Interview Gaia

"Socializing", "fun" and "memories"

The TOP Week Committee's main focus really is socializing with the new first year students, as well as the other associations that are always in the city. Besides that, we try to give all the new students a fun time and a fun first experience with Flow! TOP Week is also always a period that I never forget, whether it was my own TOP Week or every TOP Week I've helped with Flow since then... I've got so many memories from those weeks that I'll never forget! 

We started off before the summervacation even started so we could think about things we'd want to prepare for the TOP Week. During the vacation, members of the TOP Week Committee made custom Flow bunting, decorated mirrors with Flow colors, bought decorations for the parties and thought of fun games to play during the week at Van Horen Zeggen. Then, during the week itself, we had our own stand at the 013 fair, we had a breakfast deal every day at Café de Boekanier, played games all week long with new students and organized two awesome parties, one of which was our iconic "Flow in the dark" party. Besides all the fun and games in the center, some of our members worked tirelessly to post fun stories on Instagram, so people could keep up with us even if they weren´t there!

It was a lot of fun! At first it was a little stressful to find my way around the planning and to schedule meetings, as people were often on holidays. But it was so much fun to see what everyone had worked on, and to see the first TOP Week groups come by Klein Café Van Horen Zeggen was really exciting. While I was always a little nervous about everything going the way we planned it, it was very satisfying to see people enjoying themselves and later saying they had a blast! 

Our main goal was making sure everyone, but especially the new students had a fun week! And it's safe to say we succeeded in this! We had a lot of students who came by every day and enjoyed the parties and games we had planned. Besides that, we wanted to make sure to buy and make things we could re-use for the future TOP Weeks. Examples are a foldable dart sign we can re-use, flow-colored flags and mirrors we have stored in the Flow Room now and Flowzine Pocket Editions that are more generic and can be re-used at other events throughout the year. 

We really wanted to make a Flow custom cardgame or boardgame this year, but it was sadly too expensive. So if we had unlimited time and money, I would totally have fully custom boardgames and cardgames made that we could re-use or even sell as merchandise. I think it could also be very fun to rent a bouncy obstacle course for during the 013 fair that new members can run across for a reward. 

Either the Tuesday due to the 013 fair or the Thursday. I really liked the 013 fair because I got to talk with so many new members and I got a lot of free goodies and stickers from the other stalls. I also really enjoyed talking to all the other people there, as it was the first time I really saw many new boardmembers from different associations. Besides the 013 fair, the Tuesday wasn't super interesting however. In comparison, I really enjoyed the Thursday, as I could start the day with a nice and chill breakfast, and talking to the new students. Then we spent some time playing boardgames and making videos for the Instagram, which was very fun. Then in the evening, we had our Flow in the dark party, which was a real 'highlight' of the week ;). 

Phew, I think every day something happened that I will remember for a long time! There isn't a specific event that I will remember distinctly, but I think partying with so many new people and then having breakfast with them the next morning is an experience I won't have again any time soon.