- Intro
- 19/08/2026
Intro | Joining a cowboy for dinner
An Indian, a cowgirl and a cowboy are the mentors of TU/e introduction group 12 from Mechanical Engineering: eight boys wearing headbands with cow ears in their curls to show that they belong to the group. On Tuesday evening, they have dinner at the cowboy’s student house, and Cursor joins them.
Pesto pasta is on the menu. Not exactly surprising. But cowboy Juran has lovingly prepared it in his own kitchen in the Vestide complex on Frederiklaan. Juran lives there with six other students, a place he managed to get after spending 56 months on the waiting list for the student housing provider.
Making pesto pasta for eleven people is easy enough, says Juran. “You fry some onions, add 1.1 kilos of diced chicken breast, then plenty of cooking cream, two jars of pesto, and salt and pepper. Meanwhile, you cook a kilo of pasta. When you mix everything together, you also add some halved tomatoes.”
Mama Anna is happy that her kids are eating well. She also wants to teach them to be more patient and calm. Today, they are doing well, because last night they were at the Ballenbak, “with free beer.”
The number of beers they drink is marked with tally marks on their shirts and vests. Intro kid Lucas thinks Juran is the best beer drinker he has ever seen: “He’s the Michael Jordan of beer drinking.”
The intro mentors are not very strict. Jesper knows all about that: this morning, he had lost his cow ears and only had to do 25 push-ups as punishment.
“A friend of mine is in a group from Industrial Engineering. Because he had forgotten his gadget—a necklace—he had to do a pul ad. That means drinking half a liter of beer in one go. But those mentors are rougher and younger than ours.”
Intro dad Juran is certainly no longer the youngest. “I started at TU/e in 2019, when they were still in primary school.” Intro mom Anna will be a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering student next year, and intro uncle Maçiek—the one wearing the Indian headdress—has also been around the university for quite some time.
Jesper doesn’t know where he lost his cow ears, but he does know that he took them off while talking to a girl in the Ballenbak. “They do make you look stupid.” He got a new headband this morning, after doing his push-ups.
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