“Was this the first time you had dinner with all ESSET colleagues?”, asked Stanley, our newest ESSET staff to me. I stopped to think for a couple of seconds when I realised that it was indeed my first dinner with all ESSET colleagues. Lucky Stanley, it was his first week at Avans and he had dinner already with all of us!
Thursday, September 2nd 2021 marked my seven months at Avans, but it was the very first time that I got a chance to have dinner with all of my ESSET colleagues. With all corona measures back then, it was impossible to sit together with even only 4 people. Fortunately, now things changed for the better (let’s hope that it will keep on getting better!) and we can eat at a restaurant with 20+ people.
Earlier that day, we had a graduation ceremony for ESSET students. After letting go of our lovely graduates and wishing them luck for their next careers or studies, we went to a restaurant in the city centre of Breda. We were happy because this restaurant also served vegetarian meals! Ilse helped us to arrange this directly with the owner of the restaurant, they even adjusted some menus to fulfil our dietary wishes. I am not a vegetarian, but I am trying to reduce my meat consumption. We picked 3-gangen menu (three-course menu) for our dinner that night, yes yes, big dinner! It feels super special to me because it is also my first 3-gangen menu in a (Dutch) restaurant.
Here is a sneak peek of the dishes that I ordered that evening.
The dishes are all very tasty. The portion is huge, especially the main course. Cheers to Paul for helping me finishing my halloumi! I kind of helped Samet to finish his Gambas Piri-Piri as well, hihihi. No food waste is allowed here (that is my personal rule). In Dutch word, I would describe that evening to be gezellig (they say there is no good English word to describe this word!). Finally, I could experience real bonding with my colleagues, and not just online bonding (If you are curious about this online bonding, please check our blog post of March 3rd 2021 😉). This is a good start for the new academic year. We wish everyone good luck for this academic year and looking forward to seeing you in Avans!
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