In the middle of the pandemic, Sophia Schupp flew from New York City to Maastricht to begin her studies at University College Maastricht. Most of her classes were online and there wasn’t much to do in town. “I felt very lonely here at first.” Almost every weekend, she took the train to Groningen, where her twin brother studies Human Geography and Planning. “We’re very close. We are best friends and we have the same friends. We were inseparable for eighteen years.” Photos of the twins can be found in various places in Schupp’s room. Their mother is from Germany, so they get to pay EU student tuition fees to study in Europe (rather than the higher non-EU fees). “I wanted to push myself to step out of my comfort zone by moving this far away from home for university. And I didn’t want to be paying off student loans for the rest of my life.”
“Sweet Sophia”
In December 2020, she and her brother flew back to New York City to celebrate Christmas with their family. As stricter covid restrictions were rolled out and Schupp’s courses were almost exclusively taught online, they both stayed with their parents in Brooklyn through February. A handmade card dotted with little black stars, displayed on the corner of her desk, serves as a reminder of those months. A large heart that says “Sweet Sophia” is drawn in the centre of the card. “Because of the time difference, I often had to get up at 4.40 a.m. to log in for class on time. My mother would often get up around the same time to make me a cup of coffee or give me a card like this.”
More photos are displayed on a little wall shelf on the other side of the room. Photos of the twins, but also of Schupp in various places around Europe. “I took lots of city trips during my time in Maastricht”, she says. “I’ve visited Brussels, Edinburgh, Lisbon, Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Paris, Vienna – the city where I was born – and the major Dutch cities, of course.” Including The Hague, where they lived for some time when she was a child. “My father worked as a consultant for an international organisation. That’s why we have lived in various places around Europe.”
Cows
She has also put up several watercolour drawings she made herself. Many of them feature food (“I like the colours of food”), but the ones that stand out the most are the ones featuring cows. “I’m obsessed with cows”, she laughs. She doesn’t know why, but she has been for as long as she can remember. “I love being around them and I can watch them for hours. Everyone at my secondary school knew that about me.” She even wore a graduation cap with a cow painted on it at her Zoom graduation ceremony.
Another one of Schupp’s obsessions is singer Harry Styles. Hanging on the wall is a ticket from a concert he gave in Cologne. Her cow obsession predates her Harry Styles obsession by years; she listened to his new album a lot on the bus ride home during her last year of secondary school in the US. A friend gave it to her. “I was never a fan of One Direction [the boy band Styles was a member of], but I love his solo work.” How much? “I was pretty far away from the stage in Cologne, but if I could get my hands on the right tickets, I would probably be one of those girls screaming their lungs out in the front row.” She laughs. “The concert was supposed to be in March 2021, but it was postponed to July 2022 due to covid.” She got one of the last tickets, so she had to go alone. It doesn’t seem like she minded it much; she lights up when she talks about it.
Sewing machine
On a small, black table sits a painting of a woman. Her cousin painted it, and her grandmother bought it to give it to Schupp. “It isn’t a painting of someone we know, but the story behind it makes me happy.” In front of the painting sits a sewing machine. Schupp makes a lot of her own clothes. She goes to her closet and shows off some of the tops she made. It takes two whole days to sew one. It’s mostly a hobby, but it’s also a sustainable habit, she says. “That’s very important to me.” She primarily eats a vegetarian diet and buys almost all her other clothes at thrift shops. “I always look into the company before buying something new. How ethical are they? If I see something I like from an unethical clothing brand, I try to come up with a way to make it myself.”