Hey Everyone,
The last few weeks have raced by and I am presently writing from an apartment in Paris that my family has rented for the week.
I am done with Liege! Cue sad music!
Moving out of my kot really made it strike home that my exchange is done and it is back to real life and my real degree.
Unfortunately, that's all for now. I apologize for such a short teaser end post but I am running on 3 hours of sleep and would like to give this one more thought. Gotta be thorough!
Love to you all and stay tuned for the biggie end post,
Jacqueline
Friday 23 December 2011
Tuesday 13 December 2011
Liège Grenade & Gunfire Attacks
Hey Guys,
As most of you have probably heard by now, today Liège experienced a pretty devastating attack that left 4 dead and 75 injured. Although the details seem to keep changing ever few minutes and there is no consensus between news sources, the CBC story is the most accurate as far as details I have learned. Read the story and see the pictures for yourself.
CBC - Belgian Grenade Attack
As far as I know, everyone I know is safe and sound. A friend of mine was working out in a gym that is located just 50m away from where the attack occurred but otherwise it appears most people were still at the university or safely at their homes.
My apartment is just far enough away and on a loud enough street that I didn't hear the grenades or the gunfire. Kiersten could hear the gunfire though and we all bore witness to the dozens and dozens of emergency vehicles. My street got overwhelmed with rerouted vehicles as the Liège police shut down the city center.
I think about all the times I've walked through that area and just feel a chill run down my spine. In fact, I was there yesterday at the exact time the attacks happened today. Oi.
Yesterday Max and I had made plans to short cut across Place Saint Lambert today to go do interval training on the Montagne de Bueren. He got delayed this morning and our time got pushed back to 1:30 pm as a result. Our original running time would have put us within the same hour as the attacks. I reiterate - Oi.
Enough close calls really makes you wonder when your time is coming.
Here is my relative location to everything that happened today:
The worst part was just hearing all the rumors. At one point people were saying there were three gun men roaming around as close as Point B.
Love to each and every one of you,
Jacqueline
As most of you have probably heard by now, today Liège experienced a pretty devastating attack that left 4 dead and 75 injured. Although the details seem to keep changing ever few minutes and there is no consensus between news sources, the CBC story is the most accurate as far as details I have learned. Read the story and see the pictures for yourself.
CBC - Belgian Grenade Attack
As far as I know, everyone I know is safe and sound. A friend of mine was working out in a gym that is located just 50m away from where the attack occurred but otherwise it appears most people were still at the university or safely at their homes.
My apartment is just far enough away and on a loud enough street that I didn't hear the grenades or the gunfire. Kiersten could hear the gunfire though and we all bore witness to the dozens and dozens of emergency vehicles. My street got overwhelmed with rerouted vehicles as the Liège police shut down the city center.
I think about all the times I've walked through that area and just feel a chill run down my spine. In fact, I was there yesterday at the exact time the attacks happened today. Oi.
Yesterday Max and I had made plans to short cut across Place Saint Lambert today to go do interval training on the Montagne de Bueren. He got delayed this morning and our time got pushed back to 1:30 pm as a result. Our original running time would have put us within the same hour as the attacks. I reiterate - Oi.
Enough close calls really makes you wonder when your time is coming.
Here is my relative location to everything that happened today:
- The grenade attacks happened at Point C - Place Saint Lambert which is 1.3 km (10 minute walk) away.
- Rumors said that gunfire occurred at Point B - Place Saint Paul which is 600 m (4 minute walk) away.
 |
| Note the scale and how zoomed in we are... |
Love to each and every one of you,
Jacqueline
Thursday 8 December 2011
My Love Affair with Germany (December 2-3, 2011)
Hello Friends and Family,
I have a confession. I'm cheating on all of you. With Germany.
It started off as a mild interest in the people of the nation and has now bloomed into a full emotional affair complete with weekend flings in foreign cities.
It breaks down into two features:
- I am head over heels with the German people on exchange with me
- I am head over heels with the German language
Strange I know. People always comment on the harsh nature of the German language but believe me when I say it is absolutely beautiful and misunderstood. In fact, I am presently learning as much as possible in my spare time. In regards to the people, out of all the nationalities I have met it is the Germans who mirror Canadians the most in values and world view. Maybe it is just the ones I have had exposure to but I am convinced that Canada was secretly founded by Germany and not France or England (who are both so silly).
Back to the point.
Tina, my favorite German and frequent running partner, needed to go to Frankfurt to check out an apartment for her upcoming 6 month internship. I wanted to officially spend time in Germany (having only passed through its airport and trains) and make a pit stop at the Baha'i House of Worship. Et voila. Two weeks later I found myself in Germany.
I have a confession. I'm cheating on all of you. With Germany.
It started off as a mild interest in the people of the nation and has now bloomed into a full emotional affair complete with weekend flings in foreign cities.
