The international students have been here for two days now. Is Nijmegen the city they expected it to be? And how do they enjoy orientation so far?

People here in Nijmegen have been surprisingly welcoming, says Thierry Simon (23), from Belgium. ‘Back at home, that is not always the case.’ Next to him, Ilaria Corti (23), from Italy, says that she was surprised by the architecture. ‘The city looks like you have built it to your needs, it looks modern and futuristic. In Italy, all the buildings are old.’ They have not seen much of the Nijmegen night life yet, they have spent last night in somebody’s home. ‘It has only been two days though.’

Outside the Grotius building, MoonYoung Jo (22) sits in the sun during her lunch break. ‘I am actually 23 in South Korea, where I come from’, she says. ‘A new born’s age there is 1, so they already start counting on the first day’. She is here for an Economics exchange and expected Nijmegen to be nice, but is still surprised by how clean it is. ‘It is so clean that I can drink water from almost every tap! In South Korea, I have to buy water all the time.’ The bike she has is too big for her, she says. ‘I have put the saddle all the way down already, but I still cannot reach the pedals.

Pubcrawl
Paloma Moncho (20) and Marcus Wood (21) can reach the pedals on their bikes, but do think they were slightly expensive. ‘Especially when you want a good lock on it. We do love the bikes though, they are so cool.’ In bars, shots are expensive too, they say, but that did not stop them yesterday night. ‘It was amazing,’ Marcus says. ‘The Americans think they are cheap though, says Leonie Müller (20). Together with Mary Tekieli (24), they are standing outside Cultuur Cafe, awaiting their mentor group’s (‘number two! Can you write down that we are in the best mentor group?’) departure into the city center. ‘The university is bigger than we expected,’ says Marcus, who is from Essex University. Plans for tonight are already made. ‘Get smaaaaaaashed. We don’t know what ‘supersonic pubcrawl’ means, but we are going!’