'Welcome to UA'

Well, it’s been a busy two weeks! Dutch revision, a city walk or two, exams, results, international student induction, ESN sign up, residence permit signing and law department induction – phew!

The Dutch revision went well, as did the writing, listening and reading exams, but unfortunately I panicked in the speaking and dropped a lot of marks. Sigh. At least I passed! I’ve signed up for the level 2 evening course for the semester (Handy hint: Erasmus students can get a Dutch language voucher from Magali at the IRO reducing the fee from €235 to €75 for 45hrs of class) so hopefully I’ll get a better grade next time!

International student induction was a mixed bag – on the practical side of things I’d pretty much figured out everything they told me in the three weeks I’ve been living in the city, but on the academic side it was quite useful with information about course enrolment, credit transfer and the library. The presentation by ESN was good, and I went to sign up afterwards and got a goody bag! Oddly, it contained (asides from vouchers and discount cards – the Wagamama’s voucher was much appreciated) both chocolate and toothpaste – good to see that they’re taking care of the dental health of their members!

ESN have organised lots of events for their ice-breaking week, and the first I went to was the city walk on Saturday. Beautiful weather for city wandering and an afternoon filled with a piano busker on Meir (I joke not – a full size piano), buying a discounted UA hoody (perfect for those cold days on the way to uni and the rink), a free Belgian sweet (kinda funny tasting but still nice), getting lost (and found) and ending up in the wrong group – all in all, great fun! Tomorrow they’re holding a movie-night and showing De Zaak Alzheimer (hopefully with subtitles, since my Dutch isn’t quite up to film standards) and then on Wednesday will be my favourite event – Ice Skating! My skates are ready, my hoody is bought and I can’t wait to get back on the ice after a four month break from training and practice, even if it is just a fun night on the ice.

This morning I had an ‘appointment’ to sign my residence permit before I went to sign up for the Dutch course, so I got up nice and early, waited an age for the no.4 tram (I really dislike how unreliable it is compared to the no.24 but it gets me into town…eventually) before finding the city office in a little backstreet where I queued in the wrong place for 5 minutes before sitting in a waiting area for over half an hour after my ‘appointment’ time. All to sign a couple of pieces of paper and get my permit to live here! Very annoying. Plus side? I am well and truly a resident of België now!

Before my Law department induction this afternoon I swung by the ‘Students on Stage’ event expecting it to be something like fresher’s fair – boy was I wrong! It consisted mainly of stalls with indecipherable Dutch names selling food and drink and not actually giving any information on what their club does. Worth a visit for the food, otherwise give it a miss.

Law induction was great – around 45 minutes of main points about our course with outlines from the various lecturers (who all seem quite fun and like they want to make their subjects interesting even if they are compulsory) followed by a wine reception. Apparently we can change our course until the end of next week so we have a chance to try out the modules that are optional. Luckily for me the ones I picked already (Advanced International and Info & Communications) sound the most interesting, although Economic Law (compulsory) sounded surprisingly interesting and lacking in Economics so perhaps there is hope there (lucky since I have it three hours a week on a Thursday morning).

I have a reduced timetable this week because of Studay on Thursday (the official opening of UA is celebrated by having no classes) and some lecturers not wanting to teach before then, meaning I only have two classes. Nothing like getting back into study mode nice and slowly!

Some Dutch, some tourism and één beetje more Dutch...

Four days of intensive Nederlands and two days of blatant tourism later I'm still catching my breath!

The Dutch learning has been continuing at break-neck speed, mastering both the past and future tenses in just two days. The tests and pop-quizes are still coming thick and fast but the end is now in sight, and at least my teacher is still trying to make it fun despite the heavy-going grammar! Breaks are spent chatting in the dipped seating area next to the Agora cafe in E building and in the queue for a sandwich from Jean-Pierre's. This unassuming yellow little shop has been serving students for around 50 years and provides delicious sandwiches, drinks, cakes, deli meats, coffee, chocolate and fruit for very cheap prices - a crunchy smos (your filling comes with lettuce, tomato mayonaise and sliced hardboiled egg) sandwich costs between 1,70€ and 1,90€ and coffee is around 1,20€

Thursday and Friday saw me officially registered as a resident of België and student of UA - fantastic! My student card should be delivered soon and once the police have checked that my name is on the door my residency permit should be finalised and I can get my official card and stop carrying around my passport as ID. 

