AUC: Excellence and Diversity

Eastern Europe, represent. Bulgaria and Macedonia should be proud.

A rare photo of me and Matthias where one of us isn't ruining the shot by looking like a lunatic or a medieval peasant.

Bachelor party preview complete with undergrads!

Mystery gooball; Dutch people are apparently fond of this idea.

Maniacs from foreign countries! Free wine! Fun!

Apparently attending a liberal arts college is a concept buried in the renaissance as far as the Amsterdamians are concerned. It's been hundreds of years since this type of education was offered here. One ambitious lady, however, has resurrected the idea and accepted young free thinkers from the world over to educate themselves in humanities, social sciences, physics, philosophy and language. This September marks the first birthday of AUC, Amsterdam University College where Matthias is currently earning his bachelor's degree. It was a formal event, marked by a very punctual presentation of liberal arts education justifications and plans for the future interspersed with essay contest winners and a really good jazz performance by two students. The reception that followed involved drinks, delicious snacks, and some eye-rolling about excellence and diversity. These guys seem like a good bunch though, eh? I mean, people bring the big bucks in the US to attend many a small, private liberal arts college known for intellectual rigor and low professor to student ratios. Which is kind of funny, because Europeans came up with the whole idea and this is the first university of its kind in Amsterdam during modern times. For only a few thousand Euros a year, they're kind of getting a bargain. Happy #1 AUC, good luck.