Wait, what – her rent just went up by 95 euros? “Due to rising energy costs”, she explains. “The heating is always on, even when I turn off the radiator. Sometimes I have to open a window because it gets too hot in here. Someone is coming over to take a look at it soon. It’s a lot, a €95 increase, but the law allows it. One of my housemates looked into it.” Slegers already knew that the rent increase was coming. She liked the room, but she was mostly just glad to move out of her previous house near Koningin Emmaplein. She’d moved in there in February and had enjoyed it until the summer, but her housemates at the time were subtenants. “I didn’t click with most of my actual housemates, who moved back in after the summer. It’s not that they weren’t nice, but they all just kind of did their own thing.” That wasn’t necessarily a deal-breaker for Slegers. “But the house was also filthy. Dirty dishes sat in the kitchen sink for a month, no one took out the trash – it just got worse and worse. I had to get out of there.”
The main feature of her current room on the first floor is the oriel window. It lets in a lot of natural light. The room overlooks two streets: Bloemenweg and Baron van Hövellstraat. The view is nice, but it can also be distracting. “I want to put window film on the lower halves of the windows. When I’m sitting here studying, I’m easily distracted if something happens in the street. And it’s quite easy for people to stare into my room when they walk into the street in this direction.”
Build up something
Among the artificial plants on the windowsill sits a photo of a field hockey team. “It’s our team photo from two years ago.” The pandemic put a bit of a damper on her year sports-wise, she says. “But at the end of that year, our team went on a weekend getaway to Blankenberge, Belgium. We had so much fun it made up for the whole year.” She still plays field hockey at the same club in Helmond. “I did consider joining a club in Maastricht, but it didn’t make much of a difference in terms of level and I like to go home every weekend.”
To be with her family, but also to see her boyfriend, who studies business economics in Tilburg. The couple is featured in several photos in the room. They’ve been together for two years. What does she like about him? “He’s very funny. He’s two years older than me and he was already a student when we started dating, so just like in the beginning we only see each other on the weekends now that I’m also a student. If he stays in Tilburg or I stay in Maastricht for the weekend, we don’t see each other for a while, but we’ll be even happier to see each other the weekend after that.” The fact that her boyfriend goes to university in Tilburg was a reason for Slegers not to go there, she says. “I wanted to build up something by myself.” She joined Circumflex, the student association. Her membership card is displayed on the wall. “It’s a great way to get to know people. I’m only in a jaarclub, not in a dispuut – that would take up a lot of time.”
Weekend
She has hung photos on a string against the wall on the other side of the room. One of the photos features Slegers in a beautiful dress. “That one was taken at my secondary school graduation. Our school prom was cancelled due to covid, so the ceremony had a formal dress code. We all got to receive our degrees in style. The school tried to make the most of the situation, but we didn’t have a big farewell party with beautiful cars and people coming to watch. It’s a pity.”
She sees her new friends in Maastricht every week, “some almost every day”. Her friends from secondary school, who are featured in various photos, have spread across the country. “We’re all busy, but we make time to meet up about once per month. We always have a lot of fun.”
She also enjoys catching up with her sixteen-year-old brother and eighteen-year-old sister when she goes home for the weekend. “They still live at home. I was the first to move out. We’re pretty close. My sister and I talk about everything; we’re good friends. We often go into town together.”
Moped helmet
Over her chair hangs a Students Fight Cancer sweater. This student organisation raises money for cancer research in Limburg every year. “I’m the current treasurer. I think it’s important to do extra-academic activities that teach me skills I will use in my professional life. I’d rather do that than, say, watch TV series. I like being busy.” Slegers is also a member of the Faculty Council of the School of Business and Economics.
The most remarkable item in the room is a moped helmet covered in stickers. It’s remarkable because there is no moped parked outside. “It was a gift to our student association club from an Eindhoven club. That’s their logo on the stickers. We had drinks with them, and it is tradition to give a keepsake. I was the president of our club at the time, that’s why I have it.”