Chemistry student Mattew McFarlane was born in South Africa and has lived in Dubai his whole life, but is choosing the ‘Nijmeegse gezelligheid’ (Nijmegen’s cosiness) during his student days.

‘Although I had planned to study in Great Britain, I am now living in Nijmegen. England turned out to be a bit too expensive. But I certainly don’t regret my choice. Nijmegen surprised me. I have been living in a dorm at the Sint Canisiussingel for two weeks now. Many other internationals also live there, so it’s very nice.

What strikes me most about the city are the old elements, the many bicycles and that everyone is so ‘international-friendly’: everyone speaks English and adapts their language to English in a conversation. That is very pleasant.

So far I’ve had a great week. It’s a good way to get to know people and the activities are fun. The bond between the fellow students is great. Our group is Team Elmo – you can tell by my headband, of course – and another group is Team Cookie Monster. We try to steal each other’s stuffed animals. The opponents then can only get these back by trading something in, such as cookies.

In the upcoming period, I would like to learn Dutch. Afrikaans and Dutch may be quite similar, unfortunately I never learned to speak Afrikaans well. So I’ll have to step up for a while.’