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!

"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.

"Welcome back to Mount Law Work, we hope you have a pleasant visit"

Apologies for the slight hiatus, I've been rather busy having fun and getting back into study-mode!

My first week of holiday was spent thoroughly enjoying not having to study or go to exams, lying in, watching films and reading books. Proclamation did cast a shadow over the end of the week though due to the revelation that UA uses a ridiculous marking system when grading papers. UoD uses a system of if you earn X number of points you get the corresponding grade. UA says that instead, we'll rank the whole class's papers and then assign grades to certain numbers of people, so only the top 5% get an A, then the next 15% get a B, the next 40% get a C and everyone else either gets a D or a Fail. Translated into student numbers that means in the compulsory classes roughly only 2 people got A's, 6 got B's, 20 got C's and the other 12 were given what was left - a highly unfair system! Only 10 people managed to make the cut in every class, meaning the majority have to do a resit in August, me included (damn that Institutional Law). Luckily I can sit it in Dundee so I don't have to come all the way back to Antwerpen, however nice that would be in the height of summer. However, I did manage to get a B in Information and Communications, an A in Economic (so top 2 in the class) and an A in Children's Rights (top of the class), pretty great grades!

The weekend in Sheffield for the European Figure Skating Championships managed to take my mind off Institutional with a phenomenal display of skating. It was the Men's and Ladies Free Skate day so those who'd made it through Short Program were fighting for the title, and did they ever fight! The Men's skaters had some pretty great themes (The Matrix, The Jungle Book and Moulin Rouge to name but a few) and the Ladies, although many fell at least once, had some beautiful music and routines.

Watching all of that skating (10 hours in one day) inspired me to spend some serious training time while in Dundee for a week, resulting in 6 on-ice hours in two days at one point. I did manage to smooth out my turns and footwork, finally get the hang of the Salchow jump, polish my Waltz and Toe-loops to perfection,land some combination jumps and correctly enter/exit a 3-revolution wind-up spin - hallelujah! Thankfully my time off-ice hasn't damaged my technique too badly.

After a wonderful week with my girlfriend, which included an early Valentine's meal, it was time to head south again for a night with my parents before heading west with my grandparents to see my little brother at university in Wales (I still can't believe he's old enough to drive, let alone be at university), and heading back to see my parents again for a few more days. Phew! By the time I made it back to Antwerpen I'd travelled approximately 1900 miles in just two weeks.

Just in case I thought the lecturers for second semester were considering on easing us gently back into studying, I found reading lists for 4 of the 6 modules already on Blackboard, some of which had to be done for the day after I arrived back! Quick, to the print- and book-shops and the library!

            Handy hint: allow more room in your budget for second-semester books and materials as the lecturers all set compulsory-purchase books and readers with nice big price-tags attached

This has been a truly hectic week as on top of applying for summer placements with solicitor's firms and researching graduate recruitment, the External Relations lecturer is based at the University of Bristol, so he can only come over three times in the semester, meaning we have to cram 8 hours with him into just 3 days each time. Thank goodness I can take my gorgeous netbook (a 21st birthday present) to classes to type as he speaks, otherwise I think my hand would fall off trying to keep up with him! The subject is surprisingly interesting though, although that may be due to the intensity of focus we have on it in such a short space of time. The other modules are good (not had my optional choice of European Private Law yet) and seem interesting, but I will reserve final judgement for a week or two!

Time to get back to the books if I want to make the cut for the top 20% in everything this semester...tot ziens!

Farewell winter exam season, you won't be missed

Well it's been a busy and law-filled three weeks, but finally I have my semester break of three weeks before classes start up again on the 13th Feb. Hallelujah!

It has been very weird having a January exam season and not December like back in Dundee, and even weirder having so many exams and subjects - I haven't had this many in one season since doing my A-Levels! My consolation is that each module is only 5 ECTS (roughly 10 Dundee credits) so only worth around 4.2% of my final degree classification. This is especially reassuring in respect of Constitutionalism... everyone I've spoken about that exam to has said they went home and cried afterwards - it was that awful. 3 hours and just 1 question on a paper we hadn't discussed or even been told about in class. Shudder. On the plus side, the other exams were much nicer with their multiple questions and focus on blackletter law and not just theories about 'what is a constitution?', 'what is the rule of law' or 'how should judges interpret the law?' There is something curiously comforting about having a statute book and case reader in front of you in an exam.  

          Handy tip: if you bought a copy of Blackstone's EU Treaties and Legislation for your general EU module the year before, take it with you! It might not be this year's version but as long as it's post-Lisbon nothing important or relevant has changed.

Economic was fairly good, as was Competition (the ridiculously expensive sourcebook was actually useful...). Information and Communications took a 'wide and shallow' approach by asking a question on each lecture topic, which at least meant that I got a lot of use out of the mountain of legislation I'd had to print out (Prof. Van Eecke doesn't organise a course reader or recommend a statute book). Instituional was fairly thorough too, covering pretty much everything we did in class.

After finishing the final tweaks on my Children's Rights paper I submitted it yesterday, so now all I have to do for the next week is wait for Proclamation, wait for Friday to fly to Sheffield for the the European Figure Skating Championships (I am so excited about this!) and buy a rucksack for my cabin bag (I stupidly left mine locked away in storage in Dundee). Exciting times ahead! Although it is admittedly quite nice to sleep in and not feel guilty for somehow turning off the alarm and getting back into bed and going to sleep again.

Tot ziens!