Valentine's Day | Eileen and Ziggy met during the occupation of the Bungehuis
Love is in the air this week: Saturday 14 February is Valentine's Day again. In this mini-series, various couples share their stories of how they once met as UvA students. Eileen Velthuis (34) and Ziggy Schilpzand (34) were both involved in the occupation of the Bungehuis in 2015 and have been together for ten years this year.
Eileen: ‘Ziggy and I met during the occupation of the Bungehuis in 2015, which was about making the university more democratic. There was a pretty full schedule during the occupation, with lots of lectures. It wasn't a party every night, you know. Part of the schedule was organising something called a Science Festival. We had slept in the library and were paired up to organise something for it. Ziggy was more involved in the occupation than I was. I found it quite exciting; he was quite a character and I had seen him around before.’
Ziggy: ‘I had also seen her walking around regularly, often going in and out of meetings. I wanted to talk to her, but we kept missing each other. She had long hair back then! So we had to organise that Science Festival together, and that's how we got talking.’
Eileen: ‘I didn't fall in love with Ziggy right away, but he had already caught my eye. We had to get to know each other better before I really fell in love.’
Ziggy: ‘That whole period of the occupation is a bit foggy anyway.’
Eileen: ‘I also went travelling for a while. When I came back, I thought: I want to make this work! While Ziggy still had to figure out wether it was just friendship. On Valentine's Day ten years ago, we asked each other to be boyfriend and girlfriend, and I slept over at his place. Now we're stuck with that day!’
Eileen: ‘The first thing I noticed about Ziggy was how smart he was. He said things that made sense, which I found appealing. That’s when something happened for me.’
Ziggy: ‘Well, likewise. Eileen has a certain sharpness, a sense of knowing what she wants to do. She already had that back then. I think it's impressive how she uses that sharpness in her art and her work. I may be smart, but I find it difficult to use that in the same way. We're also compatible in terms of taste, although I had one fear at the beginning: she doesn't listen to heavy metal. Fortunately, I've been able to convert her a bit, so now she listens to it too.’
Eileen: ‘And vice versa, I've learned to appreciate pop music a bit more.’
Bags of bread
Ziggy: ‘Are we still very busy with activism? Things have slowed down a bit, we have to work all the time...’
Eileen: ‘We are still quite busy with it, though.’
Ziggy: ‘When Extinction Rebellion was at its peak, we were on the motorway every week. Activism is very good and important, but it also takes a lot of energy. When the Academic Club was occupied in 2024, for the pro-Palestina protests, we stopped by. When something like that happens, you just show up. We had brought food for the occupiers, but it didn't even get past the police and security. They could just hand us bags of bread through the window at the Bungehuis.’
Eileen: ‘I feel like the protests are being dealt with more harshly now than they were back then. Violence was used then too, but the UvA didn't want to be seen as the aggressor by the media. That doesn't seem to matter so much to them anymore.’
Ziggy: ‘We were portrayed relatively sympathetically by the media, but now the students are portrayed as a kind of rioting group.’
On mats
Eileen: ‘We still visit the UvA regularly. For example, at Crea.’
Ziggy: ‘I hung around the PCH for quite a while; places like that stay in your system.’
Eileen: ‘I always wanted to go back to the Bungehuis, to see how it became exactly what we fought against: a posh hotel (the Bungehuis was sold in 2015, ed.). This was a great opportunity.’
Ziggy: ‘Just think, now people are paying a lot of money to sleep in the old library...’
Eileen: ‘While we were lying there on mats!’
Ziggy: ‘Well, you slept on a mat, I slept on a cardboard box.’
Ziggy studied for a bachelor's degree in philosophy, Eileen studied cultural studies.