My girlfriend came over from Dundee to visit at the weekend (apparently Ryanair do respectably priced flights from Edinburgh) so as her flight was arriving at Charleroi airport (south of Brussels in Wallonia - French speakers! The horror!) late in the evening I went to meet her at the train station in Charleroi-Sud. To avoid paying 13,70€ each way and in anticipation of further travels beyond the city limits of Antwerpen, I bought a Go-Pass 10. This is basically a bulk-buy discount ticket for those under 26 - ten journeys anywhere in België within a year for 50€. I bought mine from Centraal-Station (well worth a visit just for the architecture - it has been rated recently as one of the world's five most beautiful), filled it in and was on my way. Easy! You don't even have to use a journey per train if you're catching connections just so long as you don't break your trip - perfect for me since I live next to the minor and little served Antwerpen-Zuid Station.

        How to: use your Go-Pass 10 –

1. Write the details of your trip along the first line of your pass (note: the day must be written in Dutch - Mondag, Dinsdag, Woensdag, Donderdag, Vrijdag, Zaterdag, Zondag) using your departure station and final destination
2. Hand it to the conductor on the train to stamp and ta-da! you're on your way for a fraction of the price - just don't forget to use another line for your return trip!

Yet again the efficiency of trains on the continent amazed me - we left every station exactly on time - and 1hr 29 minutes after leaving Berchem I arrived at Charleroi 107km south on the opposite side of the country ready to turn around (on the same train). We made it home just before midnight - a three hour round trip - which was pretty good going!

Saturday was spent showing off my beautiful new campus and city. We wandered through Grote Markt, saw the Brabo fountain and guild houses, spent ages being amazed by the cathedral (3€ for a student and Dundee matric cards are accepted!), walked through Groenplaats, down Meir to see Stadsfeestzaal (a 1908 shopping centre covered in gold gilding and flourishes, and complete with an opera singing quartet) and buy some lunch from Del Haize to eat while dipping our toes in the fountain on Wapper by the Palais de Meir. We also bought a chocolate bear lolly (wow), looked at a chocolate kitchen while marvelling at huge chocolate monsters before heading over to Het Steen and the raised promenade by the Scheld (buying a fresh waffle from CoffeeGo en-route). A tram to the new court building (yes, I am such a law student) and a game of travel monopoly later (I maintain that the dice were weighted against me by the faeries) finished the day.

Sunday was just as touristy, if not more! We attempted to go on a river tour but despite the timetable saying they were running, they actually weren't - boo. Instead of being disappointed, however, we simply moved to the next stop on our plan - the Museum Plantin-Moretus on Vrijdag Markt. After a slight detour to a flea market we found the unimpressive looking building and ventured in. Being the canny students that we are, once we saw the 12€ entry fee we asked for a discount by flashing our UoD cards - voila - 1€ and a free English audio guide. Due thanks need to be made to Lonely Planet's Belgium & Luxembourg guide here - without their recommendation we would never have ventured into an old print works and family house. As is it, we spent over 2,5 hours wandering through the 33 rooms in amazement accompanied by the excellent guide (with music at times!) and saw the only museum room to be on the UNESCO world heritage list, as well as the two oldest preserved printing presses, a renaissance garden and courtyard that puts Oxford to shame, and a whole collection of Rueben’s paintings. I can't rave about this place enough - definitely worth a visit even if you're only in the city for a weekend.

An authentic cone of frieten met mayonaisse (from a Firtuur on the corner of Groenplaats towards Grote Markt) and a fresh chocolate coated waffle refreshed us enough to walk to the Plantentuin (i.e. botanical garden) which, although much smaller than Dundee's, was beautifully laid out and a really nice place to sit and pass the time - plus it's free. Next on the agenda was a walk towards Centraal-Station via the diamond district (a girl just needs to look at pretty diamonds every now and then) to marvel at the 1905 architecture – marble, gold, arches…truly fantastic. For our penultimate trick of the day we were going to walk through the Jewish Quarter to Stadspark and then on to meet the 24 tram home. It didn’t go exactly as planned…we managed to get to the Park but somehow crossed a bridge and ended up in the wrong corner (thinking it was the right one), walked down a road and found the wrong tram stop. Luckily I had a street map in my bag, so we walked back to the park and tried again, this time successfully! Interesting note about Stadspark – the wild rabbits do not look like the ones in the UK…they look like pet rabbits idly nibbling the grass. Strange. The day was concluded with a cheap and cheerful meal in Da Giovanni’s next to the cathedral off Groenplaats and listening to an impromptu concert by Rueben’s statue. A truly touristy weekend!

