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!

"I'm sorry, did you just say 'postgraduate'?"

As predicted, my stress level has gotten rather high in the last two weeks! Although it was a relief to finally hand in my Discrimination paper (all 5999 words of it) I then had to work on my preparation for my Globalisation seminar, do the prep for the group assignment in WTO (which was pushed back to the 7th by an act of some benevolent law god) as well as the general course reading. 7 weeks, 5 days and counting - Dundee, here I come!

In other (pretty astonishing) law news, while looking around the UA website trying to find which days the university is closed on next week (Tuesday is apparently a bank holiday and I'd written it down on Monday in my diary) I stumbled across the new and updated Law Faculty page for students wanting courses in English. Imagine my surprise when, the 3rd year undergraduate student that I am, read the following:

     "The IELSP is a postgraduate study programme offering a variety of courses in international, European and comparative law"

After reading that through a few more times, I then saw that the IELSP is apparently one of the two masters level programmes UA offer to international students in law, and that you are supposed to have completed at least three years of law school before enrolling. I did two before I got here... No wonder the workload is so big, the classes are so hard, and the Belgian masters students share some of the classes! On the plus side? It will look even more impressive on my CV that not only did I study abroad for a year but that I studied a postgraduate course while in the middle of my undergraduate course! Employment, here I come!

The weather has here been too fickle to venture out for walks and wanders, and I've managed to visit every museum in Antwerpen with my visitors. When my girlfriend comes for a visit in less than two weeks we're planning on venturing over to Gent and maybe some more of the coast if the weather is nice. There is a light at the end of that dark tunnel which plagues law students as exam season approaches! Well, better get back to working on my three term papers and presentation if I'm to be finished in 7 weeks and on my way back to the lovely UK.

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!

Law, assignments and just a little bit of fun

Sorry it's been so long since my last update! Life here in Antwerpen has been crazily busy for the last four weeks. To make up for it here’s a nice long one :)

 

The primary reason for the crazy is, inevitably, law. My lecturers love to keep us on our toes and busy, busy, busy! I feel like I'm spending every spare moment in the library tucked away in my usual corner typing away on my laptop (it is far too early in the year to have a regular library seat). As a taster here is the (current) list of my assignments and when they're due:

• Economic 1 (500 words) handed in
• Economic 2 (1500 words) due 17/11
• Constitutionalism (4000 words) handed in today!
• Children's Rights (6000 words and a 7 minute presentation) due 9/12

Economic have already threatened a third straight after we hand in the second, and this is on top of all the usual preparatory reading! Bring on the Christmas holiday – 5 days with my family and a week with my best friend back here in Antwerpen to celebrate the New Year will be a most welcome break before exams in January.

Thanks to all the time I’ve been spending in the library working on assignments I’ve had to figure out the UA printing system – and it is a very strange system. You need to not only figure the printing mechanism but also how to assign your betaalkaart (payment card) and load it with credit, so here’s a couple of quick How To’s:

           

            How to: assign your betaalkaart

1.      Do not try to assign it using the PayPoint – it won’t work! Go to the printing/copying/scanning room (usually in the centre of the main reading room)

2.      Pick a photocopier and put your card on the black box on the right to scan your card

3.      When it asks for login details use your normal UA login (i.e. what you use for blackboard/mail)

4.      Voilà! Your betaalkaart will now automatically sign you in whenever and wherever you scan it

How to: print in the UA library

1.      Open the document you want to print on a library computer

2.      When you click ‘print’ choose the FollowMe printer (black/colour/unspecified)

3.      Go to the printing/copying/scanning room and login to a photocopier

4.      Choose ‘print job’ and select what you want to print, and ta-da! it appears as if by magic.

In other law-related yet fun news – the IELSP is running a trip to Brussel at the end of the semester. We don’t have all the details yet but have been told that the trip is mandatory and that amongst other things we’ll visit the European Parliament, have dinner together and that all the costs of this day will be carried by the IELSP. Sounds pretty good to me!

