What living in Haarweg is actually like!
By Shriya
As a student, moving to a new place to call home is a mammoth of a task. This initially seems impossible to do which is exactly how I felt when I first got a room in Haarweg. It is a popular housing option in Wageningen where loads of students stay. In Haarweg there are different kinds of housing options. Haarweg is close to the city centre and it takes around 13 to 15 minutes to bike to campus.
Blue roofs in Haarweg
Blue roofs is a compound of three large buildings. It is not one of the star shaped buildings that Idealis offers. It has both shared and self contained rooms available here. One other difference from the other housing options that Idealis provides is that the number of rooms and the size of the corridor varies. So these are the standard facts about the place. Here below is a link about the life in Dijkgraaf!
Now getting to the main part which is what the inside of the building is like and what it is like to stay there.
Corridors
I live in one of the large corridors in Haarweg which has 14 rooms. One the first thought that sounds crazy. How is it possible to live with 13 other people??!! Of course there are pros and cons to it. One big pro is that when you have lots of people living with you, a lot of the amenities are already available when you move in. For example, the kitchen was and is still stocked with vessels, cutlery and basic condiments needed for cooking. There is already a system in place be it for cleaning or laundry.
Now for some practical facts, four out of the fourteen rooms are self contained. They have a kitchen each and each pair of rooms has their own bathroom. The rest are all shared accommodation and some rooms have a wash basin in them. Large corridors have three washrooms and toilets each. Of course, the ratio of these depends on how big the corridor is. For those of you who wonder… yes there is a laundry room!! If you are lucky then there is a washing machine and a dryer in place and working.
The kitchen
The kitchen is a large space since my corridor has a large number of people. The added advantage to that is that we have a huge common room as well. Luckily, the people who lived there before me put in lots of effort into making the space comfortable with enough couches and games. This though is variable. There are corridors that are still trying to get a system in place but let’s just say I got lucky.
Own experience
The experience of living in any place is both the space you have and the people. In haarweg, I found the perfect balance. My privacy is respected by my corridor mates and on the other hand, there is always someone to talk to when you need it. This obviously takes time and depends on the people you live with. You may end up with people you love spending time with. This totally adds a new dimension to your student life. In my case,
I met fabulous people and made a good set of friends. We have corridor dinners together, sometimes game and movie nights as well.
As a corridor tradition, we go out to eat together for Sinterklaas and also had the most amazing Christmas dinner last year. But on the more normal Friday evenings, you can always find someone for a quick chat while you cook or have a drink.
As I said, there are both pros and cons. When you live in a student dormitory, adjusting is key. Being flexible and learning to live with others can be a challenge. For some others, sharing a bathroom or a kitchen may not be favourable. Even the cleaning system may not be to your taste. More importantly, the people may not be your kind of people. But remember, there are a lot of “Maybe” in the above sentence. You will never know till you try. 🙂
Quick fact
The rooms here are bigger than the other student accommodations like Hoevestine or Asserpark and thus the higher rent. To make up for it, almost everyone here is also eligible for rent subsidy as well. Click on the link below for information on the rent subsidy.
https://www.wur.nl/en/Education-Programmes/future-students/Student-Housing-1/Rent-Subsidy.htm
So on a final note, if you are someone who loves company and can adjust easily, Haarweg might just be the place that you end up calling home. 🙂