Deadlines, reading and a few more deadlines - welcome back

As the holidays draw to a close I am sadly being forced to start contemplating the coming classes and deadlines more seriously than just as a vague idea hovering in the middle-distance. With just 9 1/2 weeks until I return to the UK and a mere 7 until the beginning of exams it's time to step up the legal work - farewell relaxed weekends spent lounging around in pajamas and watching films.

To give an idea of the craziness about to ensue, here is my deadlines/exam schedule:

• 18 April External Relations seminar
• 20 April Discrimination paper due
• 20 April WTO Group Assignment 2 due
• 25 April Globalisation seminar
• 4 May Discrimination presentation
• 15 May Private paper due
• 29 May External Relations paper due
• 29 May Globalisation paper due
• 1 June Discrimination exam
• 4 June Private exam
• 8 June WTO exam
• 14 June Protection of Human Rights exam

 My stress level is certainly going to climb quite high, especially in the next 2 weeks! At least I had an amazing week in Dundee with my girlfriend going to the cinema, art openings and (3 years after moving to Dundee) the RRS Discovery. Plus I got to do a serious amount of practice at the rink (as can be shown in the lingering bruises 2 weeks later) - wind-up spin 2-3 revolutions? Check!

Now I have only just over 2 months left living in Antwerpen I've been thinking about what would have been useful to know ahead of setting out for the train station. The biggest impact on my budget (even with the Erasmus grant) was definitely textbooks and course readers. Being used to UoD where you only study a couple of subjects a semester and can usually share books or borrow them from the library, it was a big shock to my purse when I had to buy at least one book for almost every one of the 12 subjects I've studied. And of course, being law, it is hard to use second hand as new editions keep coming out and the lecturers update their course readers every year. In total I have been forced to buy 8 sets of materials and 4 books, and had to print over 300 pages for various subjects. And Amazon either doesn't sell them or doesn't discount more than a pound or two so it's easier to buy from Acco, the campus bookshop. Ouch. With the textbooks having an average cost of €45 and the readers costing on average €20 each (occasionally there will be one that's only €10 but some cost €30), that is a pretty hefty pricetag - make sure you leave plenty of room in your budget for the year!

      Handy hint: check the set textbooks for the subjects you've chosen before departing as you may be able to find last years edition and borrow a friends when the new version is different

Now that the holiday is almost over I must begin to tackle the reading mountain for the week ahead - and with classes in WTO, Protection of Human Rights, Globalisation and 10 hours of External Relations, it is a rather high mountain! I just hope I don't get altitude sicknes when I manage to reach the summit.

"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!