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Spam!Magazine of study association Mercurius Wageningen

Issue 1 - October 2012

Further more: New Board Redakcie tries... Lustrum Programme Lustrum Commitees And much more...

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Preface of the RedakcieThe first weeks of this new study year have past. First year students are getting used to their new exiting rhythm here in Wageningen. A lot of first impressions have been made and most of you are now finding their own way. Some may be very active with regards to their study, some may be ac-tive for Mercurius and others may be active at a sport or student association. The most important is that everybody likes it here in Wageningen and gets their grades (after all we are a study association).

The board of Mercurius has changed and it is time for a proper introduction to all of our members. On page 4 you can read who are entering the board and what their activi-ties are going to be.

As you may also know our study association is celebrating its 50 years existence this November. Everything is getting into place and a lot of our members are really busy with organ-izing this fantastic event! Redakcie is also very enthusiastic about the upcoming events during the lustrum week. In this edition we will pay extra attention to the Lustrum. You can read the program during the lustrum week, read inter-views and see who is in the lustrum committees. In line with this event and all the upcoming partying we have tested a few cakes. You can read the result of this test at page 3.

Enjoy reading this special Lustrum-edition and see you at our Lustrum!

The Redakcie

Contents

In honor of the 10th lustrum of Mercurius Wageningen, I’m glad that I can present you the lustrum issue of the Spam! It’s an issue of our association magazine, in which atten-tion is paid to the 50th anniversary of our study association Mercurius. The 10th lustrum, 50 years Mercurius Wa-geningen: reason enough to celebrate this by organizing a lot of activities for two weeks in November based on the theme: Golden Days: times are changing’.

In this preface I’d like to congratulate Mercurius Wagenin-gen and her members with her 10th lustrum. She may look back proudly at her 50-years of existence. 50 years in which a lot has changed for the study association. A retrospect characterizes 50 years in which Mercurius took action for her students. 50 years in which new students became mem-bers, and 50 years in which is said goodbye to students who graduated. Years in which the environment of Mercurius has been subject of changes in education, politics, econ-omy, health and society. This golden lustrum also pro-vide us the opportunity to look forward. Looking forward to future years in which Mercurius Wageningen will also be there for their members. Years in which opportunities will be provided to the association and her members owing to the changes in the environment of Mercurius Wageningen.

On behalf of the lustrum board I’d like to wish Mercurius Wageningen many good years to be there for her members. Furthermore I’d like to wish you, as a student, good luck with your study and of course a wonderful lustrum.

On behalf of the lustrum board,

André van MeijerenPresident Lustrum Board Mercurius Wageningen

Preface of the president LustrumBoard

Preface of the Redakcie 2

Preface of the president Lustrum Board 2

Redakcie tries... 3

New Board 4 Study advisors 5

Lustrum Programme 6 Pricing Packages 7

Lustrum commitees 8

Entrepreneurship 9

Student in Wageningen 10

Student from Wageningen 10

Contact 11

Colophon 11

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Redakcie tries...For this “Redakcie tries…”we wanted something really nice for our test panel to celebrate this lustrum edition of the Spam! What can’t be missed at a party? Exactly, cream cake. We all love them with the sweet creamy filling, the soft cake and on top some nicely white whipped cream and fresh pieces of fruit. To find out which cream cake is best to serve to your friends and fam-ily in Wagenin-gen , we bought four different cakes in the shops in Wa-geningen. We bought a cake from the Albert Heijn, HEMA, Hoogvliet and the Aldi. After that we, the Redakcie and other members of Mercurius, tasted them, which was a very hard task to do, you can understand.We set up four criteria which are necessary for a good cream cake. Here are the results from our professional test panel.

Cake crustThere was a lot of difference in the cake crusts. The final win-ner of the crust was the HEMA cake. It was not too sticky or

dry. While eating the crust, the feel-ing in the mouth was quite good. Also the crust from the HEMA had a comfortable sweet taste. The Aldi cake has definitely the

worst crust. We found out it was tasteless and extremely dry. However we do have to make a little side note: This cake was deep-frozen and therefore by far the cheapest.

