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!

"The end is nigh" - Mount Law-Work has almost been conquered

Well it's been three weeks since discovering that my course is actually taught at masters level, and there has been plenty of associated stress since then! Luckily for my sanity my girlfriend flew over for a final visit before I move back to Dundee so there was plenty of fun and non-law excitement mixed in too.

Law news first...I've had my final class in Antwerpen! I can't believe it's been a year already, it doesn't seem that long ago that I was getting lost and confused by everything in September. Although it's a relief to have finished my classes so I can focus on my External Relations and Globalisation term papers and get started on revision for the upcoming exam season, I have to say I'm going to miss some of my modules. Discrimination was interesting despite the four hour classes at 8.30am, and Protection of Human Rights with Vandenhole was fantastic. Having had Vandenhole for both Children's Rights and Protection of Human Rights, I definitely recommend taking any subject he's teaching - there might be a fair amount of reading but his teaching style is really enjoyable and you really don't notice how much work you end up doing for his classes.

After a fairly uneventful 10 days (the high point was the conclusion of my WTO course - hallelujah) my girlfriend arrived so I could finally have some time off from law. As it was her birthday a few days before, I'd bought her a copy of Le Cordon Bleu's Chocolate Bible, so after doing the food shop we got to work creating the most heavenly chocolate-orange mousse. Seriously, that was one utterly heavenly mousse. The chocolate, the hint of orange, the textual delight of thin slices of caramelised orange rind swirled through the mousse...mmm. Note to self - make again soon!

Since the weather was so nice on the Thursday we picnicked in Plantentuin and went to MoMu to have a look at their latest exhibition on women's daily fashion between 1750 and 1950. The exhibition is on until 12th August so if you're in Antwerpen over the summer it's definitely worth a look - and it's only €1 for under 26's. Unfortunately my Discrimination presentation was postponed from the week before due to a clash with a visiting lecturer in Private Law, so Friday was spent with me quietly stressing over my presentation before having to abandon my girlfriend for three hours (instead of the supposed two) on my campus while I went and presented my paper. The presentation seemed to go okay despite my mega-nerves so fingers crossed for the final exam now!

As a delightful counter to the stress of the day before, we headed to Gent on Saturday to complete our tour of Flanders. After some confusion over train times (the Internet gave a different time to the timetable at Station Zuid) we arrived in the very impressive Gent St. Pieters Station to the south of the city ready to wander into the centre via a canal or two.

      Handy hint: if you don't want to buy a whole GoPass 10 but still want to travel cheaply on the weekend, get the Weekend Ticket. This is available for any age and can be used from 19.00 on Friday to the end of Sunday for only €5 each way - that's a 50% discount! Book online and print at home or buy in Antwerpen Centraal Station for use from any Station in the Antwerpen Zone

      Handy hint: if you don't fancy walking the 2km to the centre from the south, Gent Dampoort Station is further north and closer to the centre but less frequently served

We started out exploring Citadelpark which, however lovely Stadspark is in Antwerpen, was definitely the nicest park we've found in Flanders. It has secret-looking stairs and paths hidden everywhere! Who cares if it's sort of childish to be excited about secret paths in woods at age 21, it was fun! It paid off too, as we stumbled across some kind of festival with a 1920's style band and dance group parading around. Despite our plans to get to the Plantentuin (Botanic Garden) before the hot houses closed, because of the train confusion we didn't make it in time. Still, the outside gardens were absolutely stunning, complete with secret paths, a lake/pond, ducks (ducks are fabulous birds to have in parks) and the scariest fish ever (it was just floating near the edge of the pond so we wandered up all innocently and it swooshed off making a huge commotion). Definitely worth a visit, and judging from the enormity of the hot houses, worth getting there nice and early to go round them.

