can’t complain about the weather today. It’s the Dutch way
24. Try the hot meal in every university canteen
25. Go to the bathroom in each university building (unrelated)
26. Take a nap in the UB
27. Visit every bar in Groningen
28. Get your BSN and open a bank account. Then transfer me €10 as thanks for this great blog
29. Go to Noorderzon (if it is still going on when you arrive) or Kadepop
30. Go to a birthday party and congratulate everybody in the room
31. Cook your own “Stamppot” - it’s not that hard
32. Learn some Dutch swear words - same effect can be reached by screaming the word Hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) at the top of your lungs
33. Play our lecture bingo
34. Join the ESN Introduction Week!
35. Go to a 9am lecture after a night out and sit as close to the door as possible
36. Invent a game with your housemates like ‘True American’ from New Girl
37. Teach a Dutch student a drinking song from your own country
38. Learn to correctly pronounce your street name
39. Draw a bike on a friends face if they fall asleep during a lecture (or a night out)
40. Play a Dutch drinking game

That's as far as our suggestions go. Do you have other ideas? Let us know in the comments!