Filling/ Whipped creamThe winner of the best filling and whipped cream is the HEMA cake as well. The HEMA cake was the best because of the nice cherry substance, the fresh tasting pudding, the sweet taste and the fresh tast-ing whipped cream. AH was second best. This was a result of the filling that some of us judged as too sweet. However if you are addicted to sugar and really sweet cakes, you definite-ly have to choose the cake from the AH!

FruitsAt top of the Hoogvliet and the HEMA cake there were a lot of big and fresh pieces of fruits. That was defi-nitely a big plus for both of the cakes because it made them look good. It was simply the best part of the cake. Without the top, they tasted half as good. However the winner of the fruits criteria was definitely the Hoogvliet cake. The Aldi and the AH cake both didn’t have lots of fruit. As a commission with five members of Health and Society we couldn’t appre-ciate that, because we don’t have to forget that besides the taste it’s also important that a cake is HEALTHY too!

LooksClearly the best looking cake was the Hoogvliet cake. It had lots of nuts and pieces of fruit and chocolate. This added a lot of color to the cake. Our test panel said: “It definitely

looks fresh and cheerful”. If you want a good look-ing cream cake, you can’t go wrong with the Hoogv-liet cake. So this is maybe the cake you should serve to your parents in law.

Conclusion and end resultAnd the big winner is… the HEMA cake! Overall the HEMA cake was the big winner. The whipped cream was nice and sweet but not too sweet like the Albert Heijn cake. It melt-ed in your mouth. The crust was not to sticky or dry, it was just right. The filling made the Hema cake very good. It had some kind of cher-ry substance which tasted very good. The runner up was the Hoogvliet cake, closely followed by the Albert Heijn cake. The worst was the Aldi cake. It didn’t taste or looked that good at all. But then again, it was by far the cheapest.by the Albert Heijn pie. At last place finishes the Aldi pie. It didn’t taste or looked that good at all. But then again, it was by far the cheapest one.

AH € 11 ,-

Aldi€ 3,50

HEMA€ 8,-

Hoogvliet€ 10,-

Pie crust 6.9 5.2 7 6.8Filling 7.3 5.4 7.3 6.2Fruits 5.8 5.7 6.7 7.9Looks 7.1 6 7.3 8.2Conclusion 7 5.5 7.4 7.2

And the big winner is... the HEMA cake!

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New BoardOn this page you can read which persons are in the board for the coming (half) year, what their functions are en es-pecially: for what kind of questions you can contact them. During every lunch there are board members present in ‘t Hok. You’re always welcome whether you want to ask us something or like to drink a cup of coffee.

Simone Ritzer – PresidentMy name is Simone Ritzer, since this month I’m the presi-dent of Mercurius. I’m a third year Bachelor Management and Consumer Studies student. Previous year I was the sec-retary in the board. As a secretary I had a lot of set tasks, now I have more choice. Together with the former board I wrote a policy and this year it is my task to implement this. Furthermore I preside all meetings and I will make sure that everything is smoothly running. Almost every day I’m pre-sent in ’t Hok, so if you have any questions and you don’t know who to contact: contact me!

Jurgen Jansen - SecretaryDear Members, my name is Jurgen Jansen. I’m a second year bachelor Management and Consumer Studies student. I’m since September the 20th the new Secretary/Vice-President of our wonderful study association: Mercurius Wageningen. I will be responsible for all the incoming e-mail, the office-supply and the mem-bership database. Af-ter being a Secretary for half a year a hope to become the Presi-dent of Mercurius Wageningen. If you have any question about for instance your membership (or any other questions), please come and visit me @ ‘t Hok or send an e-mail to bestuur.mercurius@wur.nl and I will take care of your question(s). I’m really looking forward to the upcoming year. Hope to see you all (a lot)!

Robert Beijersbergen – TreasurerMy name is Robert Beijersbergen and I’m 19 years old. I’m in my second year of the bachelor Economics and Policy. Since a month I’m the treasurer our study association. My main task in the board is: Taking care for the financial sta-tus of Mercurius. This means that I’m the one that pay the

bills. Furthermore I’m responsible for the expenditures of the board and her commissions. For ques-tions about financial affairs, please contact me.

