Over 200 international students are arriving this week, from every inhabited continent of the world. They start with Orientation Week. Today: Anthony Keast (24), who wants to bring his hobby of fire twirling to the Netherlands.

International students are fresh off their planes and loaded up on busses to be registered here at Radboud University. Many of them will be taking part in an international orientation week. Although not quite as extravagant as the August orientation weeks, it will still involve talks, tours and of course lots of partying. Anthony has travelled from Australia and is staying in Nijmegen technically for one semester. However, his flight home isn’t booked until October so he is planning to make the most of the summer in Europe before flying back. He chose Nijmegen as his only option for studying in Europe.

At the end of a long day of travelling, standing in queues and waiting for busses, Anthony was most excited at the prospect of not having to carry his bag around anymore. He had the added motive: ‘I have arrived in Europe a little early and have been sleeping in hostel beds. So I am very keen to sleep on my own ‘real mattress’ tonight.’

As always though, there are inevitable nerves on your first day and Anthony was no exception. He was nervous for the initial meeting of lots of people in the orientation week especially having already spent time socialising and meeting lots of people in hostels since arriving in Europe. Like many other students, he also worried about a few administrative things like sorting out classes. However, Anthony came with expectations for what his semester will entail. First and foremost, he said that he was expecting to pass. He was also excited to ‘ride a bike round a flat country’. On this topic, did he hear any stereotypes about the Netherlands before travelling the long way here? ‘The weed thing obviously’, he said. ‘But I have also heard the Dutch are tall and direct.’

Anthony is hoping to bring the delicacy of vegemite and what he calls ‘properly ripe bananas’ to the Netherlands, with no green on them. He also is hoping to continue his hobby of fire twirling from home but maybe doing this with LED lights, rather than real fire whilst he is here. ‘It is a performance art involving batons that can be lit on fire!’