Flags

Every student house worth its salt has at least one flag hanging from the ceiling. It’s a good place to flick your beer bottle caps. 

However, there comes a time when the combined weight of the bottle caps becomes too much and the entire flag comes falling down. The student unlucky enough to throw in that final cap will face the consequences. ‘They have to organise a dinner’, says communications student Imme. 

In many student houses, the tradition of a flag on the ceiling has evolved into the entire common room’s ceiling being covered. The same goes for Imme’s house near the Noorderplantsoen. ‘The ceiling was pretty boring, so we ordered a bunch of flags in bulk and stapled them together.’ They transformed their simple drop ceiling into a giant patchwork of flags. 

Even before she moved in, Imme’s roommate learned how to recognise the flags: Afghanistan, Israel, Saudi-Arabia, Colombia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Pakistan, the GDR, North Korea, Yugoslavia, Antigua and Barbuda, the East India Company, and Forum voor Democratie. ‘I thought it was intentional’, she says. ‘It’s actually a collection of controversial flags’, roommate Joris explains.  ‘It’s definitely just for fun’, Imme adds. ‘A little edgy and a little bit just for fun.’ 

Besides, not all flags are controversial; the ones for Antigua and Barbuda aren’t, nor is the one for Sri Lanka. ‘We just think those are pretty.’

Beer wheel

Another classic is the beer wheel. At any moment, usually when everyone in the house is having a drink, someone could give the wheel a good spin. The assignment the wheel’s arrow points to must be carried out. 

In Pieter’s house, at the Westerhaven, no one is safe. ‘That’s why our wheel is so effective’, he explains. ‘Most of the assignments involve handing something out, so you can always involve someone else. It’s made many of our drinks nights escalate.’ 

Another great feature of their wheel is that it’s practically illegible. ‘It allows us to just make stuff up.’ The assignments have been written in chalk, so they can be changed when needed.

Just this once, however, Pieter is willing to translate the illegible scribbles: ‘Dino pull, double-barrel handout, double barrel, double trouble, fresher bottle, bottle handout, buddy bottle, year bottle, bull’s eye bottle.’ 

He gives us an example of the dino pull – albeit without the beer. He drops his elbows, holds his hands like claws in front of his chest, and roars. ‘Making the right noise is very important.’ 

‘Double barrel’ means putting two bottles at your mouth at once. The ‘bull’s eye bottle’ involves the entire house trying to throw a dart as close to the bull’s eye as possible. ‘The loser has to down a beer.’

Suspended above the wheel are some old Smirnoff Ice bottles that stem from the period that people were getting ‘iced’: someone would hide a bottle of Smirnoff Ice and the unlucky finder had to drink it in one go, often accompanied by Vanilla Ice’s ‘Ice Ice Baby’. 

But Pieter’s house is fairly lenient: the finder doesn’t have to drink it immediately, and the game is only played at parties and birthdays. ‘I can’t even remember the last time we played it’, he says. He doesn’t really mind. ‘It doesn’t taste that great.’

Chandeliers

Wietse loves old things, which is why he has an impressive collection of chandeliers. He’s hung approximately twenty of them in various places throughout his student house. Most of them are in bedrooms, but there’s even one in the toilet, kitchen, and bathroom. 

While the chandelier in the main hallway is pretty fancy, the ones on the top floor have been covered in ties, a tradition in student houses. 

‘I have no clue where that tradition comes from’, says Wietse. He just thinks their light is nice, ‘which adds to the atmosphere’. 

But the ties aren’t exactly random. ‘Some were probably stolen from other student houses while others were won in tie fights.’ That’s when two students try to grab and steal each other’s ties.

There are plenty of houses, he knows, where both ties and bras are strung from the chandeliers, with the latter either being left by visitors or belonging to the residents. But he won’t allow it in his house: ‘We think it’s a little tacky.’

Teabags on the ceiling

A lot of visitors are shocked when they look up in Charlie’s student house at the Nieuwe Ebbingestraat. 

But she considers the dozens of dried tea bags stuck to her ceiling the best thing about her house. Whether it’s Pickwick, Clipper, or just a supermarket brand, this house has them all. ‘Most teabags are over 10 years old’, she says proudly. ‘When the house was being renovated, we specifically asked the builders to leave the teabags. Fortunately, they did.’ 

According to her, the tradition goes back to the previous century. ‘The idea is that if you throw a teabag against the ceiling and it sticks, your date has to go home with you.’ 

But that never happens in reality, she says. ‘It’s just a joke we keep telling each other.’ 

Making sure the teabag sticks to the ceiling requires a certain finesse, Charlie explains. ‘They can’t be too wet, and you have to make sure you throw them at the right speed and at the right angle.’ She still has to practise a bit before she gets it.

Then there’s another tea-related tradition, which might just be an urban legend. No one knows if it’s actually true. ‘They used to say that if a girl brought a guy home and offered him tea, he’d know what to expect.’ Earl grey meant nothing was going to happen, rooibos that she was on her period, and fruit tea meant a ‘fruitful’ evening. ‘But it could just be a myth.’

Row boat

This last decoration is one that’s more specific to Aegir houses: a row boat on the ceiling. It’s a symbolic object that stands for the association’s core values: Aegir and Gyas are two of Groningen’s rowing student associations. 

‘This boat was actually used in races’, says Floor, who has a half a row boat hanging from the ceiling in his student house in the Nieuwe Ebbingestraat. Of course, that was when the other half was still attached. 

Floor won the boat during an Aegir introduction camp six years ago. ‘My neighbour bought 90 euros worth of raffle tickets, so I joined in just for fun.’ He only bought a few tickets, but still won the grand prize.

He picked up the boat on his bike, and his roommates helped him attach it to the ceiling. ‘It was a lot of work, but definitely worth it.’