Christmas markets in the region were hard to miss in December. The one in Maastricht, called ‘Magisch Maastricht’, was on my way home from work, so I both literally and figuratively couldn’t miss it. As in previous years, I often heard more German than Dutch voices—an indicator of the popularity of...
‘Everything valuable is vulnerable’, wrote one of the greatest Dutch poets, Lucebert, in 1974. Coincidentally, this was also the year that the first fifty students started the medicine programme in Maastricht, even before the official approval from The Hague (the Rijksuniversiteit Limburg was only...
Do you remember where you were on 9 November 1989? Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall—a crucial moment in the German and European history of the twentieth century.
Soon I will host a champagne toast in honour of our employees who have given 25 or 40 years of service. These are the happy days in the life of an administrator, you see. It has only been since last year that we’ve been able to honour people who have served 40 years. That’s extra special when you...
The Facebook page “Stuff Dutch People Like” recently published a list of what Dutch people do not like. First place: Being confused for a German. Second place: Germans. Whoa!
Recently, I received an offer to write a regular, five weekly column in Dagblad De Limburger. The newspaper was looking for a new group of columnists and thought I might be a suitable candidate. I don’t think this blog was the reason; a journalist who then came to interview me for an article in the...
Scientific research involving animal testing at Maastricht University caused a lot of commotion last week. A group of animal rights activists mobilized, according to their own sources, more than 100.000 people to sign a petition to halt experiments involving dogs in particular. Emotions got so...
It’s that time again when national chauvinism takes over – the football World Cup is here! Pubs and entire streets are made up in orange and I am glad that I “naturalized” my German car with yellow license plates years ago (it would otherwise be too dangerous in my street…). The fan composition...
Maastricht is experiencing a new dynamic: student en stad, a project that addresses the usual issues inherent to a university city, such as the specific needs of the young, diverse student population and the negative side-effects, commonly summarized by the Dutch term “studentenoverlast”. The...
I really envy Luc, our rector, he is not only very smart and running much faster than I ever could, he also has a nice office with a glass frame that allows you to see if he is there, with whom he is in a meeting or what he is doing. This creates a sense of transparency that represents the openness...
