The good life
Cheers! Proost! Skål! Prost! Santé! Salud! Salve! Saúde! You are probably sitting in the sun, reading books, listening to your Ipod, drinking beers, and observing the locals in a very appealing environment. Welcome to the good life. Let me guess, Ryanair has brought you to this nice destination?
From Karlstad to Constanza and from Tangier to Glasgow, they will bring you there. For students, generally known as poor, it is an extremely nice possibility that such an airline gives us to experience other countries and travel around. If you are lucky, for only 35 Euros you are able to support the Boedapest Honvéd FC or drink a very good red wine in Bergerac with the local wine grower himself.
Unfortunately, many of you are probably working full time to build a buffer for the upcoming school year. Although it is wise to do this, and I am a bit jealous since I am just too lazy to do so, I would like to warn you. It is true that working gives you money and money will give you more certainty. However, it will give you no Mythos beer, Irish whisky or the Italian “dolce vita”. Take a break. Go online. Book a flight, train trip or just take your bike. Travel. And relax. Holidays are able to make the difference and give you a new life – breath. So please, take advantage of the ‘low fares airline’ and go local. Go into the woods, the water or the mountains. Leave the city and refresh by experiencing parts of the world you did not know before. Actually, the destination is unimportant. Which journey is affordable? The destination itself will arrange the rest.
Within a few weeks, everyone will head back to University, and your tutorials will start again. Probably, you will discuss the Greek economic crisis and now you might be able to talk about it even more since you have experienced the situation yourself. You will regret when you are sitting in your tutorial and are only able to look back on some weeks serving the tourists, pouring their wine and bringing them another portion of fries with a clot of mayonnaise. The option is yours and you already know it.
Jip Schreibers
I am from Asten, a very small town in which are probably more cows than people living, which is situated close to Eindhoven. I am 18 years old and started studying on University College Maastricht this year where I follow the interdisciplinary concentration of Humanities and Social Sciences. Furthermore, I am freelancer for a local radio station because I love journalism. Besides, I like to write and do some photography. Experiencing student life and tasting all the things Maastricht has to offer, I enjoy living in this beautiful city.