August 14, 2012
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(written on 16 April 2013)
One of the advantages of living where I live is that it's a very lively neighbourhood. That can be a bit tedious as well, for example when a drunken guy (typically belonging to a herd of British guys in Amsterdam on a stag do) interrupts your sleep by shouting out loud in the street in the middle of the night. All in all, though, it's a real pleasure to have the city centre almost literally at your finger tips. This part of town is also home to many student houses. It's where students may live, or sometimes it's just where their associations are or where they party. This time of the year, at the end of summer holidays, many new students arrive in town to start they studies and they undergo all kinds of wonderful and weird rituals to welcome to student life. They dress weird, they sing songs, they visit each other's student houses... and all of that is combined with drinking almost continuously.
Just up the street from me is a student house for women students and they have one particular song they burst into just about every ten minutes, singing it outside in the street, especially on beautiful days such as today. Then, just up the street in the other direction is a student house for male students and their rituals involve carrying one of theirs on their shoulders through the street while singing the same song over and over again. I've not seen much of them yet, but at least the ladies are there again. This was the group just as they had finished their song (before starting it again not long after.) In anticipation of the guys arriving in their house now...
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