Walking up Canal Leie was very pretty, although Brugge's canals were a little prettier and generally more romantic. After lunching in St-Baafsplein we headed up the Belfort to get a view over the city before exploring more at ground level. Not just a large clock/bell tower, the Gent Belfort contains a Bell Museum. Don't be put off - we thought it sounded boring too and only went in for the view at the top, but it was actually really interesting. I now know all about how bells are made! Next up was a wander towards Gravensteen (Gent's Castle) via Groot Vleeshuis (pretty architecturally inside but the hanging lumps of smoked meat were slightly off-putting for a vegetarian like me), and Grasbrug/Graslei. Now I know there are some silly signs in the world, but for the City of Gent to put a sign on an extremely picturesque bridge overlooking medieval shopfronts (rebuilt in 1913 for the World Fair) facing the canal saying 'Photo Moment' seems slightly ridiculous to me. Nonetheless, we followed the instructions like good little tourists before heading onto Gravensteen. Gravensteen is surprisingly large for a castle in the centre of a city. After some debate over the €6 entry fee we decided we wanted to explore some more passages and look out over the ramparts so headed in only to find that for some inexplicable reason we were charged €4 instead. Marvellous! Inside was filled with weapons, torture instruments (interesting in a disturbing sort of way) and grand halls which were rescued after the castle was restored from being a cotton mill in the early 20th Century, and the views from the top and the walk around the courtyard surrounding the keep alone definitely make the entrance fee worth it.

The final day of her visit was beautifully sunny so after a quick trip to the Carrefour by Bolivarplaats (the only one open on Sunday mornings in the whole of Antwerpen's centre) we headed to Stadspark for a few hours lounging in the sunshine, spotting baby rabbits hiding in the grass and the cutest baby bird being taught to swim and find food by its parents. All in all, a great visit! Shame the law had to recommence straight away... Still, with my Private Law paper handed in and the majority of my External Relations paper written, the end is in sight. Back to the grindstone for the final stretch!

"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.

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.

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!

Sunshine and essay writing

Summer has most definitely arrived. Despite a cold couple of days last week, the skies have cleared, the flowers have bloomed, the birds have begun to sing, and the temperature has regualarly climbed to 16 or 17 degrees - on Thursday it even reached 19! Seeing the city in the sunshine again without battling with an umbrella/unruly scarf/bulky coat/all of the above has reminded me just how beautiful it is here. I still thought it was pretty in the winter, but somehow sunshine makes everything look nicer and makes you notice the little details you seem to miss in months of seemingly eternal cloud coverage. If it's this nice in the middle of March, I can't wait until May and June, hopefully it'll be like when I arrived and be 25-30 degrees all the time - definitely not Scotland!

Inspired by my success in Children's Rights, I've decided to use my paper as the basis of my final year dissertation, if I can convince a tutor in Dundee to supervise it of course, so I met with Vandenhole to get some feedback on what I could've done better and how to develop it into a full dissertation. He was really helpful with ideas on development, recommending books, approaches and potential topics to explore, but when I asked how I could've got an 18 or 19 out of 20 instead of the 17 I did get, he said that actually my paper was perfect, but UA don't actually award higher than a 17! This really is a strange marking system if only certain numbers of students can get each grade and they don't even award the top mark for perfect papers that couldn't be improved. I just hope this policy is taken into account when UoD translate the grades - I don't want to get a B in Dundee for an A equivilant in this ridiculous system!

Having been enlightened to the system, I have determined to work extra hard on my term papers this semester so that they'll be a good contribution to my exam grade (if I have an exam). In order to get on top of the mountain of words that I'm expected to churn out, I'm taking each paper in turn and working intensely on it, starting with Discrimination. After 10 hours on Friday, 6 yesterday and who knows how many during the rest of the week squeezed in between classes, I have lost count of the number of cases, statutes, regulations, directives and recommendations that I've read. I have however, almost finished (thank goodness). I'm absolutely loving researching this, but I need to get it finished so I can work on my presentation and other papers.

Tomorrow evening I'm going to a free film showing of the Belgian film 'Illégal' on campus. It's in French with English subtitles and looks pretty interesting. The cinema is expensive here even for students (7,50€) so it'll be good to see a film on a big screen.

The External Relations teacher is over from the UK this week, so I have a lot of reading for his 4 classes on top of the reading for WTO and Protection of Human Rights (Private has been cancelled - our teacher had to move back to the US so we have another one filling in) ... onwards and upwards, I will reach the summit of Mount Law Work this semester!

Classes, reading and even more reading...sound familiar?

Three weeks into the semester and I am convinced that the summit of Mount Law Work has gotten further away than it was last semester. Or perhaps the foot-high pile of compulsorary set reading materials for six subjects has obscured the view somewhat.

