Durango Galván, a Master student of Systems and Control, says that the holiday park was a good place to live. “The facilities are very good compared to those of some other students at the university, but living there also came with a few drawbacks. We had no Internet access. Furthermore, we had to get up very early to catch the bus. We had to walk to the bus stop for 15 minutes and the bus schedule didn’t work properly. So we had to wait a lot at the bus stop. Transportation to and from the TU/e took us almost two hours a day”, she sums up.

Her friend Ekatarina Mahu from the Republic of Moldova, who studies Sustainable Energy, adds: “And because we had no Internet connection, we had to stay in the library longer and also arrived in Mierlo again later at night. Which meant you had to walk back through the woods in the evening, which was not really comfortable.”

Reyhan Zanis is a Master student of Systems and Control and he is from Indonesia. Two weeks ago he moved to a space cabin with an orange interior. He thinks his new home and its location on campus are excellent. Mahu likes the space cabins too: “We actually have everything we need, as it is fully furnished.” Durango Galván describes some differences between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ space cabins. “The new space cabins have desks. I like it, because you have more space to work. I like the decoration of the new ones better. It would be handy to have a freezer and a microwave. You also need to buy basic cleaning things for the kitchen.”

Close to everything
Zanis, Mahu and Durango Galván already know some of their new neighbors. “They are not really new neighbors for me, as most of us also lived at the holiday park Wolfsven in Mierlo”, explains Zanis. Mahu: “It’s good that we are close to everything here on campus now. We can go home for lunch and can meet until late, without having to worry about the bus. And it is very nice to have Internet access at home at last. In the holiday park you could not drop by your home briefly at night and then continue your work again. Then you were stuck if you needed information, for instance to do your calculations.” Zanis: “In that way it really interfered with doing your assignments. Besides, the holiday homes did not have sufficient lighting to study.”

Ice cream
Durango Galván: “I suppose the information on the rent of the space cabins on the Internet before I arrived in the Netherlands was old. We expected the rent to be 365 euros, but now it’s over 400 euros. Which is a huge difference. Most of us pay also for the computer. That is 34 euros per month. We get grants of 600 euros. So that leaves us about 160 euros a month to live on. That will be cookies for Christmas only”, she jokes. Mahu: “Food is quite expensive.” Durango Galván adds: “We only have money for eating, and sometimes I indulge in an ice cream”, she says laughing./.