When you
have been attending the same university for over three years, you expect to
have seen it all. You already memorized the location of various electrical
sockets for your laptop, you know exactly where to get the best coffee, and you
develop a sixth sense for when the professor has turned his head another way so
you can sneak into the classes.
That is
why I find it so amazing that the UU can still surprise me. After a last minute
change to the schedule, I am to go to the lecture room in the university library
instead of the one on the Drift. Following some other students, I am marveled
to discover a shortcut from the Studiepunt directly to the library entrance, cutting
5 minutes from the trip.
A few
months later I am to meet up with some students at the caveteria of the library.
Instead of turning right at the entrance, I had to turn left per their
instructions, going through a hall which I always assumed had a dead end, only
to arrive at a very large cafeteria. Feeling like I had just arrived at
platform 9¾, I sat down and realized just how often I had eaten lunch in the
reception hall of the library in absence of the knowledge of a cafeteria.
Maybe it
is just my inability to talk with people or to explore structures on my own,
but I think I am not the only student to be unaware of these little details. Of
course, the cynist in me is complaining that the university does not provide
this information easily. Though… they probably do provide it and I just never
found it on their site. However, I like looking at it from a different angle.
Sure, it sucked to find out I had been unaware of a shortcut for three years,
but now that I know it feels like I have been trusted with a little secret. It
is a little bit of insider knowledge that puts the student of the UU apart from
others. And in any case, it feels amazing to be able to show others that
shortcut and see the wonder in their eyes as they realize that there are always
new things to learn about the UU.
No comments:
Post a Comment