So after three weeks of going to class, reading the set materials and planning term papers, it's probably time to pass judgement on the modules that I'm taking. There are four compulsory subjects required for the IELSP certificate this semester and two options:

• External Relations of the EU
• Law and Globalisation
• Law of the WTO
• International and European Protection of Human Rights

       I've chosen to take these options:

• European Private Law
• European and Comparative Discrimination Law

I haven't had External Relations since the first week, but did enjoy it then and thought the lecturer was nice. Even better, we've been informed that our assessment isn't going to be a final exam but 80% paper and 20% oral presentation in class. Term papers are so much better than exams! Globalisation is basically legal philosophy, and would be interesting if the lecturer didn't just repeat everything the reading materials said. Still, with an 80% paper and 20% seminar participation, I think it won't be all that bad. Protection of Human Rights is taught by Prof. Vandenhole who taught Children's Rights last semester, and is my favourite subject by far. Assessment might be purely a final oral exam but the topics we cover are interesting, varied, and very well presented. WTO on the other hand...all I can say about this subject is shudder. Hideous, fast-paced and so full of technical detail you don't have chance to keep up before Prof. Herwig has moved on.

My options are both okay too. Private Law is taught by a very enthusiastic lecturer and is a relatively interesting topic. The only downside is the 728 page compulsorary reading materials she's set for the course. Comparative Discrimination is probably my favourite after Protection of Human Rights as the lectures (although in four hour blocks starting on a Friday at 8.30am, we only have 4 in the whole semester) are well structured, the lecturer (a lawyer with Allen & Overy) gives us printed copies of the lecture slides, and we got to pick the subject of our term paper meaning I get to write 6000 words (including footnotes) on analysing the actually interesting subject of sexual orientation discrimination in the UK from a European perspective. With over 900 words already written (bearing in mind the topic was only approved yesterday), this should be pretty easy going.

In non-law news, I've been doing some painting and looking forward to the Easter holiday when I'll be flying back to Dundee for a week before settling down for some serious paper writing in the second week.

      Handy hint: if you like to paint and want materials while you're in Antwerpen try Wim Meeussen on the way to Grote Markt from Stadscampus at Wijngaardstraat 11

I also had pretty bad toothache for a week and had to brave the Apotheek (pharmacy) to get some more painkillers. Belgium has much stricter control of who can sell pain relief medication, so don't expect to be able to nip into Carrefour or Del Haize and grab some cheap paracetamol or ibuprofen, because here only licensed pharmacists can dispense medication. This means that you have to go to an Apotheek (there are usually two or three on any given street in the city marked out by big neon green cross signs) and tell the pharmacist what's wrong and they'll recommend what to take and give you some. You will pay a bit more than you would over here though so be prepared - I bought 30 tablets of 400mg ibuprofen (equivilant in dosage to 60 UK tablets) for 6,09€ instead of the 1 or 2 pounds I would've paid back in Dundee. Good news? After a few days the pain went away so I haven't had to face the privatised dental system they have in place over here. 

Most of my classes for next week have been cancelled for one reason or another (though unfortunately WTO has added an extra class and Globalisation has a four-hour slot to make up for a missed class last week) so I expect to be spending many an hour in the library trying to get on top of the reading mountain and make headway into the many, many thousands of words required for papers this semster. Exciting times loom ahead...!

"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!

Gelukkige Kerstmis en Nieuwjaar!

At long last there has been a minimum amount of legal work for the last two weeks!

Wandering the Christmas market was great (lots of Gluhwein and waffels were consumed) with the best part being able to go skating next to Het Steen and the Scheldt. Unfotunately I was silly and forgot my own skates and had to borrow some (which weren't at all comfortable) but otherwise it was great to be out on the ice practicing turns and spirals after a few months off. The fun weekend continued with the IELSP trip to Brussel - free train travel, free lunch, a tour of the European Parliament building, entry to the Parlamentarium and a lecture by the head of the European Commission's legal team negotiating EU accession to the ECHR and free dinner, dessert and wine. Fantastic!

Sadly the law kicked in again for my Children's Rights presentation, but a whizzy powerpoint and a nervous 7 minutes of speech later it was over and I was officially on holiday - woo!

A few days of frantic packing, present buying and stressing about the public sector strike the day before flying home later I landed in the UK after almost 4 months on Belgian soil - it was good to be home. After a whirl of family meals and a surprise trip to see The Snowman in Birmingham is was time to fly back to Antwerpen again with my best friend for our traditional New Year's celebrations.

Being the good students that we are (and worried about the impending exam season) we've been revising for a couple of hours each morning and then going to museums, eating waffels/chocolate/frieten, skating and visiting Brussel. Tonight we plan to see 2012 in from by Het Steen for a 20-minute fireworks display over the Schedlt - the perfect way to get in amongst the Antwerpen community and celebrate the beginning of another year.