It breaks down into two features:
- I am head over heels with the German people on exchange with me
- I am head over heels with the German language
Strange I know. People always comment on the harsh nature of the German language but believe me when I say it is absolutely beautiful and misunderstood. In fact, I am presently learning as much as possible in my spare time. In regards to the people, out of all the nationalities I have met it is the Germans who mirror Canadians the most in values and world view. Maybe it is just the ones I have had exposure to but I am convinced that Canada was secretly founded by Germany and not France or England (who are both so silly).
Back to the point.
Tina, my favorite German and frequent running partner, needed to go to Frankfurt to check out an apartment for her upcoming 6 month internship. I wanted to officially spend time in Germany (having only passed through its airport and trains) and make a pit stop at the Baha'i House of Worship. Et voila. Two weeks later I found myself in Germany.
Monday 5 December 2011
Sushi, Crepes, Village du Noel, Fernando's 22nd, Camillo's 25th, & Saint Nicholas ESN
Hello One and All!
As can be expected, now that we are nearing the end of exchange and have managed to actually solidify some friendships, the invitations for dinner parties and birthdays keep rolling in. In the last week and a half I have attended a homemade sushi night (hosted by an Italian and a German) that was followed by wandering the Christmas Market, a Spanish birthday party (where the host insisted on cooking everything himself), a homemade crepe night (where the French host made crepes for 40 people and hosted us all in his bedroom), a Brazilian birthday party (hosted for a friend by two Polish) and a secret Santa-esque/Saint Nicholas night.
It has just been so phenomenal getting to know all the different cultural traditions and trying all the different dishes. What I would give to get this kind of experience back home on a regular basis!
As can be expected, now that we are nearing the end of exchange and have managed to actually solidify some friendships, the invitations for dinner parties and birthdays keep rolling in. In the last week and a half I have attended a homemade sushi night (hosted by an Italian and a German) that was followed by wandering the Christmas Market, a Spanish birthday party (where the host insisted on cooking everything himself), a homemade crepe night (where the French host made crepes for 40 people and hosted us all in his bedroom), a Brazilian birthday party (hosted for a friend by two Polish) and a secret Santa-esque/Saint Nicholas night.
It has just been so phenomenal getting to know all the different cultural traditions and trying all the different dishes. What I would give to get this kind of experience back home on a regular basis!
 |
| Sushi at Martina & Marco's :) |
Tuesday 22 November 2011
Stockholm: November 18 - 20
Hello Everyone,
Last Friday marked the beginning of another whirlwind weekend trip. Kiki, Bee, and I jumped the first train to Chareloi in order to make our flight. This meant a 4:30 am wake up call in order to be on time for the consecutive train to bus to airport to plane. Although we managed a little sleep during travel, believe me when I say it was no where near enough. Thankfully, we had the adrenaline of being in a new country and an exciting new city to keep us on our feet as we started exploring Stockholm.
Last Friday marked the beginning of another whirlwind weekend trip. Kiki, Bee, and I jumped the first train to Chareloi in order to make our flight. This meant a 4:30 am wake up call in order to be on time for the consecutive train to bus to airport to plane. Although we managed a little sleep during travel, believe me when I say it was no where near enough. Thankfully, we had the adrenaline of being in a new country and an exciting new city to keep us on our feet as we started exploring Stockholm.
Friday 11 November 2011
Remembrance Day: 11-11-11
Hey Friends and Family,
Today was really special. I got to spend the 93rd anniversary of WWI in the Flanders Region of Belgium and attend their memorial ceremony.
Today was really special. I got to spend the 93rd anniversary of WWI in the Flanders Region of Belgium and attend their memorial ceremony.
Wednesday 9 November 2011
Little Homesick
Hello All,
It is interesting to be on exchange and discover what things are really missed from home and what things really aren't.
Firstly, before I delve in, look at how beautiful the park by my house is. Belgium gets a real Autumn, unlike back home. I'm in love with how green the grass still is despite all the orange leaves.
It is interesting to be on exchange and discover what things are really missed from home and what things really aren't.
Firstly, before I delve in, look at how beautiful the park by my house is. Belgium gets a real Autumn, unlike back home. I'm in love with how green the grass still is despite all the orange leaves.
 |
| Can't help but smile on days like this. |
 |
| Just out of sight is a little bit of a fountain :) |
Saturday 5 November 2011
Battle of the Cities: Video Follow Up
Hey Team!
This is something I thought was kind of neat. The Nike Belgium facebook page posted up a video compilation of our 10 km run. Take a look - watch for me throughout but particularly noticeable from the front at the 5 second mark and from behind (mass of bouncing curls!) at the 23 second mark.
I adore the shirt they gave us. It is really nice fabric and perfect for the weather in Belgium - which is still absolutely gorgeous (compared to Canada where everyone is bemoaning the first snow). I busted it out today for a run in the park with my German friend Tina. I'll have to take some pictures of the park here with all the amazing coloured leaves to show you all. Too beautiful!
Jacqueline
This is something I thought was kind of neat. The Nike Belgium facebook page posted up a video compilation of our 10 km run. Take a look - watch for me throughout but particularly noticeable from the front at the 5 second mark and from behind (mass of bouncing curls!) at the 23 second mark.
