Welkom!

At long last UA have sent me my welcome pack! It's full of useful things like a map of Antwerpen, my acceptance letter (in both English and Dutch), an information booklet on all things UA, information about the Erasmus Student Network and approval of my module options. Marvellous!

So my 12 modules (6 per semester at 5 ECTS) will be:

• Consitutionalism in a European and International Perspective
• Law and Globalisation
• Institutional Law of the EU
• International and European Protections of Human Rights
• European Economic Law
• External Relations of the EU
• European Competition Law
• Law of the WTO
• Advanced International Law
• European Private Law
• European Information and Communications Law
• European and Comparitive Discrimination Law

The first 8 are compulsory... I mean, who ever actually wanted to study economic or compeition law?

The ESN information is very exciting - I've already signed up for their Buddy system where I'll be paired with a local before I get out there who'll be a friendly face upon arrival and give me hints and tips on the best places to shop, eat, go out (to be shared here!). They also have organised lots of events for the first week of semester at the end of September in their Ice-Breaking Week, which should be lots of fun.

Looking at my academic calendar, I discovered that my Christmas holiday starts on Christmas Eve! I immediately ran to my laptop to find cheap transport to the UK to get home for the holidays before the prices sky-rocketed or the tickets all sold out, and managed to get a fantastically cheap flight from Brussels Int. Airport. After talking to my best friend about our New Year's plans (we always spend the eve together) we decided that since this year it is my turn to host, we'll spend it in Antwerpen! Flights back to be booked as soon as we've agreed on dates. Yay!

Re: accommodation. After sending what seems like hundreds of emails (but is probably only about 15 or so) I have gotten two responses that say they have a room available in a shared building. Both of them are within 5 minutes walk of Stadcampus, 10-15 minutes from Grote Markt in the historic centre of Antwerpen, at a reasonable price within my budget and include internet in the rent.

Stijfselstraat looks like a nice - a 16m² room in a house with 4 others with shared facilities and utensils for 270€/month. Paardenmarkt is a 13m² room in a building with 30 others and a bathroom to every 2-3 people and shared kitchens for 300€/month. As soon as I have pictures of Paardenmarkt I'll make my decision - probably Stijfselstraat - and pay my advance!

Only 41 days to go!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It's...the Eurostar train

In my excitement at getting my final okay from Universiteit Antwerpen - due to the bilateral structure of the Erasmus scheme both of my uni's needed to approve every aspect of my year abroad, including my courses, so of course there was the inevitable bureaucratic delay - I went ahead and booked my transport to Belgium despite not having anywhere to live yet.

First I looked at flights, only to discover that if I want to fly into Antwerp itself I have to go via Copenhagen at incredible expense and length. This seemed rather ridiculous to me, so I looked at getting into Brussels and then getting a train up to Antwerp, only to find it cost around £150. Again, ridiculous. Apparently, flying just isn't meant to be!

Thank goodness for Eurostar - a connection from my local train station to London, a zippy train to Brussels Midi and a speedy connection to Antwerpen Centraal, all in less than 7 hours and for less than £80. Pretty good going for a distance of around 400 miles!  Actually, this is less time than it takes to get to Dundee from my location in England, bizarrely enough. Plus I earn loyalty points for every journey I make meaning eventually I'll get a trip for free - ideal for visiting friends (and family!).

So, come the 30th of August I will be donning my rucksack, zipping my suitcase and heading off on an adventure in Belgium, leaving my Dundee life in storage and my cat at my mother's - who knows where I'll end up going and what I'll be doing!

I'd better pack a tent if I can't get a room somewhere soon though...!

The preparation begins!

In 8 weeks I will be landing in Antwerp (or as the locals call it, Antwerpen), an oft-passed by city in the Flanders region of Belgium on the border with the Nederlands.

Why? To spend ten months learning - not only how to speak Dutch - the ins and outs of twelve areas of International and European law at Universiteit Antwerpen on their exchange programme.

Having been awarded a scholarship for a 3-week intensive language course before I start classes at the end of September, my time-line of preparation just got cranked up a little! Accommodation to find, transport to book, textbooks to buy, packing to be done, a bike to be hired, goodbyes to be said...the list goes on.

Step one: find somewhere to live. Perhaps easier said than done when trying to figure out the property lingo of another country, what a reasonable price is (and how that translates from Euro to GBP!), what a lease can and cannot say and do, which is the best area close to Stadcampus (City campus - my Dutch is already improving! Not hard since I began with zero comprehension...) and the city centre...

Thank goodness for Kotweb! This little gem of a website is a collaborative project by all higher education centres in the city with set regulations and a fantastic search engine you can use to look around by postal code or by proximity to your campus. Needless to say, I have been using this site a lot in the last few days! Having found a few likely prospects, emails have been sent and I'm now anxiously awaiting replies and hoping they haven't already been leased.

When I've managed to find somewhere, my next battle will be trying to find cheap transport from England to Belgium. More to come soon!