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!

Één week in de Stad van Antwerpen, België

Hallelujah! After a week of computer troubles my laptop now stays turned on long enough to blog!

Having been in Antwerpen for a week now I can honestly say it is fantastic place to live. It is beautiful, historic, friendly and accessible. My journey over here, on the other hand, was a nightmare! At one point I wasn't even sure I would get to London, let alone to Belgium, due to a major freight train fire on one of the main lines into Euston. After much too-ing and fro-ing I did eventually make it to London where I hot-footed it across to St Pancras International to get my tickets exchanged for the next train to Brussel-Zuid (luckily I had bought a combined ticket with my UK travel so I didn't have to pay anything extra for this - phew!).

Once I’d made it onto the Eurostar, it was great - it may have been a little worn around the edges back in Standard class, but it was fantastically fast and perfectly on time - and I made it to Brussel-Zuid in less than two hours. The trip was a great opportunity to look at the local landscape and appreciate how completely different it is to the UK i.e. totally flat! I even managed to catch a glimpse of a beautiful mural pulling in to the station at Lille opposite the platform, which I’ll definitely look out for again. Because of my delays I didn't leave Brussel-Zuid until half past 8 so it got dark fast as I changed at Berchem for Antwerpen-Zuid Station leaving me with nothing to look at outside. Luckily I had a map with me so I could try to figure out how to walk from the station to my building!

While I’d been frantically trying to get to Antwerpen, I’d managed to rearrange the time I’d meet my landlady so that she would be able to meet me to give me my keys and explain whatever needed to be explained. After struggling up what felt like a million steps from the station (but was only around 40) I finally made it to De Beuckerstraat. Once my landlady had left me in her daughter’s studio (my room was still occupied) I collapsed on the bed and slept for a long time – well deserved rest!

I spent my first full day in the city pottering around my local area, discovering where my tram stop is, my closest laundrette, the nearby park and (most importantly) my nearest supermarket. Carrefour Markt is roughly equivalent in size to a Tesco Metro, although the stock has the local variants instead of the typical UK staples – tinned things are apparently a rarity as the Belgians seem to enjoy jarred goods instead, most strange. (Handy hint: to find your local Carrefour Markt in België just enter your address here: http://www.gb.be/Shopsearch_search.cfm?lang=NL ) Price-wise most things were about the same or less in € as they would be in £ in the UK, meaning they’re a bit cheaper! Here’s a guide of what I paid for some of the basics:

• Small loaf of bread 1,40 €
• 1 kg sugar 1,12€
• 1kg pasta 0,85€
• 1l milk 0,80€
• 1l orange juice 0,99€
• 1 bunch bananas 1,50€
• Cereal (own brand) 2,85€
• Toilet paper (9 rolls) 2,25€
• Washing powder 3,95€

My EILC language course registration was on Thursday afternoon so beforehand I wandered into town and had a quick look around the Grote Markt, Groenplaats and Meir areas – stunning! I also stumbled upon the wonderful, the amazing, and the true student friend that is Hema. This shop is kind of like a cross between the homeware sections of Primark and Ikea, with some ‘essential’ foods, stationary, clothes, make-up and hygiene goods thrown in around the edges for good measure.  As I moved countries with only a rucksack, a suitcase and a handbag, I had no room for things like bedding, towels, lamps, storage boxes, mugs etc. so I have been gradually getting everything I need over the last week and lugging it home on the tram (luckily the 4 to Hoboken goes past Meirbrug just down the street!).

Mijn Nederlands is slowly improving after 4 days of full-on immersion class – it is seriously intense work! Not only is there no English in class, there is a mountain of homework and tests every two days in preparation for the final exams in two weeks. Thankfully my teacher makes it fun with lots of speaking, listening and reading as well as the traditional writing exercises, and my classmates are really nice. I’m the only native English speaker though so it can be funny at times trying to understand each other’s accents!

Mastering the tram system was my mission for Friday as I didn’t want to walk 45 minutes to get to class at 9.30! After consulting the map I got at registration (which I promptly lost after actually getting on the tram…) I decided I needed the number 24 to the stop at Franklin Roosevelts Plaats and headed to the stop at Antwerpen Zuid (over the rail station). As I hadn’t bought my ticket in advance (encouraged by DeLijn the company that runs the trams) I got on at the front and paid the driver the required 2€, sat back and enjoyed the ride! All I had to do to get off was press the blue button when we were approaching my stop – easy. I found out afterwards about the Lijnkaart you can buy from newsagents – ten journeys for 9€ - which is much cheaper so I bought one from a shop between Keizerstraat and Groenplaats on my way home (I got the 4 from Groenplaats).

