We started our day by going into the city center in Enschede. There, we met with a civil engineer who works for the municipality, and he showed us different water management techniques throughout the city. Most of the runoff water is directed from the city to the Kristalbad through the use of semi-permeable asphalt in the streets. However, some areas of the city are more prone to flooding and cannot be prevented with the street material alone. In these areas, reservoirs were built alongside the sidewalks to help redirect the remaining water.
The reservoirs do not appear to be a common part of Pittsburgh’s water management system; however, I believe it would highly benefit from implementing something like this. Often times when there is harsh rain in Pittsburgh, I find myself jumping through puddles to cross streets and walk on the sidewalks. This is inconvenient and can take days to resolve itself as there is no where for the water to go.
After the tour, we went to the weekly farmers’ market in the city center. Here we had a variety of cultural street foods such as fries with mayo, lumpias, and kibbeling. Each was different and delicious. The lumpias are essentially fried spring rolls. They come from Indonesian influence which is a result of the Dutch trading and colonization of Indonesia in 1602. Kibbeling are battered and fried chunks of cod that are served with a garlic or mayo sauce. We first tried these on our small excursion to a beach town near Amsterdam.
To get back to the hotel, we decided to take the bus; however, we could not reach our exact stop due to the festivities that were happening on campus. Twente was hosting its annual race, where representatives of each student association and other individuals compete in a 20-hour relay spanning 100 miles. Students had set up numerous tents to camp out and watch the race. Naturally, we decided to join in the fun of watching the run. I found this event to be interesting as I have not experienced anything quite like it in the US.
Later in the evening, the excitement did not dwindle. The university hosted a huge music festival where all students, and we of course, gathered afterwards. The night was filled with lots of spirit and dancing.
