{"id":81473,"date":"2017-11-02T15:49:43","date_gmt":"2017-11-02T14:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=81473"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:22:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:22:53","slug":"what-happens-in-the-butterfly-stays-in-the-butterfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2017\/11\/02\/what-happens-in-the-butterfly-stays-in-the-butterfly\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens in the Butterfly, stays in the Butterfly"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sandy standing behind 'her' bar.<\/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\tElmer Smaling<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

On the first floor of the ISS building, you will find a hidden gem: the Butterfly Bar. This is a small, trendy bar which has been refurbished by bartender Sandy Kamerling with the help of a group of PhD and master students.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you mind if I light the candles first?\u201d, Sandy asks around five o\u2019clock on Wednesday afternoon. The Butterfly is not open yet, but we are already welcome for a beer. \u201cSit down, I\u2019ll tell you everything.\u201d Meanwhile, her phone keeps ringing. \u201cI work at a gallery on Noordeinde (the chic shopping street opposite the ISS), during the day\u201d, she explains. \u201cMy hours have been adjusted so that I can work here in the evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Friday night, party time<\/h3>
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After half past six \u2013 when the Butterfly opens \u2013 the phone goes away. \u201cI only have two rules here,\u201d Sandy points to a sign on the wall. \u201cWhat happens in the Butterfly, stays in the Butterfly. And: talk to each other, not your phone.\u201d She lives by that rule herself. What\u2019s more, her phone is needed for the music system, which she shows smiling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks a bit improvised, but it\u2019s great,\u201d says Sandy. \u201cOn Friday nights, it\u2019s often party time. The tables are put to the side, I turn on the disco ball and students can pick their own songs here behind the bar.\u201d Regularly, a group of South Americans dance the salsa all evening.<\/p>\n

Please is the magic word<\/h3>

Sandy has been running the Butterfly for fifteen years. Her ex-husband worked in the finance department at the time and the ISS was looking for someone who could revive the Butterfly Bar. Sandy had quite a lot of experience working in restaurants and bars. \u201cAt first, I had to get used to working in a pub where so many different cultures meet,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But now, she knows exactly how to deal with cultural differences. \u201cWhen they come here for the first time, African students, for example, are not always used to ordering a beer politely. \u2018Beer!\u2019, they say when they come to the bar. \u2018Please is the magic word\u2019, I always answer. Not to correct their manners, but because otherwise they won\u2019t be able to connect in the Netherlands. In a bar on the Grote Markt, you won\u2019t get away with ordering a beer like that. \u201c<\/p>\n

Aldi crisps<\/h3>
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Around six o\u2019clock, a group of people walk in for a drink after a lecture and at the back, a couple of students are enjoying a beer after a day in the library. It\u2019s one of the students\u2019 birthday and Sandy starts singing \u2018Happy Birthday\u2019. Everybody \u2013 with twenty punters it\u2019s quite full in the Butterfly \u2013 joins in.\u00a0\u201cWe can fit up to fifty people in here,\u201d Sandy says. \u201cBut then it\u2019s really full.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beer, wine and soft drinks are only 1.50 euros. \u201cSo we buy the snacks from Aldi,\u201d Sandy laughs, holding a bag of nachos and handing out bowls of crisps.\u00a0Many PhD researchers and students celebrate their birthdays in the Butterfly. \u201cWe make all the snacks for birthdays ourselves.\u201d In return, \u2018Miss Butterfly\u2019, as the students lovingly call her, is always welcome to their getaways. \u201cRecently, I went to Giethoorn in a bus full of international PhDs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Refurbishment<\/h3>
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A PhD student orders a red wine, in Dutch. She gets a hug from Sandy. \u201cYour Dutch is getting much better!\u201d, she says. \u201cShe sanded the whole bar and painted it this year\u201d, Sandy tells us a few minutes later. The ISS building was renovated last year, but there was no budget left for the Butterfly. In the end, Sandy received help from twenty PhDs and seven students, 750 euros and a little extra for beer and pizzas were available. Together, they gave the Butterfly a makeover.<\/p>\n

And that was necessary. Old pictures on the wall testify to what was once a rather dusty old fashioned bar. Since the renovation, the Butterfly Bar also has a butterfly. A white butterfly was painted on the black wall opposite the bar. Its wings bear the word \u2018welcome\u2019 in fifty languages. The name is derived from a long lost past. Between 1977 and 1993, the ISS was located in Hotel De Wittebrug. \u201cThere was a hotel lobby with red plush banks and a big silk butterfly hanging on the ceiling,\u201d says Sandy. \u201cNow the interior has something to do with the name again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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