How to: validate your tram ticket

1.       Go to the yellow ticket box and insert your ticket/lijnkaart with the arrow facing front and down

2.       Press the correct number of passengers making the journey (usually just 1)

3.       Take you card and make your way to a seat – easy!

Saturday was a hectic day as my landlady texted me saying I could move into my room at 3 – when I had originally wanted to be at the Laundry Day festival – so I had to pack everything up then wait until 4 before she actually showed up. She then spent almost an hour explaining how everything worked in excruciatingly slow detail when it was very obvious what needed to be done (grr). After she (finally) left I realised I had no bedding to sleep in so I had to run into town on the tram to get cheap stuff from Hema, run back, make my bed and head on over to the festival. I managed to make it there just after 6 so I wandered around for a couple of hours listening to the music, which was disappointingly mostly DJs and dance and trance. It wasn’t really my scene, so I bought some friets met saus (absolutely amazing – definitely the high point and worth battling to the counter for), sat on the grass for a while longer, and headed home again around 9. If club music isn’t really your thing – don’t bother going.

Today I mastered the laundrette – hurrah for clean clothes! It was slightly intimidating walking in and being faced with numerous signs in Dutch (it was self-service) but I persevered and succeeded in both cleaning and drying my clothes. To prevent others from being as terrified as I was here is my How to: wash clothes in an Antwerpen laundrette –

1.       Do not panic about having loads of change for the machine (it accepts notes up to 20€) but do make sure you have washing powder, dirty laundry and a book to read while it goes round

2.       Put clothes in an empty washing machine (make sure it’s a small one otherwise you’ll pay twice as much!)

3.       Select the programme by pressing the P button – 3 is colourwash, 6 is synthetics – and pour powder into the trays on top indicated by the red lights next to the programme number

4.       Go to the payment machine in the wall and put the amount in as stated on your washing machine (around 3,20-3,50€) and then press the button with the number of your machine on it to start it – do not press it until you are 100% ready to start the wash! When you want your change back press Wisselgeld.

5.       Read a book while you wait (timer on the front of the machine)

6.       When your clothes are clean transfer them to a dryer, close it and go to the payment machine, put in the amount for a cycle, usually 0,20€ for 4 minutes (you have to do each cycle separately – slow but you can check on the heat/length you need as you go), and press the number of your machine when you are 100% ready

7.       Go back to your dryer and select the heat level you want and wait for the cycle to end (repeat steps 6-7 as necessary)

Now that I have clean pyjamas it is time to go to bed and curl up with my Dutch notes to prep for my test tomorrow - goeidenacht!

T-minus 19 hours

In less than 19 hours I will be arriving in Antwerpen, and leaving home in only 12 - the nerves have officially set in!

I finished packing this morning, and I have my passport, some clothes, a couple of textbooks and some bits and pieces - what more could an intrepid law student need? If I've forgotten anything important I'll just have to do without or buy another one over there! As I'm travelling on the Eurostar I have a limit on my baggage - luckily not the weight - where I can only have two medium items (apparently a length of 85cm and below is 'medium' - this seems pretty large to me!) and a piece of hand luggage, so I haven't been able to take things like bedding, kitchen utensils or towels, meaning I will have to buy these things when I arrive or the next day - all part of the fun of moving via train!

My journey will be made up of 7 stages - car, train, walk, train, train, train, walk - and take just under 7 hours to cover the 399 miles from door to door. Lucky I enjoy travelling! I've packed my Dutch vocab book, the Cityspots guide to Antwerpen, Terra Incognita (a fantastic book about a woman's travels through Antartica) and some food and drink to enjoy along the way.

When I arrive I'll be meeting my landlord to collect my keys, move in and unpack. I suspect the remainder of my evening will be taken up with locating dinner and possibly some form of bedding! Wednesday is going to be a relaxed day of settling in and exploration of my new neighbourhood before I start my EILC on Thursday and suddenly have to get my brain into learning gear again after a summer off - eek!

As a mental break from language studies I've just booked my ticket for Laundry Day next Saturday. No, this is not a national day of clothes washing - the Belgians aren't (quite) that weird. It is actually Belgium's largest one day music festival, conveniently held a 10 minute bike ride from my room on De Beuckerstraat in the Antwerpen Zuid district. According to www.laundryday.be it started on a Saturday afternoon (the traditional laundry day) back in 1998. A local block party in Kammenstraat turned into a success - there was no stage, 1 live band, 1 disco bar, only 500 people and due to rain the party had to end early in the day. Nowadays it has moved to Nieuw Zuid, has 13 stages, 140 acts, around 60,000 partiers and lasts for 12 hours regardless of the weather. Sounds like a good time and a good way of learning about Belgian music, plus it's only 29 euros - detailed review to follow!

So having zipped up my suitcase, buckled my rucksack and entrusted my cat to my mother for the next year, my last night in England for 4 months draws to a close - next stop, Belgie!