New student columnist: “At home in Switzerland, we read the Bieler Tagblatt”
This week Folia's first truly international student columnist begins. It is Céline Zahno, who is doing a bachelor's degree in political science and comes from the bilingual Swiss city of Biel, also called Bienne. Her love for columns originated at home at the Swiss kitchen table, at which she read the Bieler Tagblatt daily. Here are four questions for our new columnist.
Céline, welcome as Folia's first international student columnist. Tell us a little bit more about yourself.
“Well, I'm Céline Zahno, I'm 21 years old and doing the second year of my bachelor's degree in political science. I'm also doing a minor in philosophy. Before coming to Amsterdam two years ago, I attended high school in the Indian city of Pune, where I also wrote in the school newspaper. I love reading, running and writing.”
Reading, running and writing. Tell us more about that.
“As for reading, I read mostly fiction, novels that is, like those by Swiss novelist Max Frisch. Other than that, I walk a lot and love to run. Two or three times a week I go jogging in the Westerpark. And then, of course, there's writing, which I enjoy because I learn to organize my thoughts while writing. When I write, my thoughts become clearer to me. At the Amsterdam student newspaper, The Amsterdammer, I am an editor for the campus section.”
Why did you want to become our new columnist?
“I've always been impressed by good columns. There are so many different opinions circulating in the world; a good column sheds light on something that would otherwise go unnoticed. My interest in columns began at our home in Biel, where I grew up with the Bieler Tagblatt, a local newspaper with columns that was on our kitchen table every day. My interest in columns developed there.”
What do you plan to write about on folia.nl/international in the near future?
“In any case about Amsterdam, a very interesting city for international students. The city is relatively small, yet very interesting. The dynamics of Amsterdam lie in the fact that it is both a metropolis and a village. I will also write about what it means to be an international student and what there is to do here. Also about cycling, of course. Dutch cities are built around bicycles, so to speak. If you have to go somewhere here, the question is never how you are going to get there: by bike, of course. This is very different in Switzerland: there, the bicycle is only one means of transport, one that has to adapt to the city, in fact just the opposite of how it is in the Netherlands.
Céline Zahno's first column will appear this Friday on folia.nl/international and on folia.nl She will contribute to Folia every three weeks.