Pleun van Vlerken – Director Public Rela-tionsI am Pleun van Vlerken; since March I am Director of Pub-lic Relations. I provide the contact between students and companies. Besides that, I take care of the companies who want to sponsor our association and I keep the website up-

to-date so everyone knows what is going on in the as-sociation. Besides all these tasks I am also part of the Acquisition committee and Mercurius Professional.

Besides being a board member of Mercurius, I am studying Management and Consumer studies (at this time in my 3rd year). You can come to me with questions about sponsor-ships and company data of companies related to Mercurius.

Meeke Roet – Director Internal AffairsHi! My name is Meeke Roet. I’m nineteen years old and I’m studying BBC. This is my second year at Wageningen Univer-sity and I’m still liking it as much as in the beginning. This year I will fulfill the role of Director of Internal Affairs at Mercurius. In short, this includes everything that has to do with the committees. That means that you can contact me if you’re interested in joining a committee, have a good idea or want to know something about an activity. Besides that, I’m always available for a cosy tea-party or drinking-coffee-moment in ‘t Hok. I hope to see you all soon at Mercurius!

Jorieke Vaanhold – Director EducationSince September I’m in the board fulfilling the function of director of education. I’m 20 years old and I’m a third year Economics and Policy student. I’m responsible for all edu-cational activities. I stay in contact with the study advisors, student parties and all other study related organizations. Besides that I’m with Pleun in the commissions “Mercurius Professional”. You can contact me if you have any questions about educational activities or if you’re interested in Mer-curius Professional. Also for questions about the consequences of some ed-ucational changes, please contact me.

Sanne Totté – Director CommunicationThis year I will fulfill the new board function of director communication. I’m in my second year of Management and Consumer Studies. My main tasks are to manage the “walk-along days” and to stay informed about all changes that has to do with political changes and the consequences for our students. Those changes I will communicate to the students the best that I can. To facilitate this I will set up a media com-mission which will take care of our website mercuriuswage-ningen.nl and our Facebookpage. I’m looking forward to this year and I hope that everyone will contact me for questions about courses, professors and other educational stuff!

I will be responsible for all the incoming e-mail, the office-supply and the membership database

I’m the one that pay the bills

I provide the contact between students and companies

I stay in contact with the study advisors

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Study Advisors“And the times, they are a changin....”.

The editors asked us, your study advisors, to write about changing times – in line with Mercurius lustrum theme.Of course we can tell a lot about changing times, cus-toms and changed study programs in Wageningen. About changed student populations. Or how students changed during student years or notably after their studies when they shaped their careers and lined out their personal path in life.But probably, it is just enough to focus on the changes we have to deal with this year!

1.More students. Especially our bachelor programs grow fast! BEB started with 27 students, BGM with 50 and BBC with 96 students. Large groups mean a challenge for lecturers and study advi-sors. 2.Minors.Wageningen University started a few years ago with mi-nors. More and more students from other universities are coming for a few courses in Wageningen and some stay for their masters. This increases the in-teraction between universities but no-tably enriches Wa-geningen with an influx of students with sometimes a different view and background. 3.Going abroad.With the clustering of periods for free choice in the bach-elor phase, more students opt for a study abroad.

4.Hardship claim.This means that students need to finish their bachelor be-fore they can start a master. This requires an adaptation in students planning abilities. At the end of the bachelor period , most students have some ‘leftovers’ in terms of subjects not finalised . Also study advisors will be more strict when giving a study advice.

5.Automatic graduationIn 2012/13 Wageningen University will introduce ‘automat-ic graduation’. When your last (sufficient) grade has been entered in the Student Information System, it will automat-ically signal that you have passed the final program exam (Bachelor or Master). (See for more details www.ssc.wur.nl/uk and check under current students, graduation.

6.Halbe.By now a well known politician in University circles. A law was passed detailing that students who had significant de-lays in finalising the study pay an extra tuition fee of € 3.000. The last news, at time of this writing, is that an amendment will be discussed in Parliament which may result that this fine will not be imposed, or applied in a more lenient way.

The last paragraph includes my main message: BE AWARE of CHANGES.

