Wetskills Netherlands 2020-
by Nienke Vermeer, Utrecht University
After a great evening of homemade food, dancing and a good’s night sleep, everyone woke up one by one in the hostel. Some stayed at the hostel to have breakfast, while others went to a bakery to get some fresh coffee and some bread. Since some indicated that they would really want a plenary start at the Johannes de Doper church, that is also the WaterCampus Business Centre, the working day was started with a fresh cup of coffee in the sun. Then every team retired to their own room in the church or at Wetsus and work began.
Johan called in to get updated on the status of our cases and our team met with our case owners to discuss the ideas we came up so-far. After the case owners left, we went back to the drawing board to implement their suggestions. This really drained our energy and even though we would have really enjoyed staying in our inspiring, bright white, conference room where the thermostat indicated 23 degrees Celsius, we decided to hop in the car to gain some field experience.
While the other teams continued working on their pitches and posters, since the first drafts are due tomorrow, we drove to the Wadden Sea and enjoyed a lovely afternoon getting some fresh air (and ice cream). This was crucial for our case because it was the first time Sarahi, our Mexican team member, saw the Wadden Sea, the main subject of our case. Moreover, we were not completely unproductive, because during our little road trip we did come up with a consultancy name, a title and a subtitle for our case.
We took a ‘little’ detour (of 1 hour) back to Leeuwarden through very little villages. Culturally this little trip has brought us a lot. Sarahi learned some Dutch words and was able to express her thoughts about Dutch cows (that, according to her, have a better life than some people), while she taught us (3 Dutch) Spanish words through the lyrics of reggaeton.
Then, at 19:00 we met the other teams and Charlie at the house of one of the case owners, where we also spent yesterday evening, to eat the leftovers of last nights international dinner. With the prospect of tomorrow we called it a night early.
