There seems to be a fairly large population of international students studying in Groningen between RUG and Hanze University. There are several international student houses throughout the city, and some of them have over 300 people in them. There are also quite a few international students who live in private accommodations throughout the city. From my causal observation of the people who I've encountered, I'd say the vast majority of them are from other European countries. This seems to have a lot to do with the program a lot of the European countries take part in where they have incentives for students to study abroad in other countries. A lot of the European students are part of the International Exchange, Erasmus Student Network [ESN] that promotes international relationships between schools all over Europe.
The reason I'm explaining all of this is to lead to the obvious fact that there was a significant number of international students who arrived in Groningen the first couple of days of February. There are still many international students from around the world that have been here for the past semester or even longer, but, for all of the new students, ESN organized an introduction week. The intention of the week was to help students get acquainted to the city and Dutch culture, as well as to help facilitate friend groups both within the international community, and with other Dutch students.
For those of us who chose to participate, we got randomly assigned into a group with students from all over the world and two guides. Both of my guides happened to be Dutch, but a lot of groups had international students who had already been here for at least a semester as guides. We also teamed up with two other groups because our leaders were all friends. There were many aspects of the introduction week including things like a city tour, a sports day, salsa dancing lessons, Dutch language lessons, and a movie night. However, one of the main focuses of the week seemed to be a crash course in how Dutch students spend their weekends. We received a very healthy dose of the Groningen nightlife, and, I have to say, I am rather impressed with the stamina that the Dutch students seem to show when they go out with their friends.
We were told that we could go out to a different bar in Groningen every night that we are here and still not hit all of the bars in the city. It's easy enough to believe, but that is not to say that there aren't some people who seem to have accepted that challenge however. With a lower drinking age in Europe, going out at night seems to be a very natural part of the culture for Dutch university students. This seems to be pretty standard for most of the international students as well, with one key difference- the Dutch stay out all night. A lot of the places don't close until around 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning and there are many people who stay out just as long. From what I understand though, this doesn't seem to be the case in any other countries that people I've talked to have come from, but it seems to be the norm where we are now; the result being our Dutch guides trying to drag jet-lagged foreigners around way past their bedtimes through the city the day after they arrived. A lot of people did give it a good solid try, but there's a catch: when one stays out all night, they must also factor in the next day for recuperation. The effect of this for the majority of the Introduction Week participants was a long week of late nights and sleeping in.
This was all a lot of fun and Groningen is a very energetic city in this regards because such a huge percentage of its population is students. There's very little car traffic at night so the city is beautifully quiet and peaceful and it's a lot of fun to go wandering from place to place with friends. The biking does not stop at night and it's pretty entertaining watching some people trying to find where they left their bike and pedal home after a long night out.
The music that was played at all of the places that we went was often really familiar. A big chunk of the songs are from the United States and it was really surprising to me how people from all over the world seem to know the music so well. One night there was a band that was playing 1970s and 1980s classic rock and almost everybody seemed to know more of the songs than I did. There were also a few songs played in different languages but here was the one song that always seemed to excite everybody present...
Ai Se Eu Te Pego- Michel Teló
The interesting thing about this song is that it's in Portuguese, which there is not exactly a flourishing language in the Netherlands. However, everybody seems to know the words to the song, or more like the sound of the words to the song. The song even comes equipped with some hand movements that go along with the lyrics. I actually talked to some people who speak Portuguese and they explained to me what the lyrics really mean. I'm not sure, though, how many people who actually sing along with it know exactly what it means. It is pretty catchy though...
One of the things that impressed me the most about going out here, was the big difference between how some people go out back in the US. First, girls actually wore clothes. The purpose of dressing up didn't seem to be to put on just enough clothes that you wouldn't get blurred out if you were on TV. Girls looked cute but it was perfectly acceptable to wear jeans, and nice boots or a top that you weren't falling out of. People seemed to be logical enough to figure out that they needed to get to their destination without dying from exposure on the way there. Call me a prude, but it was refreshing not having to see way more of people than I'd ever want to.
When people would dance, it was also very different than I'm used to seeing. Granted, I don't get out much, but my one, rather traumatizing, experience at Wayside would constitute evidence enough to say that the sleazyness of that establishment does not seem to be the norm over here. Rather, people are capable of dancing without rubbing themselves up against the stranger next to them and can merely dance to have fun with their friends, not just to creep people out. I have to say, I much prefer this type of dancing, but, I suppose, to each their own.
All in all, it was a lot of fun getting to know Groningen as a city. I have never lived in a city before and the Introduction Week was a great way to get a feel for the place!