I adore the shirt they gave us. It is really nice fabric and perfect for the weather in Belgium - which is still absolutely gorgeous (compared to Canada where everyone is bemoaning the first snow). I busted it out today for a run in the park with my German friend Tina. I'll have to take some pictures of the park here with all the amazing coloured leaves to show you all. Too beautiful!
Jacqueline
Friday 4 November 2011
Italy: October 28 - November 2, 2011
Hi to all Family and Friends!
Because university activities were suspended for three days straight to celebrate All Saints Day (November 1) and both the proceding and following days, four of us (KSweet, Bee, and Germany) took the opportunity to escape Belgium and wander south. With no school for 6 days and cheap international flights, we launched into a whirlwind four city taste of Italy.
Because university activities were suspended for three days straight to celebrate All Saints Day (November 1) and both the proceding and following days, four of us (KSweet, Bee, and Germany) took the opportunity to escape Belgium and wander south. With no school for 6 days and cheap international flights, we launched into a whirlwind four city taste of Italy.
 |
| Our path and city order are in blue. As you can see, we stuck to Northern Italy. |
Sunday 23 October 2011
Classes, Battle of the Cities, and Antwerp
Bonjour Everyone!
This past week has been considerably busier in regards to school work. Firstly, French courses are up and running so Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-8 pm I get to indulge in the language here. I absolutely love that class. It is truly one of those that feels like no work at all despite the homework and quizzes. I just feel like a sponge soaking it all in. If I could, I would drop out of HEC (the management/economics faculty) and just take French full time. A girl can dream...
This past week has been considerably busier in regards to school work. Firstly, French courses are up and running so Monday and Wednesday evenings from 6-8 pm I get to indulge in the language here. I absolutely love that class. It is truly one of those that feels like no work at all despite the homework and quizzes. I just feel like a sponge soaking it all in. If I could, I would drop out of HEC (the management/economics faculty) and just take French full time. A girl can dream...
Saturday 22 October 2011
ESN Paris Trip: October 14-16
Hello All,
I truly should have written about Paris immediately after I returned - forgive the late posting!
The trip had a very early morning start with a 5 am meeting at the HEC campus to catch the coach. Myself and a few others stayed up all night in anticipation of the trip. What is the point of sleeping when you know you're going to bed around midnight and getting up around 4? Or so the logic went (and what completely terrible exchange student logic it was...). Due to some quick feet and good luck myself and Camillo (Brazil) managed to score the front seat on the top level of the bus. Driving 4.5 hours to Paris is much more bearable when you have the best seats in the house. Sleeping for more than half of it didn't hurt either. Until we actually got within 20 minutes of Paris, it was an extremely quiet bus ride as everyone crashed.
First stop on the tour was the palace of Versailles. We only had an hour or so to whip through the main palace and tour the gardens. While it was not enough time, it was a great opportunity for everyone to stretch their legs and get a good idea of the grandeur and splendor of the place...
I truly should have written about Paris immediately after I returned - forgive the late posting!
The trip had a very early morning start with a 5 am meeting at the HEC campus to catch the coach. Myself and a few others stayed up all night in anticipation of the trip. What is the point of sleeping when you know you're going to bed around midnight and getting up around 4? Or so the logic went (and what completely terrible exchange student logic it was...). Due to some quick feet and good luck myself and Camillo (Brazil) managed to score the front seat on the top level of the bus. Driving 4.5 hours to Paris is much more bearable when you have the best seats in the house. Sleeping for more than half of it didn't hurt either. Until we actually got within 20 minutes of Paris, it was an extremely quiet bus ride as everyone crashed.
First stop on the tour was the palace of Versailles. We only had an hour or so to whip through the main palace and tour the gardens. While it was not enough time, it was a great opportunity for everyone to stretch their legs and get a good idea of the grandeur and splendor of the place...
Wednesday 12 October 2011
Another Week Flies By...Unifestival, Masquerade, Tom's birthday
Hello Friends and Family!
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Our gorgeous sunny autumn weather has taken a cloudy damp turn for the worse. Today is a pretty typical example of the weather as of late: light rain with a high/low of 14°C/9°C (57°F/48°F) with wind at 12 mph. Although the air temperature is decently warm, the wind just cuts right through you in this extremely bone chilling way. Additionally, it gets really dark here really quickly. Although the sun sets at almost the exact same time as home (Calgary is on latitude 51° 03' N and Liege is 50º 50´ N), it feels like the light doesn't linger as long. I think it is probably just the effect of the high buildings and narrow streets instead of the big open landscapes I'm used to. Regardless, winter is coming.
Not that this stops Erasmus students from anything! Not even in the slightest.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Our gorgeous sunny autumn weather has taken a cloudy damp turn for the worse. Today is a pretty typical example of the weather as of late: light rain with a high/low of 14°C/9°C (57°F/48°F) with wind at 12 mph. Although the air temperature is decently warm, the wind just cuts right through you in this extremely bone chilling way. Additionally, it gets really dark here really quickly. Although the sun sets at almost the exact same time as home (Calgary is on latitude 51° 03' N and Liege is 50º 50´ N), it feels like the light doesn't linger as long. I think it is probably just the effect of the high buildings and narrow streets instead of the big open landscapes I'm used to. Regardless, winter is coming.
