I ended up only having one class in the week of 26/9 due to an ill Constitutionalism teacher - somewhat ironic since I dragged my own very ill self out of bed and to the class. Last week I had all of my compulsorary classes and my options, and I enjoyed the majority of them. Economic isn't too bad and will be focusing on the four (well, five including establishment) freedoms of services, goods, capital and persons, Competition will be focusing on the other negative harmonisation areas in the internal market of the EU, Institutional has an insane teacher but otherwise seems alright and Constitutionalism is surprisingly interesting. EU Information and Communications is really interesting with a great teacher and is basically the law of the internet, but Advanced International was dropped after one class - it didn't say in the course requirements that you had to have studied basic International law before! Instead I'm studying Children's Rights. Now, admittedly I have always maintained I wouldn't study anything to do with family laws unless I was forced to, but having read the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocols, I found myself looking forward to the first class this week. Luckily the teacher is nice and the course seems interesting enough that if I enjoy writing my paper (no exam but a 6000 word paper and presentation instead) I might end up using it as a base for my dissertation in 4th year!
Due to the large mountain of preparatory reading I've been battling through this week I've been spending time in the library on Stadscampus. For some reason the law area is always busy so I've been sitting tucked away in the philosophy zone. It's a great place to get work done since the whole library is a silent study area, the tables have plenty of space, lights, two plugs for laptops per space and free wifi. Plus everything is new and clean! The only downsides are the no food rule and the opening hours:
| 26 Sept 2011 - 30 June 2012 | Monday | 8h30 - 21h |
| Tuesday | 8h30 - 21h | |
| Wednesday | 8h30 - 21h | |
| Thursday | 8h30 - 21h | |
| Friday | 8h30 - 19h | |
| Saturday | 10h - 17h | |
| Sunday | closed |
Ice-skating with ESN was great fun although it showed me just how far the rink is from the centre of the city - I won't be going very often while I have so much work for my legal studies to do this semester. At least there will be an outside rink in the historic centre over Christmas and the New Year.
Recently I've been going to Delhaize in the basement of Stadsfeestzaal for my food shopping instead of to Carrefour. Although I have to get the tram there and home carrying all my week's food, they have slightly cheaper prices, better quality food and a much better vegetarian quorn/own brand selection that Carrefour just doesn't seem to have heard about.
To find your closest shop and information about opening hours use the form on this page: http://www.delhaize.be/service/storelocator/_nl/index.asp
Laundry update - I realised (after only two trips to the laundrette) that the dryers can be set for more than one 4 minute cycle at a time if (once inserting the right amount for the time you want it to run) you press the button for your dryer on the payment machine the number of times you want it to cycle to run e.g. insert 0,80€ and press the button four times and the dryer will run for 16 minutes. So much easier!