Study advisors

More and more students from other universities are coming for a few courses in Wageningen and some stay for their masters

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November 5th & 6th – Excursion abroadParty people business trip? Yes we can! Come with us, the Excursion Abroad Committee, for a two day incredible trip to the capital of the kingdom of Belgium, Brussels. More precisely, not only the capital of Belgium, but also of Eu-rope, thanks to the official seats of the European Union, Council and Parliament and also the European Commis-sion, which we will visit. A discussion about a study related topical issue is included in this program. Brussels is more than Europe. It also has its always pee-ing Manneke-Pis and the symbol for peace among all the nations; better known as Atomium and the UNESCO cen-tral square Grand Place in the heart of the center. Therefore you cannot miss culinary highlights such as creamy choc-olates, sweet waffles and famous Bel-gium beers. You can also get a look into the nightlife of Brussels.The next day the excursion will go to Antwerp. Do you know Coca-Cola? We will give you an inside trip into the bever-ages production plant Antwerp. Of course there is time to ask your questions about, for example, marketing and the interesting world of over-consumption and health aspects.Time: Leaving at Leeuwenborch 7.30Location: Belgium, Brussels en AntwerpCosts: €25,-

November 7th – Official openingAt November 7th the 10th lustrum will officially be opened. You are welcome from 17.45u and there will be a snack and a drink. 18.30 the official program starts by André van Mei-jeren, president of the lustrumboard. Next there will be an introduction to the lustrum theme by Pepijn Meddens. A few people will congratulate Mercurius Wageningen and look back at the past 50 years. These people will be Aalt Dijkhuizen (president and chairman Executive Board at Wa-geningen UR), Laan van Staalduinen (managing director So-cial Sciences Group at Wageningen UR), Geert van Rumund (Mayor of Municplity of Wageningen), Piet de Visser (hon-orary of Mercurius Wageningen) and Simone Ritzer (presi-dent of Mercurius Wageningen). After this the almanac will be presented. Finally, the reception starts at 20.00 with a snack and drink. Time: 17.45 – 20.00 Location: De Leeuwenborch, C64

November 8th – GalaAt night the gala will take place at castle Hoekelum in Ben-nekom, a beautiful location with a rich history. Everybody is invited to feel noble for one night and come in your best suit or dress. The band Chestnut will perform for you. Oth-er music will be done by the DJ Felisco. Your entrance ticket can be used to get one free drink (beer, wine or soda) at the after party in café ‘Het Gat’. So real party animals can enjy the arty even after 1.00. Each Mercurius Member is allowed to bring one non-member to the gala. You can get to castle Hoekelum by bike or by bus 86. For your way home, bus tickets are available for €5,-. Time: 21.00 -01.00Location: Kasteel Hoekelum, BennekomCosts: € 20,-

November 9th – Reunion If a study association exists for 50 years, it also has a lot of old members. These people made it possible that this association exists for so long. Therefore, it is important to engage them in this celebration. For these alumni there is a nice afternoon program, in which they can see how the cur-rent student life takes place. Alumni can choose between an afternoon and evening program or only the evening pro-gram. In the afternoon, there will be a tour over the cam-pus. In the evening colleges will take place presented by several guest speakers. After this dinner will be served. For current students it can be interesting to meet graduates of their study. Time: 15.00 – 22.00 / 17.00 – 22.00Location: Forum en De Leeuwenborch

Lustrum Programme

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Brussels is more than Europe

The gala wil take place at castle Hoekelum in Bennekom

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November 12th – SymposiumAfter a quiet weekend, there will be a symposium on Mon-day. It’s theme: Top Sector Policy. This is interesting for students, academics and people from the business life and politics. All these aspects and views will be presented by several people. Speakers are: Berry Martin; Noud Janssen; Marc Hoenders; Medy van der Laan; Johan van Arendonk en Anniek Elemans. The day will be led by Ab Groen and Ronald Hiel. After this there are possibilities to react to these views. Doors will open at 17. 45 and there are luxury snacks. After-wards there are drinks available. Time: 17.45 -21.45Location: Theater het Juneshoff, Plantsoen 3 6701 AS Wa-geningenCosts: €15,- / € 17,50 / € 25,- (Mercurius members/ stu-dents/ others)

