Welkom zomer!

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!