I don't know what the weather's like everywhere else, but here in Antwerpen I have to keep reminding myself it's March and not May or June! The temperature has regularly topped 20 degree this week, and I'm going to sorely miss it while I'm back in Dundee for 9 days over Easter - with a forecast of much lower temperatures and showers, I'd better pack a jumper or two! In an attempt to be organised and not have to lug a mountain of law books back on the Eurostar in June, I'm packing a mini-suitcase full of the textbooks I don't use anymore to leave in Dundee. Shoes? Check. Jumper? Check. 13 kilos of law books? Check.
In legal news, I have now finished - apart from a final pre-hand in check - my Discrimination paper! Hallelujah. Even though it was a seriously large amount of work for 35%, I can't deny I loved the research. Cunningly, having been given a totally free rein over what area of national law to compare with EU developments, I have decided to examine civil partnerships for my Private Law paper. Most of the relevant ECJ cases came up through Discrimination, as did the EU legislation, so it should be a nice follow-on and give me a better insight into the developments concerning the adoption and recognition of civil unions across Europe. Globalisation, on the other hand is simply a reading mountain. Even printing 2 or 4 pages to a sheet of paper there are still over 140 pages to read! I'm slowly getting there, but I'll be reading it on the train/plane/bus to Scotland this weekend, that's for sure.
Astoundingly I got an email from UoD yesterday with the module choice form for 4th year. I can't quite believe it's that time of year again - I've been living in Antwerpen for 7 months now. I keep being struck lately by how easy everything is compared to when I arrived. Shopping, trams, laundry, the post office, even reading labels and instructions in Dutch have all become a matter of routine - I've become a local! I have finally become the person that the tourists (and oh have they returned with a vengence, wafting their maps around and wacking their rucksacks into everyone) see as an average Belgian resident. Although it will be great to be back in the UK and living in Dundee again, it's definitely going to take some getting used to. Both times I've been back so far I have spent the whole trip looking the wrong way down the road and being amazed at seeing things like cheese crackers, Hellmann's mayonnaise and Twining's tea in the shops. I'm going to have to try extra-hard not to keep almost stepping in front of cars and exclaiming at typical British brands in the shops this visit!
As a reward to myself for doing so very much reading, finishing my Discrimination paper and starting to write and research my Private Law paper, I treated myself to a spa night tonight. Chocolate, films, nail varnish and face masks are a delightful escape from the ever-present weight of deadlines looming in. A little bit of heaven!
29 March 2012
18 March 2012
Sunshine and essay writing
Summer has most definitely arrived. Despite a cold couple of days last week, the skies have cleared, the flowers have bloomed, the birds have begun to sing, and the temperature has regualarly climbed to 16 or 17 degrees - on Thursday it even reached 19! Seeing the city in the sunshine again without battling with an umbrella/unruly scarf/bulky coat/all of the above has reminded me just how beautiful it is here. I still thought it was pretty in the winter, but somehow sunshine makes everything look nicer and makes you notice the little details you seem to miss in months of seemingly eternal cloud coverage. If it's this nice in the middle of March, I can't wait until May and June, hopefully it'll be like when I arrived and be 25-30 degrees all the time - definitely not Scotland!
Inspired by my success in Children's Rights, I've decided to use my paper as the basis of my final year dissertation, if I can convince a tutor in Dundee to supervise it of course, so I met with Vandenhole to get some feedback on what I could've done better and how to develop it into a full dissertation. He was really helpful with ideas on development, recommending books, approaches and potential topics to explore, but when I asked how I could've got an 18 or 19 out of 20 instead of the 17 I did get, he said that actually my paper was perfect, but UA don't actually award higher than a 17! This really is a strange marking system if only certain numbers of students can get each grade and they don't even award the top mark for perfect papers that couldn't be improved. I just hope this policy is taken into account when UoD translate the grades - I don't want to get a B in Dundee for an A equivilant in this ridiculous system!