The success of the laundrette and tram system (which I now know like the back of my hand – well, my trams anyway!) encouraged me to face the duel tasks of the official waste bags and the post office. Yesterday, after looking everywhere for the official bags for a week – if you put your rubbish out in supermarket brand ones you can be fined – I finally gave in and asked the cashier at a Carrefour express near Unif. Mystery solved! Apparently you have to ask for them (Restafval for general rubbish, groot or klein depending on how big your bin is) and pay a lot of money – 7,50€ for 10 large 7,5l bags! This includes the collection fee though, which makes it a little better… The post office was mastered today (opposite the tram stops in Groenplaats – Bank van de Post) as I had to post my receipt of funds letter to the international office in Dundee. In this post office you can’t just pick a cashier and queue – you need a ticket as you walk in through the interior doors which will tell you what your number is in the queue and you’ll get called to the right desk by the computer screen above loker 3. Very confusing! Nonetheless, I managed to get my letter posted – hurrah!

Time to study for my final pre-exam test tomorrow…

Één week in de Stad van Antwerpen, België

Hallelujah! After a week of computer troubles my laptop now stays turned on long enough to blog!

Having been in Antwerpen for a week now I can honestly say it is fantastic place to live. It is beautiful, historic, friendly and accessible. My journey over here, on the other hand, was a nightmare! At one point I wasn't even sure I would get to London, let alone to Belgium, due to a major freight train fire on one of the main lines into Euston. After much too-ing and fro-ing I did eventually make it to London where I hot-footed it across to St Pancras International to get my tickets exchanged for the next train to Brussel-Zuid (luckily I had bought a combined ticket with my UK travel so I didn't have to pay anything extra for this - phew!).

Once I’d made it onto the Eurostar, it was great - it may have been a little worn around the edges back in Standard class, but it was fantastically fast and perfectly on time - and I made it to Brussel-Zuid in less than two hours. The trip was a great opportunity to look at the local landscape and appreciate how completely different it is to the UK i.e. totally flat! I even managed to catch a glimpse of a beautiful mural pulling in to the station at Lille opposite the platform, which I’ll definitely look out for again. Because of my delays I didn't leave Brussel-Zuid until half past 8 so it got dark fast as I changed at Berchem for Antwerpen-Zuid Station leaving me with nothing to look at outside. Luckily I had a map with me so I could try to figure out how to walk from the station to my building!

While I’d been frantically trying to get to Antwerpen, I’d managed to rearrange the time I’d meet my landlady so that she would be able to meet me to give me my keys and explain whatever needed to be explained. After struggling up what felt like a million steps from the station (but was only around 40) I finally made it to De Beuckerstraat. Once my landlady had left me in her daughter’s studio (my room was still occupied) I collapsed on the bed and slept for a long time – well deserved rest!

I spent my first full day in the city pottering around my local area, discovering where my tram stop is, my closest laundrette, the nearby park and (most importantly) my nearest supermarket. Carrefour Markt is roughly equivalent in size to a Tesco Metro, although the stock has the local variants instead of the typical UK staples – tinned things are apparently a rarity as the Belgians seem to enjoy jarred goods instead, most strange. (Handy hint: to find your local Carrefour Markt in België just enter your address here: http://www.gb.be/Shopsearch_search.cfm?lang=NL ) Price-wise most things were about the same or less in € as they would be in £ in the UK, meaning they’re a bit cheaper! Here’s a guide of what I paid for some of the basics:

• Small loaf of bread 1,40 €
• 1 kg sugar 1,12€
• 1kg pasta 0,85€
• 1l milk 0,80€
• 1l orange juice 0,99€
• 1 bunch bananas 1,50€
• Cereal (own brand) 2,85€
• Toilet paper (9 rolls) 2,25€
• Washing powder 3,95€

My EILC language course registration was on Thursday afternoon so beforehand I wandered into town and had a quick look around the Grote Markt, Groenplaats and Meir areas – stunning! I also stumbled upon the wonderful, the amazing, and the true student friend that is Hema. This shop is kind of like a cross between the homeware sections of Primark and Ikea, with some ‘essential’ foods, stationary, clothes, make-up and hygiene goods thrown in around the edges for good measure.  As I moved countries with only a rucksack, a suitcase and a handbag, I had no room for things like bedding, towels, lamps, storage boxes, mugs etc. so I have been gradually getting everything I need over the last week and lugging it home on the tram (luckily the 4 to Hoboken goes past Meirbrug just down the street!).

