The summit

A week on and I still can't quite believe it - the summit has been reached!

The oral exam for Protection of Human Rights went well as we had plenty of time to prepare and Prof. Vandenhole was really good at asking supplementary questions to help improve your grade. Be careful with the materials though - he refused to accept photocopied materials, all the extra documents that he gave us had to be stapled and bound, and there could be no writing at all. I saw him take one girl's materials off her, and although he let her run out to get a friends he took that off her prep time.

4 days of worry and nerves later, the results appeared on SisA! Not having expected them until Proclamation the next day (someone posted in the Facebook group that they were up), I think my heart stopped beating for a few minutes while I tried to load the page. After it was loaded I then promptly stopped breathing! I had managed to achieve my goal of getting into the top 20% for all of my subjects with two 16's and 3 15's, and even better I got a 17 in Private Law meaning I was top of the class! In my utter excitement and disbelief I called my girlfriend and mum for a bit of 'oh my goodness I can't believe it' and happy-crying, before hot-footing it over to Carrefour before it shut for some celebratory (and I think well-earned) chocolate. Never before has chocolate tasted so good or deserved!

Proclamation the next day was a happy affair since everyone knew their results, and the Law Faculty put on some nibbles and drinks anf gave everyone a little graduation teddy, which was really nice of them. I've decided to call the teddy Arthur Antwerp in honour of my stay - he's adorable! On the way home I came across a band playing a concert at the end of Meir called The Wishing Well so spent a pleasant hour listening to them before getting back to last minute packing. I definitely recommend having a look/listen at their website: http://www.thewishingwellband.com/

Having handed in my keys, packed up my life and cleared out the fridge, I started the 700 mile journey from Antwerpen to Dundee carrying around 65kg in baggage and many happy memories in my head. I may have been doubtful and not especially eager to spend the year living in  Antwerpen at the beginning, but looking back it has definitely been an amazing experience worth having and one I will look back on fondly for the rest of my life.

The final verdict? UA, the IELSP, Antwerpen and Belgium are all worth exploring and participating in - don't miss the opportunity to do something amazing!

Arthur Antwerp

This might be the end of 'Trials and explorations: A law student's life abroad', but it isn't the end of my blogging. I've started a new longer-term project called 'Trials and explorations: Musings on daily life' as a forum for those thoughts that keep whirling around my head demanding to be heard. It updates much more frequently, so take a look!

Thanks for reading and following my journey over the last year.

The final push

11 down, 1 to go. After 10 months in Antwerpen studying 12 different areas of International and European law I only have 1 module left to complete. Hallelujah.

The three hours of Private Law went quite well, although the questions were more mixed up than we were led to expect. Still, that disgusting mountain of reading materials did actually come in handy when examining and comparing the development of contract law and harmonisation in the EU. I guess the weeks of reading and highlighting were worth the time! The best thing about the exam was the page limit on each question so we didn't have to waffle on but just get straight to the point - and no sore hands by the end of it.

At long last, after four months of study, tears and definite frustration, I have finally finished studying WTO law. I say again, hallelujah! I was crazily nervous going into that one since it was closed book and worth 80%, even though I'd studied hard and really knew my stuff on the topics I'd chosen. The questions (for my topics at least) were pretty comprehensive and didn't try to throw you for a loop if you'd covered everything the Professor told you to, which was a relief. Definitely the best thing about the entire module was the fact that on the exam there were 12 questions (6 fact pattern and 6 essay) of which you had to answer only 2. Even better, one question per topic meaning I only had to study two of the topics from the module. Fantastic - general exeptions and developing countries, check!

With only 6 days until my final exam in Protection of Human Rights with Professor Vandenhole (oral - scary), I am almost at the summit of Mount Law-Work. It's been a long hard slog uphill, but I can definitely say that it's been worth it so far (who knows what I'll think when I finally get to collapse on the summit). UA is a great university, the IELSP is a wonderful programme (despite the compulsory WTO module) and Antwerpen has been a fantastic place to live and study in.

For all those future Antwerpen students (and present) I've collected a few useful links about UA, the city, public transport and supermarket for you on the left. Well, having procrastinated doing that, I'd better get back to the grindstone...

Countdown

With only 18 days until I'm back in the UK, the countdown has officially begun! In my excitement I have already started to pack up the books, winter clothes and other bits and pieces that I won't be using again before I leave, an action which really makes me realise how close the end of my year abroad is. It has also made me realise how many bulky house things I had to buy back in September, which will never fit into the alloted luggage allowance for the Eurostar and train up to Scotland. In a burst of inspriation (and dread at having to find some way to recycle everything) I've emailed the housing officer at the International Relations Office asking for help selling everything, so fingers crossed there! I might look slightly odd travelling the 700-odd miles from Antwerpen to Dundee on 4 different trains and in 3 different countries with pillows exploding from my suitcase and lamps dangling from my rucksack...

In the spirit of coming to the conclusion of my stay, exam season has started! Normally I dread its coming, but this time for whatever reason it doesn't seem all that bad. Maybe it's because of the high percentage of paper worth compared to exam, maybe it's because I know the subjects better (unlikely when it comes to WTO), or maybe it's just because it's June and I'm almost finished.

Yesterday was my first exam - Discrimination law. It was actually not that hideous - 40% of the grade based on 20 multiple choice questions and 2 essay questions set from an open list of 12, and completely open book. I have to say, the Handbook is definitely the student's friend for this one! Combined with the powerpoints from the lectures, all the answers for the multiple choice were easy to find and everything needed for the essays was at my fingertips, a mere flip of the page away. Next up is Private law on Monday which is also open book, but not open question (sadly). Since it's worth 50% and the paper was 50%, it shouldn't be all that awful, despite the 800 plus pages of materials in the reader. Especially when I think about the feedback I got for my paper! Professor Janssens said it was "outstanding" and "excellent", and one of the best in the class! I have high hopes for an A or B for that half, which sets me up nicely for the exam half.

Handing my External Relations and Globalisation papers in was fantastic. I spent so much time and energy on them, I really hope I do well! Slight drama ensued when trying to submit my Globalisation paper (I'd handed External Relation in a few days earlier) as not only was there no submission link of BlackBoard for the electronic version, the printers in the library were all offline so I couldn't print the hard copy to submit! After talking to Terry she agreed to print it for me and told me to email it so it all got sorted in the end, but there was definitely a moment or two of panic about missing the deadline! In celebration of finishing my papers, I ate some chocolate and counted just how many words I've written for papers this year and in 7 papers I have managed to write 37,212 words. Astounding.

11 days until the exams are over...I can't wait! Summer in Dundee, here I come!