{"id":142730,"date":"2022-08-15T17:19:20","date_gmt":"2022-08-15T15:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=142730"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:22","slug":"festive-opening-of-eurekaweek-with-a-sad-lining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/08\/15\/festive-opening-of-eurekaweek-with-a-sad-lining\/","title":{"rendered":"Festive opening of Eurekaweek, with a sad lining"},"content":{"rendered":"

It won’t be long before Eurekaweek needs the entire hall of Ahoy. Almost five thousand students gathered in the event hall in Rotterdam South on Monday morning for the traditional opening of Eurekaweek. The opening was overshadowed by the recent death of a board member of rowing association Skadi.<\/p>\n

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First-year students doing the wave at the opening ceremony in Ahoy.<\/span><\/p>

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This year about a quarter of the hall can still be used for the registrations, three quarters are needed for the show. In the dim blue hall lights, hundreds of groups walk docilely behind their guide, into the main hall.<\/p>\n

There, two students whip up the still timid audience. The rather frat-like duo plays wheel of fortune, holds a dance contest and has two students dance the macarena. The crowd only really gets loose when the pre-programme is closed by Erasmus Music Association with a dazzling performance of Robbie Williams\u2019 Let me entertain you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Maiden speech<\/h2>
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Rector Annelien Bredenoord mentions the death of student Niels van Rooijen during her speech. <\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAli Alshamayleh<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

The main programme starts with a slick intro video and the entry of the cort\u00e8ge, during which a large part of the audience forgets to rise. The programme is presented by the candy blue and pink duo Wies and Bo. They announce rector magnificus Annelien Bredenoord, who will be giving her Eureka \u2018maiden speech\u2019.<\/p>\n

Bredenoord\u2019s story follows the theme of the week: Your time is now<\/em>, and she wishes everyone lots of fun, but also has a serious note. First of all, she expresses her sympathy to Skadi and all other people around Niels van Rooijen, the 23-year old board member of the rowing club who passed away last Saturday.<\/p>\n

An important theme in her speech is mental health: she urges the participants to take good care of themselves and each other. Bredenoord: \u201cLook after your body and mind!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hofplein fountain<\/h2>

This year\u2019s charity is in keeping with Bredenoord\u2019s theme. The students are called upon to donate via a QR code on the screen to MIND Korrelatie, an organisation that provides information about mental health and is also available for questions or a good conversation.<\/p>\n

Next up are the university\u2019s more than one hundred student organisations. The fraternities, the study associations, sports associations and the (multi-)cultural associations. Finally, there is a very short slide filled with logos of associations that don\u2019t fit into the previous categories. Attention is also paid to Feyenoord, and the students are urged twice to jump into the fountain on the Hofplein if the club wins.<\/p>\n

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A large part of Ahoy is filled with the freshmen. <\/span><\/p>

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Rotten city<\/h2>
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One of the groups leaves Ahoy for a lunch on the Binnenrotte. <\/span><\/p>

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The Rotterdam song<\/em> is sung by a member of the Hermes House Band every year, and has had English subtitles on the screen for several years now. Where in previous years \u2018Rotterdam, de mooiste rotstad die er is\u2019<\/em> was translated as \u2018the most beautiful city\u2019, the internationals were now informed that Rotterdammers do like a bit of self-mockery: the somewhat ramshackle translation was now more accurate: the best-looking, rotten city<\/em>.<\/p>\n

While the horde of students leaves Ahoy, causes the traffic to stop and storms the Zuidplein metro station, Finnish first-year Venna (Sociology) talks about her first experiences in Rotterdam. She\u2019s been in Rotterdam for one weekend and has only recently learned the city by name. \u201cI had googled it and then it seemed a bit odd, but I love it now. There is so much to do and there are so many different neighbourhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Augustina (Psychology, from Argentina) arrived in Rotterdam on Sunday. She found the opening of Eurekaweek \u2018very moving\u2019. \u201cEspecially the Rotterdam song, which brought everyone together. But I was also a bit nervous during the show.\u201d Meanwhile, she\u2019s lost sight of her group. Twenty metres away someone is standing with a sign of group 282 up. \u201cOh, there they are!\u201d And away she goes.<\/p>\n\n\t

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De redactie<\/h2>\n\t\t\n\t\t
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