Not that this stops Erasmus students from anything! Not even in the slightest.
Tuesday 4 October 2011
La Nocturne des Coteaux de la Citadelle
Hello Family & Friends,
In the old neighborhood of Hors-Chateau, Liege has a particularly intense set of stairs known as the Montagne de Bueren. The staircase, built in 1875, honours Vincent de Bueren (1440-1505) who was one of the fiercest protectors of Liege against Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Don't quote me on this but a friend told me there are 374 steps. Anyways, as an annual tradition, on the first Saturday of every October the stairs and entire neighbourhood get lit up by candles in an event known as La Nocturne des Coteaux de la Citadelle. I have heard estimates of the number of candles to be as low as 3000 and as high as 15 000. Regardless, it is an extremely good time. People are out late wandering the crowded streets with friends and family, live music is being played everywhere, and the evening ends with a big fireworks display.
In the old neighborhood of Hors-Chateau, Liege has a particularly intense set of stairs known as the Montagne de Bueren. The staircase, built in 1875, honours Vincent de Bueren (1440-1505) who was one of the fiercest protectors of Liege against Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Don't quote me on this but a friend told me there are 374 steps. Anyways, as an annual tradition, on the first Saturday of every October the stairs and entire neighbourhood get lit up by candles in an event known as La Nocturne des Coteaux de la Citadelle. I have heard estimates of the number of candles to be as low as 3000 and as high as 15 000. Regardless, it is an extremely good time. People are out late wandering the crowded streets with friends and family, live music is being played everywhere, and the evening ends with a big fireworks display.
Wednesday 28 September 2011
Oostende, Bruges, and Parrainage
Hello all!
I had three really amazing opportunities occur yesterday.
Some friends of mine threw together a spontaneous trip to Bruges so I ended up joining them, bright and early (7:30 am), at the Liège-Guillemins train station. Mid train ride, we decide that we want to spend the morning in Oostende, a small sea side city in the northern Flemish region of Belgium. This is what I love about travel in Europe. All we had to do to fulfill our new travel plans was stay on the train for an extra stop or two. About two hours after we hopped aboard the train, we were standing in perfect sunshine on the coast.
I had three really amazing opportunities occur yesterday.
Some friends of mine threw together a spontaneous trip to Bruges so I ended up joining them, bright and early (7:30 am), at the Liège-Guillemins train station. Mid train ride, we decide that we want to spend the morning in Oostende, a small sea side city in the northern Flemish region of Belgium. This is what I love about travel in Europe. All we had to do to fulfill our new travel plans was stay on the train for an extra stop or two. About two hours after we hopped aboard the train, we were standing in perfect sunshine on the coast.
Monday 26 September 2011
ESN Trip: Bouillon, Belgium
Bonjour à tous!
This past weekend the International Exchange Student Network put together a trip to a small Belgian medieval town in the second southern-most province of Belgium, Luxembourg (not to be confused with the country!). Bouillon is just under 5500 people and although the actual founding date is unknown, the first reference in text dates back to the year 988. Again, it is absolutely tiny. There are two main roads that line the river, as well as the fortress on the hilltop, a little town center, and little houses dotting the hillside. It is however, extremely picturesque.
This past weekend the International Exchange Student Network put together a trip to a small Belgian medieval town in the second southern-most province of Belgium, Luxembourg (not to be confused with the country!). Bouillon is just under 5500 people and although the actual founding date is unknown, the first reference in text dates back to the year 988. Again, it is absolutely tiny. There are two main roads that line the river, as well as the fortress on the hilltop, a little town center, and little houses dotting the hillside. It is however, extremely picturesque.
Friday 23 September 2011
Classes Debut & International Dinner
Hello all my lovelies,
This week has finally marked the beginning of school work. Amazingly, however, I have still only had one class to date. The way the semesters, classes, and credit systems run here is unlike anything I could've imagined. Back home all the classes start within a day of each other, finish by the end of December, and they are either worth 3 credits or 1.5 credits. Here in Belgium, the semester runs until the end of January, classes stagger start, and the classes can be worth anywhere from 2-6 credits. It is a really strange conversion! 3 courses at my home university equates to 18 Belgian credits instead of 9. I'm talking 18 Belgian credits, getting credit for 3 courses, but in actuality, I'm taking 4 classes. Thank goodness for academic advisers - I'm not sure what my transcript will look like after this but at least it is up to them to sort it out and not me!
This week has finally marked the beginning of school work. Amazingly, however, I have still only had one class to date. The way the semesters, classes, and credit systems run here is unlike anything I could've imagined. Back home all the classes start within a day of each other, finish by the end of December, and they are either worth 3 credits or 1.5 credits. Here in Belgium, the semester runs until the end of January, classes stagger start, and the classes can be worth anywhere from 2-6 credits. It is a really strange conversion! 3 courses at my home university equates to 18 Belgian credits instead of 9. I'm talking 18 Belgian credits, getting credit for 3 courses, but in actuality, I'm taking 4 classes. Thank goodness for academic advisers - I'm not sure what my transcript will look like after this but at least it is up to them to sort it out and not me!
