Even if temperatures may rise to thirty degrees centigrade on Wednesday; the baby-pink onesies will be kept on, says daddy Karel resolutely. As he frankly admits he was immediately enamored with the sweet Primark suits, in the same fashionable line as the pajamas and bathrobes which they used to dress their earlier intro students in during the two preceding editions. One of those kids, Gerrit (also known, though less widely, as Stan), has this year been promoted to co-daddy “He's a fine boss”, says Karel.

On this early Monday night the trio of daddies is compelled to be less articulate about their Mechanical Engineering children. Which is fully understandable, barely ten hours after their first acquaintance. So far there are no anecdotes and memories worth mentioning, though the first impression is good: “They aren’t holding back really, like you often see on the first day”, is Gerrit’s analysis of his group. And that is great, for actually there was no plan B for an unexpectedly totally silent intro family. Nor was there a plan A, for that matter. At Onesie One Love they take things as they come.

Sounding out, listening to what interests their kids have and what they want to know or see, that is their motto. Apart from wearing the family attire, there are no strict rules or limitations. Nor are their little ones compelled to stay safely under their daddies’ wings the clock round. “Up to around one o’clock at night we stick together, after that we give them a free rein”, says Karel. But note: Thursday, come hell or high water, they will have to pull through the night without fail.

A couple of meters farther in this student garden at Lijsterlaan Karel’s mates from Rhetoric debating club Tau are meanwhile attending to the gas barbecues. The barbecues have been borrowed from Jumbo, where they also ordered three hundred chunks of meat, countless liters of salad and many meters of French bread. Six intro groups of Mechanical Engineering will be dining here tonight (see photos below). And whereas normally at Tau they can cook to their heart’s content: “Tonight it will just be a matter of gorging”, says daddy Karel in a mildly apologetic tone.

From one to night the next

Intro kid Judith van Oeveren - who has just returned from the Sgizet Festival in Budapest and has rolled on into the Intro without virtually any preparation - cannot be bothered. Just like there seems to be hardly anything that bothers her. Enjoy a congenial week, in which she will find out somehow what is coming her way: that is the mission, as it was during the Post-Exam Days. Judith lives from one day to the next. “Or actually from one night to the next.”

Well, the endless waiting on Monday, first at the Blauwe Zaal in the morning and later again at Swapfiets - she is prepared to go on moaning a bit about that. “Missed two presentations.” Still, otherwise this Dordrecht inhabitant is in high feather with the Intro and with Eindhoven. More convivial, more varied, less arrogant, as she enumerates the bonuses of the city in comparison with Delft.

Her group mate Ramon Schouten is entirely in agreement with her about the latter. There was hardly anyone from his school in his village of Wilnis going to TU/e, “but I find the atmosphere here much better. I’s much more what I like”. Feelings in his intro group are fine on that score, he concludes without any hesitation after their first day together. Just think of the flying boat they should have built for the business case in the afternoon. In theory a whole lot of mathematical and physical puzzling could have been used to come up with a solution, “but we actually enjoyed ourselves and just set about building together”.

And for that great group vibe even Ramon, self-appointed lie-abed, is willing to sacrifice a few hours of night’s rest this week. “Last week I turned in early every day on purpose, so I have some reserves laid up for this week.”

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