Enough of law – I just had a week off and spent it exploring Flanders and Antwerpen some more with my girlfriend and must share the amazing places we found! The weather was lovely the whole week, sunshine and warm days abounded. To take advantage of that we wandered over to a Linkeroever park on the Friday via Sint-Anna’s Tunnel (worth the walk at least once if only for the fantastic wooden escalators) to look at the Antwerpen skyline and stroll through the crunchy leaves in the rather nautically themed park near the tunnel exit. A trip to Delhaize and a game of travel monopoly (no weighted dice this time!) finished the relaxing first day of the holiday. 

On the Saturday we went to the medieval canal city of Brugge, situated west of Antwerpen towards the coast. Wow. This city is one of the, if not the, most beautiful cities either of us have ever been to – definitely worth the train fare! (Which, if you’re sensible and buy the Go-Pass 10, is only 10€ return…) We arrived at around 11am and, after studying the map and the recommendations of the Lonely Plant Belgium & Luxembourg guide, decided to meander our way to the centre of town via the Minnewater canal and the majority of the sights that we wanted to see. After a (very) small accidental detour we found the first of many pretty bridges that lead us to the Begijnhof and ‘t Beijnghuisje (1€ for students), a tranquil garden home to a convent of Benedictine nuns and a small house that shows the traditional way of life. Next we wandered towards Sint-Janshospitaal via two really pretty godshuizen (alms-houses) to explore the 12^th century hospital building and (slightly reluctantly on my part) learn more about historical medical implements (1€ for students). The best bit was the free entry to the 17^th century restored pharmacy off a courtyard around to the right of the main entrance – but be aware it closes during lunch so you may have to come back to see it. After walking around the OLV-kerk (neither of us particularly wanted to see inside) we came across the Gruuthuse and Arentshuis courtyard with some truly spectacular spires covered in deep red autumn ivy on our way to Hof Arents and the small but idyllic Sint-Bonifaciusbrug bridge over the Minnewater. 

A slow walk along the canal led us to Vismarkt (noticeably lacking in fish) and to the Stadhuis (very ornate in a baroque style but very out of place amongst the red brick of the rest of Brugge) before emerging in the Markt at the foot of the 13^th century Belfort to the sound of its 47-bell carillon being played. We tried to climb it but the queue was so long we decided to go and have a hot chocolate and waffle in the Craenenburg Café which is situated on the site that in 1488 the Brugge townsmen held the kidnapped heir to the Hapsburg empire for 4 months (the hot chocolate was nice, as was the atmosphere, but the waffle wasn’t as good as those in Antwerpen) before delving into the food festival outside to find the statue of Pieter De Conick & Jan Breydel. At this point it was getting to be late afternoon so we wandered a bit north and then back along Steenstraat past Sint-Salvatorskathedraal and into the parks along the canal near the station, where we found a mountain of leaves to play in, a lovely bridge and a really pretty and idyllic view.

After a lazy Sunday morning we decided to continue our mission to visit all of the historic house museums in the city (begun with the Plantin and Moretus museum) with Ruebenshuis. Our 1€ student entry fee (UA and UoD cards accepted) included a booklet guide to the house (amazingly, the ticket lady gave me the Dutch version after I ordered in perfect Dutch!) which was full of handy information. The house was really nice – large, beautiful and full of amazing things. Our favourite was up in the attic in an exhibition on Ruebens as an architect, and was an oil on marble painting (by another artist) of the cathedral to demonstrate Ruebens’ influence in the design. According to Lonely Planet if you have a ticket to Ruebenshuis you can get in free to the Museum Mayer van de Bergh as well, so despite it not being advertised (at all) we wandered over (via the chocolate shop in Paleis de Meir to watch the chocolatiers at work) to give it a go for an hour. So very, very worth it! After tentatively handing our tickets over we were immediately given a copy of the English guide and set loose in the museum. Designed in the style of the 16^th century the museum was actually built by Mayer van de Bergh’s mother in 1904 to house his art collection after his death, and is done beautifully. We got so absorbed looking at everything we got asked to leave when it closed! Definitely worth a visit even if you don’t go to Ruebenshuis as the ticket for a student is only 1€. 