Saturday 17 September 2011
Maastricht, Netherlands
Bonjour Everyone!
Today we ducked over in to Maastricht. It was an extremely short train ride, around 30 minutes, and was extremely cheap. The return trip was €5,60! We didn't really plan our trip out very well though... We caught the 7:22 am train and thus got there around 8:00 am. Unfortunately for us, almost all the stores were closed! At least we got to see the city in a quiet and peaceful state; by the time noon rolled around the streets were packed. Our group of six met up with a bunch of the other Erasmus students. Thankfully they had stopped by the information center and gotten a map of places they wanted to see. For the rest of the afternoon we did a self guided walking tour of the city and called it a day early. With trains running almost every hour, we caught the 5:09 pm train home.
It was short but sweet. There isn't a ton to do in Maastricht and visually it is extremely similar to the places I've been in Belgium, however, it is extremely cool to say I've been to the Netherlands.
A very interesting point. There were signs posted around the city announcing the changing of their marijuana laws. Starting on October 1 they will only sell pot to residents of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It will henceforth be illegal to sell pot to someone from any other country. Some of the students I was with said they'd heard the Netherlands were trying to improve their tourism reputation away from the pot and prostitute image. I wonder how it will effect their local business and national tourism. It was really strange to walk around and see the pot cafes and all the drug paraphernalia stores just out in the open.
Anyways, pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150811762205414.749551.619530413&l=75c53babb4&type=1
Love you all!
Jacqueline
 |
| With Bee in front of the train station |
Today we ducked over in to Maastricht. It was an extremely short train ride, around 30 minutes, and was extremely cheap. The return trip was €5,60! We didn't really plan our trip out very well though... We caught the 7:22 am train and thus got there around 8:00 am. Unfortunately for us, almost all the stores were closed! At least we got to see the city in a quiet and peaceful state; by the time noon rolled around the streets were packed. Our group of six met up with a bunch of the other Erasmus students. Thankfully they had stopped by the information center and gotten a map of places they wanted to see. For the rest of the afternoon we did a self guided walking tour of the city and called it a day early. With trains running almost every hour, we caught the 5:09 pm train home.
It was short but sweet. There isn't a ton to do in Maastricht and visually it is extremely similar to the places I've been in Belgium, however, it is extremely cool to say I've been to the Netherlands.
 |
| My travel team: Bee, Kiki, Chelsa, Vick, & K Sweet |
A very interesting point. There were signs posted around the city announcing the changing of their marijuana laws. Starting on October 1 they will only sell pot to residents of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It will henceforth be illegal to sell pot to someone from any other country. Some of the students I was with said they'd heard the Netherlands were trying to improve their tourism reputation away from the pot and prostitute image. I wonder how it will effect their local business and national tourism. It was really strange to walk around and see the pot cafes and all the drug paraphernalia stores just out in the open.
Anyways, pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150811762205414.749551.619530413&l=75c53babb4&type=1
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Friday 16 September 2011
Orientations and Birthday
Hello Friends and Family!
This past week as been a flurry of activity as HEC (the management faculty) and the ULg (Université de Liege) have been trying to get all the first years and exchange students off the ground.
On Monday the HEC campus hosted several presentations, a tour of their campus, and a free BBQ. The first presentation, an introduction of the ESN (Erasmus/Exchange Student Network) team, detailed the events they have planned for the welcoming weeks as well as the services they provide such as helping to find accommodations for newly arrived students. This came with a fairly decent welcome package courtesy of all the ESN sponsors, although it did include a few rather strange items such as a chalkboard coffee mug and a carton of pumpkin soup. The tour didn't take very long as the campus is not very big but the building can be a bit of a maze so I'm glad I attended. The second presentation, by the HEC international student director, was more informative and provided good information on what to expect from classes, how to register, and who our contacts are if we have issues. Following this presentation was the BBQ and a huge mingling of all the international students. It is truly amazing how far and wide people have come from. It is also amazing how many uses the Europeans have a for a baguette. I usually think of French bread in the context of garlic toast with pasta. Here they are used predominantly as buns for sandwiches and sausages. Such a silly detail but so be it.
