Photo Anne van der Heijden
However, thanks to his double degree in Environmental Economics in combination with the university of Bonn, he ended up in Wageningen for almost 9 months.
Fabian grew up close to the Alps. Talking about Wageningen, he says: ‘It’s super flat!’ Even though Fabian cannot practise his favourite sports here, he still managed to find a lot of other activities. ‘A great thing about the Netherlands is the really nice asphalt: it is great for skateboarding.’ Especially if the weather is nice, you can find Fabian outside, often biking, running, skateboarding or just eating dinner with friends or making music together. ‘When the sun is out, we grab our instruments and scramblers, and make electronic music.’
The Netherlands has really nice asphalt: great for skateboarding
Fabian lives at the perfect place to sit outside like this, an old Dutch thatched farmhouse in the middle of fields. Here he enjoys the abundance of birds and bird noises that he has come to associate with Wageningen. However, even though life is good now, everything is green, Fabian was not so happy with the Dutch winter. ‘Everything was grey and wet and most of the students left at weekends.’ Now the weather is nice, students stay around longer, Fabian has found. Anyway, he’s been going away a lot at weekends himself. ‘The infrastructure is great, I can drive to see German friends and family or I can fly to my girlfriend and dog in Italy, both in just a couple of hours.’
Fabian is positive about the Dutch mentality. ‘People are open and friendly, but still efficient and effective.’ He still wants to finish writing his Master’s thesis elsewhere, though. ‘I’m not sure where yet, maybe Germany or Italy. There are better places to be than here.’