Community To celebrate the success of the symposium, the cheerful honours students went to a karaoke bar in the heart of Konstanz. Although (luckily) not everyone had the microphone, everyone sang out loud. Beautiful songs were sung by several of our own. Thomas and Tirza gave an amazing performance with a lot of enthusiasm which ended in a standing ovation. Floor and Tessa sung very beautifully as well and even freestyled a bit during their performance. Arjan sung as promised with the organizing committee, in which he took the role of classic Danny Zuko and the committee all did a beautiful Sandy in “you’re the one that I want”. Max, Bryn and Dominique gave “Mamma mia” a new meaning. Maarten and Daniëlle sung “Summer love” and although we knew that Daniëlle could sing, we soon found out that Maarten knows his way around a microphone. The karaoke ended at twelve and everyone agreed that this was way too early. Karaoke will probably be a reoccuring theme within this group. Friday afternoon all education was done and the group could finally completely relax. Part of the group went swimming in the pool that belonged to the sauna. Others went sightseeing or chilled in the park. In the evening everyone gathered again for the pub crawl. The German students from Erasmus took us to several bars and clubs. Not all the shots from club “shots” were a success though. When everyone was ready to party, the group cycled to club Grey, where the ladies could enjoy 20 euros of free drinks! With different rooms in which different music was played, everyone got what they wanted. It was very nice and the group really enjoyed dancing and singing. This resulted in some people missing breakfast the next day. Luckily everyone had the day off, which means that sleeping a little longer was no problem. 40
Everyone enjoyed the day in a different way. Some went shopping, others visited the flower island and cuddled with goats, and others went canoeing. It was great weather and the atmosphere was really relaxed. That Saturday was a great ending to a great week with lots of new experiences, new knowledge and new friendships. Sunday it was time to go home, which bumped everybody because they would have liked to stay a little longer. The journey home was tiring but when everyone was safely in the plane, flown by the boyfriend of our own Michelle, even the organizing committee could finally breathe again. It was an amazing week and the group became a lot closer because of it. All in all the University of Konstanz provided our group with an academically challenging environment, a wonderful location to experience one’s honours study trip.
Photos by Michelle Aukes