On Tuesday we had an orientation of the Sart-Tillman campus. This is the main campus for the majority of students. It is a 20 minute bus ride outside of town and is surrounded by a huge forest. Whereas the presentations at HEC were done in English, the Sart-Tillman Campus is predominantly French speaking. I found it absolutely fascinating at just how much of a difference the various speakers made. There was one woman who I caught about 85% of what she was saying. From the next presenter I caught about 8% max. I'm struggling to put my finger on exactly what made the difference but holy crow did it make a difference! After a couple more speakers and introductions the director of the university spoke. He is an extremely entertaining man. He encouraged us to get out, meet the locals, congratulated us on making such a fantastic decision to go on exchange, and in Liege in particular, and joked about the sub tropical climate. I appreciated the weather comments. If it is even possible, the weather changes more rapidly and less predictably than even Alberta's! He finished with an amusing comment, something to the effect of, "For those of you with significant others back home... don't worry. You'll find everything you need here". His whole demeanor was extremely pleasant and his welcoming message was extremely well delivered. After the presentation we were free to explore the different booths of activities offered at ULg and a free lunch was served. Unfortunately, because they were orienting Erasmus and first year students on the same day, everything was SO crowded. It was impossible to get through the crowds and lineups took forever. Chelsa, Bryanna, Kiersten, and I ended up leaving after lunch instead of staying for the guided tours because even at HEC the day before when crowds were a quarter of the size, the groups were still too big to hear the tour guides properly. We have decided to go back and explore on our own on a different day and at our own pace. It didn't help our motivation any that Bryanna is the only one with classes on that campus. Around 17h00 I went for a run with TK (Taiwanese Kevin) and we sure motored! We went down a similar route to the one I had run the previous week - it's about 7 km and follows the river. He found a way to incorporate more of the park paths into his route though. It was extremely lovely and I can't wait to go again!
Mercredi, le 14 septembre. Aussi mon anniversaire! J'ai vingt ans! Finally entered into a new decade and I couldn't be more motivated. Even though it was another orientation day, my friends still managed to make it special. At 11:30 am we met up and found a nice Italian restaurant with outdoor seating to sit down at and people watch. They surprised me with a beautiful chocolate cake which we unfortunately ran out of time to eat! Wednesday afternoon was another orientation at a different city center campus building. This one was Erasmus specific again. We were told that there are about 500 Erasmus students in Liege this semester. Quite a large group! This presentation, of similar information to the others, was followed by guided tour of the city. Unfortunately, since we have been here for almost 3 weeks already, we found the tour a little redundant and not altogether helpful. As such, we slipped out after the first half hour and found our way to a shoe store. I picked up some fantastic high heeled boots. Joyeux anniversaire à moi! In the early evening I was invited to a BBQ at one of the ESN team member's houses. When I said I wanted to learn French, I never thought it would be via French language drinking songs! However, they didn't pick on me too much. Probably because I was being super boring and sticking to water. They did however obliterate the friend who brought me. Poor boy! Additionally, the ESN team had picked Wednesday night as a Welcome to Liege Party at a cafe in Le Carré. After our group had had their fill at the makeshift BBQ we walked to Point De Vue Cafe and joined up with the rest of the Erasmus students. It was so packed! Immediately as we walked up I got accosted by a group of friends from Poland (the same group I went to Brussels with). They had picked me up a beautiful grey tube scarf as a birthday gift. I felt very loved. We danced the rest of the night away and even though I was one of the first people to leave, it was still 1:30 am!
The rest of the birthday pictures are available at: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150808901660414.749091.619530413&l=0f89a5bda5&type=1
Yesterday, was awful. For the last week and a half I've been fighting a really harsh cough and sore throat. In the past few days it has turned into a non stop runny nose, an even harder cough, and unfortunately, and too much information I'm sure, you wouldn't believe the junk I'm coughing up from my lungs. Yuck. I woke up thinking I was getting an ear infection too. I think being out late and having a few consecutive nights of poor quality sleep from being sick is just making me sicker. I'm not the only one though. Most of the North Americans are having an absolutely awful time with harsh coughs. It makes me begin to question the air quality actually. All the Europeans seem fine. Yesterday I just took it easy. Had a nice afternoon nap and watched a movie at Chelsa's in the evening.
Today I had the option of going to Ostende, a coastal town, with the Polish group but declined. Tomorrow there is a group of people who want to go to Amsterdam and consecutive days of travel are not appealing to someone as stuffed up as I am. The plan is to leave in the morning, sight see all day, sample the night life, and catch the 3 am train back to Liege so we don't have to stay in a hostel. I'm not entirely convinced I feel up to such a long day. I'm sure I'll decide at the last minute. C'est ma vie belge.
Love and laughter,
Jacqueline
PS: The most random occurrence of the entire trip is the fact that Kiersten and I actually went to the same elementary, junior high, and high school. We were never close because she was in the year above me but my jaw pretty much hit the sidewalk when I ran into her for the first time in years in the middle of Liege!
[UPDATE - 11:02 pm]
Tomorrow we are day tripping to Maastricht, Netherlands instead! Exciting!
This past week as been a flurry of activity as HEC (the management faculty) and the ULg (Université de Liege) have been trying to get all the first years and exchange students off the ground.
