‘First time at a Dutch university and this is what my American eyes see. No hundred-million-dollar sports facility, just a modest one built for community.’ Those are the opening lines of the lyrics in his video. But how does an American Instagrammer with nearly 70,000 followers suddenly land on our campus? We call Stiteler in Pittsburgh to find out. ‘Honestly? I looked at the map and thought: Enschede, that’s where I’m going. I specifically choose places where most Americans wouldn’t go, because Americans aren’t the most adventurous travellers.’
Bikes, pancakes and the Cubicus
After visiting western Germany, Stiteler realised he was close to the Netherlands, a country he’d never been to. So, as he often does, he followed his instincts. With nothing but a backpack, he travelled on to Hengelo and Enschede. After dropping his things at a hostel in the city centre, he headed to UT with his phone at the ready. He filmed everything that caught his eye: the climbing wall, the Bastille, the Cubicus, the Union Shop. Even the pizza vending machine surprised him. ‘Seriously? A pizza machine? Do people actually buy pizza from that thing?’
During his two-hour walk across campus, a lot stood out. ‘It’s a beautiful university where education clearly comes first. There’s a robotics programme, an engineering programme, and they’ve invested money in the facilities. In the US, hundreds of millions go to sports complexes.’ He also noticed how open the campus was: no heavily secured entrances, no armed guards. ‘I could just walk everywhere.’
The video
On campus, Stiteler used only one tool: his phone. He captured everything he saw, from robot lawnmowers to students queueing for pancakes. In his notes app, he collected observations for his final lyrics. The gardens, the Cubicus, the sea of bicycles. He stored it all. Those snippets shaped the video. ‘After taking notes, I write the lyrics and the song slowly starts to take shape,’ he says. He then feeds everything into an AI programme that turns his lyrics into music. For the UT video, a specific genre came to mind immediately. ‘It had to sound like a boyband track, simply because that’s what popped up in my head.’
Stiteler stresses that the humour always comes from him. ‘I’m not that into AI and AI isn’t funny. It doesn’t pick up what I see myself,’ he says. That’s why he writes all his own lines. What he does use AI for is creating melodies he couldn’t compose himself. ‘I’m not a musician, but by now I know exactly how to write so that it sounds good.’ The end result may look simple, but it takes a lot of work, he says. ‘People think: oh, it’s just AI. But my work isn’t AI rubbish, because I put a lot of time into it. Think of the travelling, writing the lines, cutting and editing the footage.’
Theatercafé
After wandering around campus for a few hours, Stiteler ended up in the Theatercafé, where something struck him. No hidden bar, no complicated rules like in the United States where you must be 21 to drink, but a place where students, staff, and professors mix freely. At the table next to him, he overheard lecturers exchanging ideas as if it were the most normal thing in the world. ‘You almost never see that in America,’ he says. ‘You can tell they intentionally create an environment where people want to stay, eat, and talk. It had such a lovely, open atmosphere.’
Alcohol problem
Alcohol problemThings are going well for Stiteler now, but his life wasn’t always smooth sailing. Almost two years ago, he was still sitting in a small, darkened room in Pittsburgh, drunk and shut off from the world. ‘When I’d been sober for three months, I started looking for something to fill my time,’ he says. That ‘something’ turned out to be making comedy videos. What began as a distraction during recovery unexpectedly grew into a new purpose. His videos became popular, his follower count surged, and it is now his job.
He sees it as a gift. ‘Life has changed completely. From that dark room, I now end up in random places around the world. It’s unbelievable what you can do when you’re sober,’ he says openly. ‘I travel, I meet people, and now I’m even being interviewed. Not long ago, that would’ve been unthinkable.’
‘I’m 100 percent coming back’
His UT video, with more than 22,000 likes, is his first about the Netherlands. And it has left him wanting more. ‘I loved it. If some wealthy Dutch person is reading this: sponsor me and I’ll go to every city in the Netherlands. That’s how much I enjoyed my visit.’ He laughs, though he means it. ‘It honestly feels like I was born on the wrong continent, because I can really see myself living in the Netherlands.’