November 13th – Lexcie ExcursionThe Lexcie will be organizing an excursion to a Dutch com-pany. There will be a tour on this product location and there will be more detailed information about their product and the structure of the company. Costs: € 5,- / € 7,50 (Mercurius members/ non-members)

November 14th – Axie ActivityThe Mercurius Axie will organize a spectacular activity dur-ing the lustrum week of Mercurius Wageningen. The bus will take you to your destination, where you can get to the snow. Because the Axie will take you Skiing! Transportation, food and drinks will be included in the price of the activity. There will be a maximum of 50 participants in total. Sign up quickly, because full is fullTime: Leaving at Leeuwenborch 17.30Costs: € 20,- / € 25,- (Mercurius members/ non-members)

November 15th – Closing partyThis 10th lustrum will end with a spec-tacular closing party. The theme is ‘Goud is niet Fout’ (gold is not fault). So put on your golden outfit and party all night long!

Time: 23.00 Location: KSV St. Franciscus XaveriusCosts: € 3,50 (pre-sale)

Total package€ 80,00 (incl. bus ticket Gala)- Excursion abroad- Official opening- Gala- Symposium- Axie activity- Lexcie excursion- Closing party

Educational package € 40,00- Excursion abroad - Official opening- Symposium- Lexcie excursion

Active package € 37,50 (excl. bus ticket Gala)- Official opening- Gala- Axie activity- Closing party

Party package € 20,00 (excl. bus ticket Gala)- Official opening- Gala- Closing party

All prices are without prejudice and therefore can change

Pricing Packages

‘Goud is niet Fout’

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The Lustrum board cannot organise the entire week on its own. For this reason a lot of committees help the board. On this page these committees introduce themselves.

Acquisition committee (Lian, Diederik, Robin, Eline, Peter, Eileen and Vera)All those educational and recreational activities should be financed. We as acquisition com-mittee make con-tacts with com-panies in order to get financial sup-port. It’s our mis-sion to get activi-ties and products sponsored so the lustrum board can offer you nice activities and foods for low prices. We hope you will enjoy the lustrum!

Almanac committee (Lisette Feijen, Sandra Brummans, Erik Teschner and Geke van Dick)

The Almanac Committee started almost a year ago with the preparations of the Almanac. The Alma-nac Committee is different from the others commit-tees of the Lustrum, be-cause during the Lustrum week we are already a long time done with our job. It was an enormous task to finish the Almanac on time. There were a lot of obstacles to be overcome, but in the end we are very

proud of the result. We hope to see you at the opening of the Lustrum week, because the Almanac will be hand-ed out here for free!

Axcie (Noraly Duizer, Maureen Overduin, Jamal Roskam, Niek Lei-jnse, Carlijn Maasakkers, Lisa Tonen and Kirsten Rensen)The Mercurius Axcie will organise a spectacular activity dur-ing the Lustrum week of Mercurius Wageningen, namely skiing and snowboard-ing at Alpincentre Bot-trop (Germany)! The activity includes a bus trip, the material and unlimited food and drinks. We hope to see you all!

Alumni committeeThe Alumni committee is including Eileen van de Pol, Li-anne van der Ham, Kirsten Rensen, Eva Fredriks and Thijs Verheul. The goal of the Reunion is to let old members of Mercurius know what we are do-ing right now at the University that they went to. We are going to give them a guided tour trough out the cam-pus to let them see what has changed and what is still the same at the place where they have studied. We also organise lectures in which a scale of diverse professors and PHD students from Wageningen University are going to show what kind of re-search they are working on at the moment. Already 80 persons have subscribed their selves for the Reunion on the 9th of November, so its going to be a wonderful day, for them and of course also for us!

Buitex (Martijn Klaver, Suzanna Overtoom and Janet van den Boomen)The excursion abroad is one of the most fun activities of the year: business and pleasure will be combined in a two-

day excursion abroad! We will visit a few compa-nies where we can take a look behind the scenes, and start a discussion about different themes. Of course there will be enough time for relaxa-tion too: there will be spare time to hang out in the city, and since we’re staying one night in a hostel a glimpse into the

nightlife cannot be missed. In short: a nice way to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Mercurius! We will make it two Golden Days!