On Monday the HEC campus hosted several presentations, a tour of their campus, and a free BBQ. The first presentation, an introduction of the ESN (Erasmus/Exchange Student Network) team, detailed the events they have planned for the welcoming weeks as well as the services they provide such as helping to find accommodations for newly arrived students. This came with a fairly decent welcome package courtesy of all the ESN sponsors, although it did include a few rather strange items such as a chalkboard coffee mug and a carton of pumpkin soup. The tour didn't take very long as the campus is not very big but the building can be a bit of a maze so I'm glad I attended. The second presentation, by the HEC international student director, was more informative and provided good information on what to expect from classes, how to register, and who our contacts are if we have issues. Following this presentation was the BBQ and a huge mingling of all the international students. It is truly amazing how far and wide people have come from. It is also amazing how many uses the Europeans have a for a baguette. I usually think of French bread in the context of garlic toast with pasta. Here they are used predominantly as buns for sandwiches and sausages. Such a silly detail but so be it.
On Tuesday we had an orientation of the Sart-Tillman campus. This is the main campus for the majority of students. It is a 20 minute bus ride outside of town and is surrounded by a huge forest. Whereas the presentations at HEC were done in English, the Sart-Tillman Campus is predominantly French speaking. I found it absolutely fascinating at just how much of a difference the various speakers made. There was one woman who I caught about 85% of what she was saying. From the next presenter I caught about 8% max. I'm struggling to put my finger on exactly what made the difference but holy crow did it make a difference! After a couple more speakers and introductions the director of the university spoke. He is an extremely entertaining man. He encouraged us to get out, meet the locals, congratulated us on making such a fantastic decision to go on exchange, and in Liege in particular, and joked about the sub tropical climate. I appreciated the weather comments. If it is even possible, the weather changes more rapidly and less predictably than even Alberta's! He finished with an amusing comment, something to the effect of, "For those of you with significant others back home... don't worry. You'll find everything you need here". His whole demeanor was extremely pleasant and his welcoming message was extremely well delivered. After the presentation we were free to explore the different booths of activities offered at ULg and a free lunch was served. Unfortunately, because they were orienting Erasmus and first year students on the same day, everything was SO crowded. It was impossible to get through the crowds and lineups took forever. Chelsa, Bryanna, Kiersten, and I ended up leaving after lunch instead of staying for the guided tours because even at HEC the day before when crowds were a quarter of the size, the groups were still too big to hear the tour guides properly. We have decided to go back and explore on our own on a different day and at our own pace. It didn't help our motivation any that Bryanna is the only one with classes on that campus. Around 17h00 I went for a run with TK (Taiwanese Kevin) and we sure motored! We went down a similar route to the one I had run the previous week - it's about 7 km and follows the river. He found a way to incorporate more of the park paths into his route though. It was extremely lovely and I can't wait to go again!
Mercredi, le 14 septembre. Aussi mon anniversaire! J'ai vingt ans! Finally entered into a new decade and I couldn't be more motivated. Even though it was another orientation day, my friends still managed to make it special. At 11:30 am we met up and found a nice Italian restaurant with outdoor seating to sit down at and people watch. They surprised me with a beautiful chocolate cake which we unfortunately ran out of time to eat! Wednesday afternoon was another orientation at a different city center campus building. This one was Erasmus specific again. We were told that there are about 500 Erasmus students in Liege this semester. Quite a large group! This presentation, of similar information to the others, was followed by guided tour of the city. Unfortunately, since we have been here for almost 3 weeks already, we found the tour a little redundant and not altogether helpful. As such, we slipped out after the first half hour and found our way to a shoe store. I picked up some fantastic high heeled boots. Joyeux anniversaire à moi! In the early evening I was invited to a BBQ at one of the ESN team member's houses. When I said I wanted to learn French, I never thought it would be via French language drinking songs! However, they didn't pick on me too much. Probably because I was being super boring and sticking to water. They did however obliterate the friend who brought me. Poor boy! Additionally, the ESN team had picked Wednesday night as a Welcome to Liege Party at a cafe in Le Carré. After our group had had their fill at the makeshift BBQ we walked to Point De Vue Cafe and joined up with the rest of the Erasmus students. It was so packed! Immediately as we walked up I got accosted by a group of friends from Poland (the same group I went to Brussels with). They had picked me up a beautiful grey tube scarf as a birthday gift. I felt very loved. We danced the rest of the night away and even though I was one of the first people to leave, it was still 1:30 am!
 | ||
| My beautiful cake was picked out by Bryanna and Chelsa. Despite the chocolate waves on top, the inside was actually not chocolate! It is hard to put a finger on it but I thought maybe cinnamon. |
Yesterday, was awful. For the last week and a half I've been fighting a really harsh cough and sore throat. In the past few days it has turned into a non stop runny nose, an even harder cough, and unfortunately, and too much information I'm sure, you wouldn't believe the junk I'm coughing up from my lungs. Yuck. I woke up thinking I was getting an ear infection too. I think being out late and having a few consecutive nights of poor quality sleep from being sick is just making me sicker. I'm not the only one though. Most of the North Americans are having an absolutely awful time with harsh coughs. It makes me begin to question the air quality actually. All the Europeans seem fine. Yesterday I just took it easy. Had a nice afternoon nap and watched a movie at Chelsa's in the evening.
