Blog Post

Hello again!

As the popular saying goes ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ and just like that it’s the middle of February and a new quarter has begun. Here’s hoping you had a refreshing break and you’re excited and pumped for all the things this new semester has to offer, which of course includes the many things that BOSS has got lined up for you.

Speaking of which, if you haven’t heard already- enrollment for our study trip to Japan is now open! Don’t worry, you’ve got time till the 1st of March to sign up and what better time than now when you’re still high on all that new semester, new beginning energy to sign up! 

If you need a refresher on the theme for this year, you’ll find all the details at: https://www.bosstudelft.nl/calendar/study-trip/

And if you’re still in two minds about signing up, I’ve got you covered. Here’s a friendly listicle which might give you a reason or two to join us! 

What’s the first thing you think about when you hear the word Japan? The bustling Tokyo city rush hour and nightlife? Ramen? Pokémon? Japanese cherry blossoms? Mount Fuji? Their fancy 23rd century toilets? You’re right on all accounts and this is testament to Japan’s fascinating culture that has evolved over thousands of years. Join us and you’ll get to experience all of this- from their bustling city life to the stillness of their countryside and finally rounding it up with some Japanese nightlife! 

 Speaking of fancy toilets, Japan clearly takes its tech very seriously. From what I’ve gathered, these toilets have fancy electronic controls, come heated, have built-in washlets, and to top it off- some of them even play music! Honestly, this would be reason enough for me to visit Japan, but don’t worry I’ve rounded a few more points just to bring it home. 

How does one handle Japanese rush hour’s when you’ve got some of the world’s best technology at your disposal? Build a public transport system (that almost rivals the Dutch one) of course. We’ll be travelling within and between cities with the Japan Rail pass, giving us the chance to experience this incredible engineering (including bullet trains et al) first-hand.   

 When I first moved to Delft, the one place that occupied everyone’s recommendation list for places to eat at was the infamous Ramen Nikkou. Now how does the idea of a Ramen Nikkou around every street corner sound to you? Yes, we’re talking food, food and more food! Sushi, ramen, teppanyaki, melon pan coffee, bento boxes, Japanese pancakes and more. This trip is going to be an assault (of the best kind) on your culinary senses like never before! 

A good meal becomes a great meal when paired with some choice beverages: read Japanese rice wine, better known as sake. Research also shows that the Japanese also like to pair their liquor with ice cream and that’s a combination you don’t want to miss out on! 

Fellow geeks unite! Besides all the above, Japan is also infamous for its geek culture reputation which includes an opportunity to visit the iconic Studio Ghibli Museum and survive a staged Godzilla attack at the Godzilla Road in Shinjuku. 

Did you ever think you’d strike off ‘go karting in Mario cosplay around Tokyo’ off your bucket list? Well, if you join us, you might have a chance to do just that! Home to some timeless characters- think Pokémon and Mario, the Japanese pay homage to Mario in the most iconic way: by karting around the streets of Tokyo dressed up as Mario characters! 

While vending machines aren’t exactly a new concept, it’s particularly hard to rival the ones that Japan has to offer. These machines dispense everything- from soda, hot and cold tea, and specialty beverages (milk soda, anyone?) as well as fresh bananas, hot meals, socks, ramen, and toys. Consider me sold. 

Need a little breather from all the bustle of Japanese city life and want to pause for a bit in ‘nature’? You’re going to be spoilt for choice here. Japan has a stunning array of landscapes that includes snow-capped mountains, forests, lakes, and beaches. And if you’re starved for contours in the Netherlands, you can hike to your heart’s content in Japan!

Last but not least, as students from Bouwkunde, Japan’s got an insanely large offering of everything design related to awaken all your inner designerly senses. Most of us may already be familiar with all the iconic architecture that Japan boasts of, but also famous are their zen gardens, their quirky signage and street art. Also, to my fellow stationary fanatics: make sure you reserve some extra baggage space because your heart is going to sing with the number of stationery stores there are in Tokyo!

Here’s hoping this gave you a small and enticing idea of what you might get to experience with us during the study trip. So hit that enrol link: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=TVJuCSlpMECM04q0LeCIeyAm_IVvF3dPid_cawK09h5UQUhTRkZHNEw3U1dIU1ZES0M2T1hRWFE3RC4u) and grab the best pair of walking shoes you have!

Until next time, 

Sayonara.

Hello hello! (Or as the Dutch like to say- Hoi hoi!)

A new year means new beginnings, fresh starts and more importantly- a new and refreshed blog! 

To start off with, my apologies for the first post starting only well into the second quarter. It’s taken this author some time to get settled into this new course, new country and new life. But fret no more, because what you have coming your way is a whole lot of exciting new content! 