Mijn Nederlands is slowly improving after 4 days of full-on immersion class – it is seriously intense work! Not only is there no English in class, there is a mountain of homework and tests every two days in preparation for the final exams in two weeks. Thankfully my teacher makes it fun with lots of speaking, listening and reading as well as the traditional writing exercises, and my classmates are really nice. I’m the only native English speaker though so it can be funny at times trying to understand each other’s accents!

Mastering the tram system was my mission for Friday as I didn’t want to walk 45 minutes to get to class at 9.30! After consulting the map I got at registration (which I promptly lost after actually getting on the tram…) I decided I needed the number 24 to the stop at Franklin Roosevelts Plaats and headed to the stop at Antwerpen Zuid (over the rail station). As I hadn’t bought my ticket in advance (encouraged by DeLijn the company that runs the trams) I got on at the front and paid the driver the required 2€, sat back and enjoyed the ride! All I had to do to get off was press the blue button when we were approaching my stop – easy. I found out afterwards about the Lijnkaart you can buy from newsagents – ten journeys for 9€ - which is much cheaper so I bought one from a shop between Keizerstraat and Groenplaats on my way home (I got the 4 from Groenplaats).

How to: validate your tram ticket

1.       Go to the yellow ticket box and insert your ticket/lijnkaart with the arrow facing front and down

2.       Press the correct number of passengers making the journey (usually just 1)

3.       Take you card and make your way to a seat – easy!

Saturday was a hectic day as my landlady texted me saying I could move into my room at 3 – when I had originally wanted to be at the Laundry Day festival – so I had to pack everything up then wait until 4 before she actually showed up. She then spent almost an hour explaining how everything worked in excruciatingly slow detail when it was very obvious what needed to be done (grr). After she (finally) left I realised I had no bedding to sleep in so I had to run into town on the tram to get cheap stuff from Hema, run back, make my bed and head on over to the festival. I managed to make it there just after 6 so I wandered around for a couple of hours listening to the music, which was disappointingly mostly DJs and dance and trance. It wasn’t really my scene, so I bought some friets met saus (absolutely amazing – definitely the high point and worth battling to the counter for), sat on the grass for a while longer, and headed home again around 9. If club music isn’t really your thing – don’t bother going.

Today I mastered the laundrette – hurrah for clean clothes! It was slightly intimidating walking in and being faced with numerous signs in Dutch (it was self-service) but I persevered and succeeded in both cleaning and drying my clothes. To prevent others from being as terrified as I was here is my How to: wash clothes in an Antwerpen laundrette –

1.       Do not panic about having loads of change for the machine (it accepts notes up to 20€) but do make sure you have washing powder, dirty laundry and a book to read while it goes round

2.       Put clothes in an empty washing machine (make sure it’s a small one otherwise you’ll pay twice as much!)

3.       Select the programme by pressing the P button – 3 is colourwash, 6 is synthetics – and pour powder into the trays on top indicated by the red lights next to the programme number

4.       Go to the payment machine in the wall and put the amount in as stated on your washing machine (around 3,20-3,50€) and then press the button with the number of your machine on it to start it – do not press it until you are 100% ready to start the wash! When you want your change back press Wisselgeld.

5.       Read a book while you wait (timer on the front of the machine)

6.       When your clothes are clean transfer them to a dryer, close it and go to the payment machine, put in the amount for a cycle, usually 0,20€ for 4 minutes (you have to do each cycle separately – slow but you can check on the heat/length you need as you go), and press the number of your machine when you are 100% ready

7.       Go back to your dryer and select the heat level you want and wait for the cycle to end (repeat steps 6-7 as necessary)

Now that I have clean pyjamas it is time to go to bed and curl up with my Dutch notes to prep for my test tomorrow - goeidenacht!