In the evening we decided to go wild and dress up for dinner and cocktails. I had a voucher for Wagamama’s from my ESN welcome pack, so off we went. The food was delicious – just as good as in the UK – although my attempts to order Japanese food in Dutch were met by English from the waiter. Afterwards, not really knowing where to get cocktails in a country obsessed with beer, we meandered down Meir towards Groenplaats where we found Bistro 33 advertising them. Braving the sounds of cheesy music floating out we went in and discovered some delicious drinks, although with not so delicious price tags (8-12€). The Cosmopolitan and Mai Tai were great!

Halloween is apparently a huge deal in Ireland (my girlfriend is Irish) so as Monday was 31.10 I went a-googling to try and find some type of festivity anywhere in Flanders. I struggled initially – Halloween isn’t really a big deal in Belgium – but then stumbled across Oostende. Oostende is a seaside town just west of Brugge and only about 1½ hours from Antwerpen on the train, and is completely obsessed with Halloween. Off we went! Before we really got into the swing of the festivities we wandered to the beach (I didn’t see the sea first so had to pay a waffle as a penalty) and paddled, ate our picnic and built sandcastles using the empty lunchbox (students can be surprisingly resourceful when fun demands it) before looping around town through Leopold II Park (it had a clock made of flowers that actually told the time!) and the Old Harbour to Visserkaai to grab some frieten (delicious) and wait for the free mini-ferry over to the other side of the river so we could visit Fort Napoleon. 

For the Halloween season (which lasts about a month in Oostende) the fort is transformed into ‘Grizelfort’ (Creepy Fort) and inhabited by pirates and many, many spiders. The student price was 4€ but as this included the ferry over and back we felt it wasn’t too much, especially as after looking around the fort we went for a walk along the sand dunes while the sun set. When we were back in the main town (having just made it to the final ferry cut-off) we wandered through the funfair to Sint-Petrus & Pauluskerk just before it closed which was beautiful and Oostende’s most striking historical building.  As there was meant to be a huge Halloweenspektakel in the evening, we had an early dinner at a lovely little wine-bistro recommended by Lonely Planet as cheap and intimate called Di Vino, which lived up to the review with a cosy atmosphere and a tasty menu with a few vegetarian options, although we may have insulted the owner by not ordering wine.

After dinner we wandered past the 1958 Belfry tower and back towards the Old Harbour and followed the crowds to Maria-Henrietta Park for the show. The show was fantastic! Almost the whole town turned out to watch the hour-long performance, which although was in Dutch, we understood enough combined with the acting and dancing to get the gist (plus we looked up a brief synopsis before we went), and the explosions, fireballs, and fireworks display certainly helped! Best of all? It was free! 

After the excitement of Halloween and the fact it was a national holiday, Tuesday was spent picnicking and exploring the beautiful Stadspark all kitted out in its autumn majesty before wandering through Het Zuid on an architectural walk where we just took it in turn to choose the direction. We found some really beautiful buildings this way, and got to see the building where (apparently) Europe’s finest art gallery is – unfortunately it’s closed for renovation for the next 6 years. 

The final day of our holiday together was spent at the new Museum aan de stroom (MAS), which for the 1€ student entrance fee, is well worth it. They have a (free to everyone) panorama floor on top with a fantastic view over Antwerpen and Linkeroever, and each of the floors is arranged around a theme, not just a period in history. The second floor was interesting as well as some of the storage is open to the public so you can wander around pulling out drawers and peering into cages!

Phew! I’d better get back to typing legal words, otherwise I’ll never conquer Mount Law-work!