With the rains showing no signs of letting up for a while, what better thing to do than curl up indoors with a warm drink and a blogpost to read. Over the next few months, I’m hoping to bring to you a couple of posts that touch on topical issues relevant to us as MBE students and future practitioners in the built environment. We’ll cover a host of themes ranging from our favourite buzzwords (think circularity, recession, management!) along with some supporting posts for the BOSScast (don’t forget to listen to the latest episode, out now on Spotify!). However I’d very much like this to be a two way street so feel free to send across your comments and suggestions my way! 

If you’ve read this far, I’m going to assume you’re already a BOSS member, but if for some reason you’re not- let me give you a few reasons to sign up right away. We’re about five months into the new academic year and it’s largely been one colourful fun blur thanks to BOSS! Being a BOSS member gives you access to really interesting avenues- academic, professional and most importantly fun! The Education committee has organised two very interesting lunch lectures, with the last one including a very insightful presentation by the Municipality of Utrecht covering what working in the public sector entails! It doesn’t hurt that you get a delicious (and free, but most importantly delicious!) meal to accompany you. 

The Company Relations Committee organised two theme days and one business tour where students got the opportunity to visit company offices and their project locations. Besides giving a vantage point into how the field functions, students also had the chance to interact with professionals! However, don’t worry if you haven’t been able to attend any of these events, there’ll be more headed your way so be sure to keep an eye out! 

Now as the popular saying goes, all work and no play would make Jack a dull boy, and the Activities Committee makes sure we’ve got more than a healthy dose of fun stuff to look forward to. They’ve kept us entertained so far with a pub crawl, a bowling night, Masters drinks at the Bouwpub and Christmas drinks to end the year strong and with the merriest of spirits. After a long week tackling subjects like DCM and REM- these really fun events give us a much deserved breather and I can’t wait to see what else the Committee has lined up for the rest of the year! 

Speaking of the Christmas drinks- if you haven’t heard already, the Study Trip destination has been revealed and *drumroll* we’re going to beautiful JAPAN! (Oh god, all that delicious ramen, my excitement cannot be contained!) We’ve got limited spots available so don’t forget to keep your eyes and ears open for when enrolment opens. 

I’m hoping I’ve convinced you that it’s well worth your time to become a BOSS member so sign up here: https://www.bosstudelft.nl/profile/register/. And if you’re still not convinced as yet- I’ve got a little over a semester of blogposts left to change your mind :D. 

So until next time, 

Cheers!

Sanjana

Right now it is week 7 of the fourth quarter of the year. It is only 4 weeks until the summer holidays, 4 weeks until my blogs will stop and 4 weeks until the first year is over.  I’m kind of sad about the fact that some people will not return until half a year later (Frank I see you) because they will go on exchange. And that the year with my fun committee will stop (Sarah, Noah, Carl I see you). But, that does not stop me from writing another 3 fun blogs for this quarter. This current blog will be a transition blog introducing the new color – blue. 

How convenient that BOSS also has the same color and I can make a little bridge from the introduction to what I am going to write about. The subject of this blog will be, as you may have guessed, BOSS. In the beginning of the first semester I wasn’t really sure what BOSS was and thought I would be too old to become a member of another association. But, man, how wrong can a person be. This year has been a rollercoaster of activities (Yes VO or something @activities committee), business related trips (@company relations & @recd), evaluations (@education) and a lot more journeys to come (@study trip). 

However, the most important thing is that I have found friends for, I hope, the rest of my life. I started as a grandma who knew maybe only 2 or 3 people from the study, but ended up having a really big group of friends and people who I love to chill with. So shout out to all of you guys, for not letting me eat my lunch alone in the Ketelhuis or letting me sit alone during the lectures (awkward). 

To finish this short blog. BOSS brings a lot of joy, hangovers and variety. I am proud and fortunate to say that I am a part of this very close group of friends and people. But for now, I think it is time to get back to bossness. 

Cheers, 

Valerie

It has been a while since I wrote a blog, but I’m back. Due to some personal circumstances I haven’t been able to work on my writing the blog. For this blog I want to write about something that has been bothering me for a while. I think we all experience this phenomenon from day to day. I am watching people with reusable bottles, coffee cups and totebags walking around campus and I am wondering. Is this really as sustainable as they say? This made me wonder, how long does it take for a reusable coffee cup tp be sustainable? That is what I am going to find out in this blog.

 First, of all I want you to know I am all for reusable things and sustainability so there are no anger issues here (haha). Little confession, I have a reusable coffee cup myself. I am just wondering and thought it would be the perfect subject to write a blog about and enlighten you on my findings. So here goes the blog.

 You walk towards your favorite espresso bar, hand the barista your reusable coffee mug, and pat yourself on the back for not using one of those “bad for the environment” single-use cups.