Lexcie (Annemarijn Koedam, Eva Fredriks, Pleun van Vlerken, Mariska van Velzen, Suzanne van der Werff and Janet van den Boomen)In the lustrum period the lexcie, lecture and excursion com-mittee, organizes a spectacular company visit to Arla Foods! Arla is the producer of fresh dairy products (milk, yogurt etc.), cheese and butter of brands like Milk & Fruit, Breaker and Friesche Vlag. The excursion will take place on Tuesday 13th of November in the afternoon! Departure will be in the break and the costs are €5,- for members.

Lustrum Commitees

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Party committee (Joy, Nicolien, Caro-lynn, Joanne and Vera)We are the Party committee! On November the 8th we or-ganise a very nice gala for you at Castle Hoekelum in Ben-nekom. The gala starts at 21:00, costs are €20 and drinks and snacks are included! You can buy a bus ticket for the way back home for €5. This gala is for Mercurius members, and as member you can introduce one person to go with you. After the gala, there will be an after party at café ‘Het Gat’, where you will get you first drink for free!

We also organise an open party at the 15th of November at KSV Franciscus. The theme of this open party is in Dutch ‘Goud is niet fout’, which means wearing gold is not wrong. The party starts at 11 o’clock and the en-trance-fee is only €3. It will be busy. If you buy a ticket in advance, you know for sure you can enter. So buy a ticket and don’t miss the party!

Symposium committee (Daan Martens, Ruben van de Ketterij, Bas Hoogenbosch and Andre van Meijeren)We, the members of the symposium committee, are or-ganising a symposium about the Dutch top sector policy, because of the 50th anniversary of our studyassociation. Well known people from the business, the government, sci-ence and VeSte will speak about the Dutch top sector policy during the evening. Last year it was a great challenge for us to make an interesting programme, arrange a good loca-tion and find interesting speakers. Our theme: the Dutch top sector policy, is extremely important for the educa-tion and the future carreers of students, so don’t doubt and sucribe yourself for this unforgettable evening!

Entrepreneurship is hot nowadays. Even Wageningen can’t lag behind on this trend. Actually, we’re even the national host of the GEW, or ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week’, that will take off on the 12th of November. The entrepreneur-ial student starts rubbing his hands here, as this means lots of free beers, drinks and inspira-tional talks! Note: We’ve enclosed a picture of one such student on the bot-tom of this post.

Pieter is a third years student Economics & Governance and a member of both Mercurius and Ceres. Last year he founded his first start-up.

“Basically entrepreneurship is about solving problems. To actually make money, you have to make sure you solve problems that others actually care about. I’ll give you an

example: the WURshop. Completely broken concept. Way to expensive (especially for us, poor students), and too long queuing. Why not set up a convenient and easy market-place to buy books from other students and sell them if you passed your exam, I thought. So that’s exactly what I did. Check out www.wurboeken.nl It’s easy, convenient, and – best of all – for FREE! And we don’t have queues either, by the way.”

Entrepreneurship

Check out www.wurboeken.nl It’s easy, convenient, and – best of all – for FREE!

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Student in WageningenWUR vs. RU-Nijmegen

As I spent my whole childhood in Wageningen and because my mother teaches at Wageningen University, I fled the place as soon as I could. The place to flee to was Nijmegen, where I started my bachelor in Psychology at the Radboud University. However, after three years it turned out that Nijmegen couldn’t offer the education of my taste. Therefore, I decided to follow some courses at the University I’d avoided so eagerly.

The first thing I noticed when I entered the Forum build-ing, was the big number of people from dif-ferent nationali-ties. Here, everyone is ready to speak English. In Nijmegen, a city which is not so internationally oriented, everyone as-sumes all students speak Dutch, and people might look at you strangely if you’d start speaking English to them.

Next to this, I think you must be the happiest students in the entire world, as you are being tucked in to soft, silk sheets by the facilities and the amount of contact hours you’re offered. I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that the first course I took offered four lectures a week! Apart from this, the co-ordinator of the course replies e-mails within two days! In Nijmegen, students are lucky if they are offered two lectures a week, and some people don’t even know who the co-ordinator of the course is. On top of this, a good cappuccino is only € 0,88, half the price they charge in Nijmegen!