Until next year!

A few thousand words and a Kerstmarkt

Yet again, my life has been law filled these last two weeks, with a heavy focus on my Children's Rights paper. On the plus side? 6000 words and 20 pages written, 33 pieces of legislation, 7 cases, 7 journal articles, 2 reports and a mountain of statistics read later, it is almost done! A conclusion and a proof read to go, and it will be finished and I can start on my presentation for next week. Amazingly, considering this paper has taken over most of my waking thoughts for the past 3 weeks, I've actually enjoyed doing the research and am considering developing it further in my dissertation next year (if UoD like the idea, that is). Maybe a closer examination of the standards of care for youth offenders in detention in the different jurisdictions of the UK?

Unfortunately my final Economic paper isn't going quite as well. Having worked out that 5% of the module mark means approximately 0.2% of my degree classification, it's kind of hard to get enthused about researching 500-750 non-legal words on the Eurocrisis. I will work on it...tomorrow. After children's rights.

In an effort to kick-start the revision process before Christmas, last Monday I resolved to do a mind-map a day, and have actually managed to stick to it! My folder is all organised by subject and now has 11 prettily coloured pages of revision. It's really quite a good way of refreshing the brain after a marathon essay writing session - today I worked on my paper for 6 hours straight and it was such a mental relief to get the felt-tips out and do some colouring! And it was fun :)

Not everything has been law law law though, on Saturday the Kerstmarkt (Christmas Market) opened in town, so I wandered through after the library closed. I'll explore it properly next weekend when my girlfriend is over for our Christmasy weekend together, but even just a quick wander definitely whetted my appetite for proper exploring - sparkly lights, a merry-go-round, a fire pot, huge christmas trees everywhere, the smell of fresh waffels and gluhwein (mulled wine) floating on the air, and an outside ice-rink on the riverside by Het Steen.

Next weekend promises to be filled with lots of non-legal fun, and on Monday there is apparently a free IELSP trip to Brussel including a trip to the European Parliament. Fun times ahead!

"Mount Law-Work reaches new heights"

Well it hasn't been a very exciting two weeks, as per usual law work has taken over leaving little time for fun. Even the weather hasn't been exciting - some sun, some cloud, temperatures of around 6/7 degrees and no rain. What happened to the snow and ice I was promised? Belgium is meant to get cold in the winter yet some days I don't even need a coat on at the end of November! At least in four weeks I'll be flying home for a couple of days holiday.

My law work at the moment is focusing heavily on researching and writing my draft for my Children's Rights term paper, due 16/12/2011. 6000 words on a topic of my choice may sound a lot but since I got to choose what I'm writing about it's actually quite interesting. I decided to focus on juvenile justice rights (sometimes known as youth justice) within the countries of the UK and see how far these rights are compatible with the UK's international obligations, with my main focus on the minimum age of criminal responsibility and the adaptation of procedures, and possibly looking at detention of youth offenders. My question (as it stands at the moment, it's subject to change) is:

      "To what extent are juvenile justice rights, as granted by the United Nations and the Council of Europe, applied and interpreted within the different legal jurisdictions in the United Kingdom?"

In other law news, revision has been begun alongside the usual preparatory chapters, legislation and case reading that must be done, and the trusty coloured pens have been taken out to begin the marathon of mind-maps (yes, I realise they look too fun and colourful and 'artistic' for a serious law student, but they make revision fun, and get the important stuff on handy A4 pages you can carry around on trams/trains/planes for whenever (if-ever) you feel inspired to study!). Sigh. Exams will be happening between the 9th and 23rd January with results on 26th. Unfortunately my 21st birthday falls in this period, of course on a weekday, so chances are I'll have to write an exam on my birthday :( On the upside, there won't be any classes until 13th February so I'm flying back to the UK for the European Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield (my girlfriend got me a ticket for the Mens and Ladies Free programme day) and then heading up to Scotland for a week or so and back south to England to visit family. This definitely makes up for the teeny tiny Christmas holiday i'm getting this year!

Other than having to buy a sourcebook for Competition Law (50€! For a book i'll use in one exam! An absolute outrage) nothing else has really happened lately. The Kerstmarkt starts in two weeks in the centre of Antwerpen, so that should bring some exciting opportunties to get into the Flemish culture. Tot ziens!

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!