 Sounds simple. Right?

 Perhaps.

 Granted, using a reusable cup lowers the waste-management environmental impacts. There is something you might not have thought about. Things such as the materials and energy that went into making you sturdier reusable cup, the soap, and the hot water it needs for cleaning, and the energy source behind the heat of this washing water. On average the reusable cup scores well on, emitting fewer greenhouse gasses than their single-use counterparts. Likewise for toxic emissions, smog, and ozone depletion.

 But I found out that there is a bitter part. Washing the reusable mugs with hot water and soap puts them at a disadvantage when it comes to ecosystem-quality indicators. These indicators cover issues such as ecotoxicological emissions, acidification, eutrophication, and land occupation.

For the caffeinated among us, the most relevant finding was that the number of times a cup is used is crucial. Indeed, only frequent use can reduce the reusable cup’s potential impacts; depending on the cup/mug type and the environmental indicator, it would take between 20 (human health category for a polypropylene travel mug) and more than 1,000 (ecosystem-quality category for all travel mugs) uses to make up for the impacts of a single-use cup. The single-use cup is better for the environment if a reusable cup is used less than that.

 So, what are our options? Is it possible for us to help the environment? Yes, a reusable cup is the way to go if you plan on using it for several years and restrict the amount of soap and hot water you use to clean it. Limiting your coffee consumption is another option to consider, but that is another issue altogether.

Have you ever watched a Parliament session? It can get nasty in there, with the members of parliament going for each other’s heads. Thankfully, there is an official to control the debate; the speaker. He helps moderate the sessions and ensures that there is order. Without him/her, little would ever be accomplished there. He/she is the mediator. The same reasoning can be applied to cars on a road. Everyone is in a hurry trying to get to wherever he/she is going. Without a mediator to control the motion of vehicles, accidents and chaos will surely arise. That is the exact job description of traffic lights; mediate traffic.

The funny thing is that a traffic light has the exact same colors we are using. Which makes the guess for the third color of this year very easy. If you haven’t guessed it yet – it will be green. The color green can be associated with many things such as flora, Heiniken, sustainability, and many more! 

The anecdote of the traffic light gives me many opportunities to write about different topics, but one of the most burning questions in my mind is: does everyone stop for a red light? I’ve caught myself running through a red light more often than not. Don’t worry, I only do it when I’m walking or going by bike. I won’t run a red light when going by car, because I am scared of a fine… Unfortunately the quarter for the color red is over so I cannot rant about this anymore. This quarter I will be discussing different topics that are related to the color green. If you have anything that you find interesting or have any good ideas for me to talk about, please send me a message or walk up to me in the BouwPub next thursday on February 17th!

Over the Christmas holidays I have been thinking about a new subject to write about. The holidays are almost over and I am still wondering what to write. When I think about the colour red multiple things, emotions and companies flash through my mind. For example, fire, love, Christmas, communism, Levi’s, etc. I feel you are wondering, write about one of these subjects?! Well, for this next blog I wanted to link my studies (Management in the Building Environment) to the color red. That is quite a hard thing to do, because how the heck can I link red to MBE? Let me tell you something, I found a way. 

Most people who will read this blog know what I am writing about when I mention 210x100x50. The thing I am talking about is the most basic building material that is used in the Netherlands. No, it’s not concrete. The object that I am talking about is a brick. Most of the time the brick has standard measurements, can be laid in different patterns and be used in different ways. 

I want to use the brick as a metaphor for what we are doing as MBE students. For this metaphor I am obviously using the red brick. Let’s take a look at a brick. It has multiple shapes, colours and sizes. This brick can be compared with the problems we have to solve at MBE. These problems go from empty coffee machines to making new friends to solving the whole housing crisis in ten weeks. In Conclusion, these problems have different shapes and sizes just like a brick!

Step two is to stack these bricks on top of each other to create a wall and build multiple walls to create a building. This stacking can be done in various different ways. I can name them all, but I will spare you the horrific details. Just like there are multiple ways to build a wall with different shaped and sized bricks, there are also multiple ways to solve problems. You just have to stack the different steps on top of each other to create the solution. I guess what I am trying to say is there are multiple ways to solve your problems with or without bricks. 

Cheers to another brick in the wall, 

Valerie

New quarter, new colour

You might have noticed that writing is a passion of mine (or else I wouldn’t be in the publications committee as the writer of articles). However, writing in English, which isn’t my mother tongue, comes with new challenges and findings for me. Therefore, my passion is getting challenged with every blog I write. I struggle with multiple things when writing, but foremost; is the way I phrase my sentences the correct way of expressing my feelings and opinions? Maybe I am too blunt about my topics and writing style. But that doesn’t stop me from performing ony of my biggest passions; creative writing. 