Of course, Nijmegen has its goods sides too. We give the lecturer a big hand after he or she finishes, resulting in big smiles on their faces and a good feeling afterwards, even when the last 15 minutes of the lecture were overshad-owed with whispering and the packing up of books and lap-tops. I also think that Wageningen still has a long way to go when it comes to shopping; I still haven’t found an H&M there and am always a little disappointed when I reach the end of the Hoogstraat after just ten minutes...

Overall, I think WUR is a well-deserved winner when it comes to facilities and education, but when it comes to the charm of the city, I stick to Nijmegen <3.

Iris Duif

Student from WageningenHi there! With the good memories of the summerholdiday in mind, it is time to start studying again (well, at least following lec-tures;)). There’s a major change for all third years students, because they have to do their minor. I choose to do mine in Maastricht! In the morning, while cycling to University I can see the river Maas, it’s like the Thames. Such a magnificient view! People in Maastricht have a typical bourgondi-an lifestyle, sometimes it’s as if you’re in France. Even when it’s raining cats and dogs the terraces are crowded. It’s a small scaled city, yet it’s bigger than Wageningen and I like that.

The main question is: what do I do here, regardless enjoy-ing this new city? The subjects I will be doing for the next five months are quite medically orientated. In Wageningen I study Health & Society, which is a very nice study. However, it is not medically orientated at all, too bad! So I did some research on the internet and I read about the subjects of Healthscience in Maastricht. The course I’m doing can’t actually be called a minor, I just follow four subjects. These are human body related and it’s all very specific, a real chal-lenge!

It’s a long distance from Wa-geningen to Maastricht, so I definitely needed a room. Fortunately this was no prob-lem. The first room I visited, was the last room I had to visit as well! I live in the cent-er of Maastricht in a house together with 24 housemates. My fellow housemates all join a students’ union. I am used to this kind of students’ houses and lifestyle, because of my students’ house in Wa-geningen.

I’ve just one tip for you: if you also decide to do a minor/few subjects in Maastricht, take action a long time before! I battled for almost half a year, because making arrange-ments was a very slow process. But the stickler wins! Oh and by the way, don’t search for a supermarket on Sun-day, they’re all closed, drat! Today I have to do it with an apple and some water I think… ha ha.

Alanya den Boer

The first thing I noticed when I entered the Forum building, was the big num-ber of people from differ-ent nationalities

The first room I visited, was the last room I had to visit as well!

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ContactStudy association Mercurius WageningenLeeuwenborch, Building 201 Hollandseweg 16706 KN WageningenE-mail: bestuur.mercurius@wur.nlWebsite: www.mercuriuswageningen.nlTelephone: 0317-485189 (Mon/Fri between 12:30 and 13:15)

Mercurius boardPresident: Simone RitzerSecretary/ Vice-president: Jurgen JansenTreasurer: Robert BeijersbergenDirector of Public Relations: Pleun van VlerkenDirector of Communication: Sanne TottéeDirector of Education: Jorieke Vaanhold Director of Internal Affairs: Meeke Roet

CommitteesAcquisition committee – Pleun van VlerkenAxcie – Jamal RoskamBorrelcie – Danique BruggemanFirst Year Committee (EJC) – Marleen KuypersLexcie – Annemarijn KoedamLustrum board– André van MeijerenMercurius Master - Eva EngelageRedakcie – Annemiek FlorissonSportcie – Els van Coeverden

ColophonThe Spam! is a periodic association magazine of study as-sociation Mercurius Wageningen. The Spam is published 3 times a year, plus an introSpam and smoelenboek for the new students.

Academic year 2012 – 2013Issue 1October 2012Circulation: 800

EditorsAnnemiek Florisson (President)Bas HoogenboschRianca ScheffelRobin Splithof Michel SteenbergenPieter van VelzenNina van WilgenSimone Ritzer (Board)

In association with Bonnie van Dongen on behalf of the Lustrum Board

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A picture is worth a thousand words...