'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!