Having been enlightened to the system, I have determined to work extra hard on my term papers this semester so that they'll be a good contribution to my exam grade (if I have an exam). In order to get on top of the mountain of words that I'm expected to churn out, I'm taking each paper in turn and working intensely on it, starting with Discrimination. After 10 hours on Friday, 6 yesterday and who knows how many during the rest of the week squeezed in between classes, I have lost count of the number of cases, statutes, regulations, directives and recommendations that I've read. I have however, almost finished (thank goodness). I'm absolutely loving researching this, but I need to get it finished so I can work on my presentation and other papers.
Tomorrow evening I'm going to a free film showing of the Belgian film 'Illégal' on campus. It's in French with English subtitles and looks pretty interesting. The cinema is expensive here even for students (7,50€) so it'll be good to see a film on a big screen.
The External Relations teacher is over from the UK this week, so I have a lot of reading for his 4 classes on top of the reading for WTO and Protection of Human Rights (Private has been cancelled - our teacher had to move back to the US so we have another one filling in) ... onwards and upwards, I will reach the summit of Mount Law Work this semester!
Inspired by my success in Children's Rights, I've decided to use my paper as the basis of my final year dissertation, if I can convince a tutor in Dundee to supervise it of course, so I met with Vandenhole to get some feedback on what I could've done better and how to develop it into a full dissertation. He was really helpful with ideas on development, recommending books, approaches and potential topics to explore, but when I asked how I could've got an 18 or 19 out of 20 instead of the 17 I did get, he said that actually my paper was perfect, but UA don't actually award higher than a 17! This really is a strange marking system if only certain numbers of students can get each grade and they don't even award the top mark for perfect papers that couldn't be improved. I just hope this policy is taken into account when UoD translate the grades - I don't want to get a B in Dundee for an A equivilant in this ridiculous system!
Having been enlightened to the system, I have determined to work extra hard on my term papers this semester so that they'll be a good contribution to my exam grade (if I have an exam). In order to get on top of the mountain of words that I'm expected to churn out, I'm taking each paper in turn and working intensely on it, starting with Discrimination. After 10 hours on Friday, 6 yesterday and who knows how many during the rest of the week squeezed in between classes, I have lost count of the number of cases, statutes, regulations, directives and recommendations that I've read. I have however, almost finished (thank goodness). I'm absolutely loving researching this, but I need to get it finished so I can work on my presentation and other papers.
Tomorrow evening I'm going to a free film showing of the Belgian film 'Illégal' on campus. It's in French with English subtitles and looks pretty interesting. The cinema is expensive here even for students (7,50€) so it'll be good to see a film on a big screen.
The External Relations teacher is over from the UK this week, so I have a lot of reading for his 4 classes on top of the reading for WTO and Protection of Human Rights (Private has been cancelled - our teacher had to move back to the US so we have another one filling in) ... onwards and upwards, I will reach the summit of Mount Law Work this semester!
3 March 2012
Classes, reading and even more reading...sound familiar?
Three weeks into the semester and I am convinced that the summit of Mount Law Work has gotten further away than it was last semester. Or perhaps the foot-high pile of compulsorary set reading materials for six subjects has obscured the view somewhat.
So after three weeks of going to class, reading the set materials and planning term papers, it's probably time to pass judgement on the modules that I'm taking. There are four compulsory subjects required for the IELSP certificate this semester and two options:
My options are both okay too. Private Law is taught by a very enthusiastic lecturer and is a relatively interesting topic. The only downside is the 728 page compulsorary reading materials she's set for the course. Comparative Discrimination is probably my favourite after Protection of Human Rights as the lectures (although in four hour blocks starting on a Friday at 8.30am, we only have 4 in the whole semester) are well structured, the lecturer (a lawyer with Allen & Overy) gives us printed copies of the lecture slides, and we got to pick the subject of our term paper meaning I get to write 6000 words (including footnotes) on analysing the actually interesting subject of sexual orientation discrimination in the UK from a European perspective. With over 900 words already written (bearing in mind the topic was only approved yesterday), this should be pretty easy going.