When you look up the word passion in the dictionary you will find that passion is an intense desire or enthusiasm for something or someone. Being passionate is something beautiful, but it could also be something dangerous. It is a fiery emotion that could create tunnel vision or even anger. However, during my masters it was argued that anger isn’t necessarily a bad thing to achieve things. I do not agree with that. I agree with the theory of the philosopher Hume. According to him we need passion as well as reason to fuel our motivation. I don’t think anger fits into the picture of motivation. 

In the introduction I was talking about my passion for writing. Don’t even start thinking that is the only passion I have! Passion is in all little crooks and corners even with the things you don’t like. After almost two years of not studying, I noticed that studying is something I don’t like. I am talking about die hard reading, learning all the facts and cram things into your head. However I do see acquiring new knowledge as another passion of mine, which is strange for my adversity of studying. 

During the last quarter I wrote about the colour yellow and happiness. Now we got into the second quarter it is time for a new colour and new topics to write about. Guess what? I will make you guess the new colour based on the topic of this article. Let me know what colour you think will be next. Will it be blue, green or red?

Cheers to a new colour,

Valerie

Yellow isn’t really a happy color

Following up on my last post I made the decision to call you out and let you create an opinion on the color yellow. There are many opinions about this color. Some people find it ugly, some people think it’s pretty and for others it is their favourite color. But the foremost opinion on the color yellow is that it is a happy color. This opinion creates an opportunity to switch out the topic of this blog to the emotion; happy. Over the past two years I haven’t considered myself happy all the time. The corona virus took a toll on everyone, but that made me wonder; is there a way to achieve ultimate happiness?

I think almost everyone had a moment of despair during COVID. A moment where happiness just faded away and hopelessness took over. Amongst you are thousands of other students. For some time student’s mental problems have been addressed in the news. However, not seeing it on the news anymore doesn’t mean the problem just goes away. With bringing up this problem, I want to encourage you to contact that one seemingly lonely person in your study group, distanted friend or even roommate. Maybe they are that one student who feels lonely or sad or developed anxiety or depression. Even a message with you thinking about them could help them feel a little more happy. 

So, what about the ultimate happiness? Being happy is something that we could see as relative. It depends on how you look at it. Your moment of  happiness could be a minority for someone else. Somehow everyone seems to compare their happiness to each other. But why and how? There is no such thing as a happiness meter that you can use to compare yourself to other people. Think about your moments of happiness for a second. You will probably notice that it lies within your memories and thoughts and makes you happy for some time. 

To conclude, this blog I think achieving ultimate happiness all the time isn’t possible. It means shutting out some of your other emotions, which wouldn’t be a great addition to your mental health. However, you could achieve happiness by thinking about your happy moments and doing things that make you happy. Even sharing a happy moment with others will cheer you up. Come and share your happiness with me at the bouwpub during the BOSS q2 drinks on november 17th?! 

Cheers to being happy and creating new happy moments, 

Valerie

Cheers to new beginnings!

The beginning of a year can be very hard. Especially when starting a new job, study or moving to a new city or even country. It means making new friends, finding a new way of working or even getting to know the neighbourhood and finding your new favourite bar. For us, the publications committee, it was a new beginning too. New people to work with, a busy master schedule and publication deadlines to meet  didn’t make things easy. But here we are; Sarah, Frank, Carlota, Noah and me (Valerie). We are going to provide you this year with juicy blog posts, blooming podcasts, a lively yearbook and last but not least shining social media output! 

This year we took a different approach to the publications committee and decided we wanted to have a theme as a thread throughout our year. It is something that has never been done before, which makes it an experiment for us. An experiment that hopefully engages you to the publications committee a bit more. 

For this year’s theme we chose colours. Why colors, you might ask? Colours can be linked to different emotions, objects, companies and even personalities. For every quarter in the academic year of the TU Delft we chose a colour. We picked 4 colours that we thought were most resilient and we could link a lot of subjects to. The four colors we picked are yellow, red, green and blue. Three primary colors and one secondary color. It is almost like the four seasons. Yellow for the summer and sun, red for the fall leaves, green for spring and blue for snow and winter. What the exact order of the colors will be is still a secret, but you will find out along the way. 

This year the articles are not going to be what they used to be. I am going in a different direction this year. No stuffy 2000 word long essays, but short and opinionated blog posts. As different or opposing opinions ignite interesting conversations and we need conversations to question previous assumptions to evolve. I think creating an opinion is one of the most important things to learn in life, so here is an interesting, paradoxical  statement I would like to introduce to you: Yellow isn’t a happy colour. Do some research and let me know what your opinion is. 

Cheers to new opinions!

Valerie