In non-law news, I've been doing some painting and looking forward to the Easter holiday when I'll be flying back to Dundee for a week before settling down for some serious paper writing in the second week.
Handy hint: if you like to paint and want materials while you're in Antwerpen try Wim Meeussen on the way to Grote Markt from Stadscampus at Wijngaardstraat 11
I also had pretty bad toothache for a week and had to brave the Apotheek (pharmacy) to get some more painkillers. Belgium has much stricter control of who can sell pain relief medication, so don't expect to be able to nip into Carrefour or Del Haize and grab some cheap paracetamol or ibuprofen, because here only licensed pharmacists can dispense medication. This means that you have to go to an Apotheek (there are usually two or three on any given street in the city marked out by big neon green cross signs) and tell the pharmacist what's wrong and they'll recommend what to take and give you some. You will pay a bit more than you would over here though so be prepared - I bought 30 tablets of 400mg ibuprofen (equivilant in dosage to 60 UK tablets) for 6,09€ instead of the 1 or 2 pounds I would've paid back in Dundee. Good news? After a few days the pain went away so I haven't had to face the privatised dental system they have in place over here.
Most of my classes for next week have been cancelled for one reason or another (though unfortunately WTO has added an extra class and Globalisation has a four-hour slot to make up for a missed class last week) so I expect to be spending many an hour in the library trying to get on top of the reading mountain and make headway into the many, many thousands of words required for papers this semster. Exciting times loom ahead...!
So after three weeks of going to class, reading the set materials and planning term papers, it's probably time to pass judgement on the modules that I'm taking. There are four compulsory subjects required for the IELSP certificate this semester and two options:
- External Relations of the EU
- Law and Globalisation
- Law of the WTO
- International and European Protection of Human Rights
- European Private Law
- European and Comparative Discrimination Law
My options are both okay too. Private Law is taught by a very enthusiastic lecturer and is a relatively interesting topic. The only downside is the 728 page compulsorary reading materials she's set for the course. Comparative Discrimination is probably my favourite after Protection of Human Rights as the lectures (although in four hour blocks starting on a Friday at 8.30am, we only have 4 in the whole semester) are well structured, the lecturer (a lawyer with Allen & Overy) gives us printed copies of the lecture slides, and we got to pick the subject of our term paper meaning I get to write 6000 words (including footnotes) on analysing the actually interesting subject of sexual orientation discrimination in the UK from a European perspective. With over 900 words already written (bearing in mind the topic was only approved yesterday), this should be pretty easy going.
In non-law news, I've been doing some painting and looking forward to the Easter holiday when I'll be flying back to Dundee for a week before settling down for some serious paper writing in the second week.
Handy hint: if you like to paint and want materials while you're in Antwerpen try Wim Meeussen on the way to Grote Markt from Stadscampus at Wijngaardstraat 11
I also had pretty bad toothache for a week and had to brave the Apotheek (pharmacy) to get some more painkillers. Belgium has much stricter control of who can sell pain relief medication, so don't expect to be able to nip into Carrefour or Del Haize and grab some cheap paracetamol or ibuprofen, because here only licensed pharmacists can dispense medication. This means that you have to go to an Apotheek (there are usually two or three on any given street in the city marked out by big neon green cross signs) and tell the pharmacist what's wrong and they'll recommend what to take and give you some. You will pay a bit more than you would over here though so be prepared - I bought 30 tablets of 400mg ibuprofen (equivilant in dosage to 60 UK tablets) for 6,09€ instead of the 1 or 2 pounds I would've paid back in Dundee. Good news? After a few days the pain went away so I haven't had to face the privatised dental system they have in place over here.
Most of my classes for next week have been cancelled for one reason or another (though unfortunately WTO has added an extra class and Globalisation has a four-hour slot to make up for a missed class last week) so I expect to be spending many an hour in the library trying to get on top of the reading mountain and make headway into the many, many thousands of words required for papers this semster. Exciting times loom ahead...!
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