Today I had the option of going to Ostende, a coastal town, with the Polish group but declined. Tomorrow there is a group of people who want to go to Amsterdam and consecutive days of travel are not appealing to someone as stuffed up as I am. The plan is to leave in the morning, sight see all day, sample the night life, and catch the 3 am train back to Liege so we don't have to stay in a hostel. I'm not entirely convinced I feel up to such a long day. I'm sure I'll decide at the last minute. C'est ma vie belge.
Love and laughter,
Jacqueline
PS: The most random occurrence of the entire trip is the fact that Kiersten and I actually went to the same elementary, junior high, and high school. We were never close because she was in the year above me but my jaw pretty much hit the sidewalk when I ran into her for the first time in years in the middle of Liege!
[UPDATE - 11:02 pm]
Tomorrow we are day tripping to Maastricht, Netherlands instead! Exciting!
Sunday 11 September 2011
Bruxelles!
Hello All,
Instead of heading to the coast with Tina and Chelsa, I ended up catching the 10 am train to Brussels/Bruxelles with 12 other Erasmus (exchange) students. It was an absolute blast. For the first half of the day we stayed in a large group and explored le Grand Place, a chocolate museum, visited the Manneken Pis, tried waffles, and wandered around. For the second half of the day we split up into two groups: those that wanted to see the Mini Europe display and those that wanted to go to this enormous inner city park. I went with the Mini Europe display group. I figured it is probably next to impossible to impress me with fake nature after living beside Fish Creek Park in Calgary and the Rocky Mountains for my whole life and the Polish kids really wanted to see Mini-Europe. If they were dead set on it, I concluded there was probably a very good reason why. After lots of semi-lost wandering and metro taking (which was an adventure in itself - there would've been no doubts to anyone that we were tourists!), we finally found Mini-Europe and also the famous landmark of the Atomium. I took an absolutely copious amount of pictures. Most of the interesting tidbits and such are in the captions so have a look through. When I get copies of the group pictures that ended up on other peoples' cameras, I'll post them up too :)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150798491370414.746960.619530413&l=e189e5409f&type=1
See if you can name any of the monuments!
Also, I'm just going to throw it out there that it was UNBELIEVABLY hot. Jeans were not a smart decision!
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Edit (09/16): Here's one of the group pictures in front of the Atomium
Instead of heading to the coast with Tina and Chelsa, I ended up catching the 10 am train to Brussels/Bruxelles with 12 other Erasmus (exchange) students. It was an absolute blast. For the first half of the day we stayed in a large group and explored le Grand Place, a chocolate museum, visited the Manneken Pis, tried waffles, and wandered around. For the second half of the day we split up into two groups: those that wanted to see the Mini Europe display and those that wanted to go to this enormous inner city park. I went with the Mini Europe display group. I figured it is probably next to impossible to impress me with fake nature after living beside Fish Creek Park in Calgary and the Rocky Mountains for my whole life and the Polish kids really wanted to see Mini-Europe. If they were dead set on it, I concluded there was probably a very good reason why. After lots of semi-lost wandering and metro taking (which was an adventure in itself - there would've been no doubts to anyone that we were tourists!), we finally found Mini-Europe and also the famous landmark of the Atomium. I took an absolutely copious amount of pictures. Most of the interesting tidbits and such are in the captions so have a look through. When I get copies of the group pictures that ended up on other peoples' cameras, I'll post them up too :)
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150798491370414.746960.619530413&l=e189e5409f&type=1
See if you can name any of the monuments!
Also, I'm just going to throw it out there that it was UNBELIEVABLY hot. Jeans were not a smart decision!
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Edit (09/16): Here's one of the group pictures in front of the Atomium
 |
| Left to Right: Kevin, Marcin, me, Magdalena, Ewelina, Ewa |
Friday 9 September 2011
Who needs a latte?
Bonjour mes amis!
Today was the last day of the preparatory French course. Two students in our group got a card for the teacher and a pot of orchids for her as a thank you. All the students signed the card in their native language and we went around the room after presenting it to her and pronounced it in both native tongue and English.
The woman in the back middle (grey tank top) is our teacher, Aline. Notice the photoshop job on the guy in blue in the front. He came in just as we'd all returned to our seats. The class let out a collective groan and thus he got added in after the fact.
Just to recap, the countries represented in this picture include: Czech Republic, Spain, India, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Turkey, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Poland, and Belgium!
This brings me to two funny language screw ups people have had in the last week.
1) The Taiwanese student went to a local coffee shop and asked for a latté. Unfortunately for him, the barista heard "le thé" which is French for tea. The pronunciation is extremely similar. He couldn't understand why she insisted on giving him tea so he just gave up and accepted it. When he got back to class holding a tea in confusion we all busted up laughing and explained to him that what he really wanted was café au lait.
2) The card that the class all passed around and signed was not a thank you card... it was a sympathy card! A Bulgarian and a Taiwanese (Mr. Latté) student went shopping for it with their translation dictionaries and got flustered so ended up picking one that looked nice. It says something to the effect of, "Our hearts are with you" on the outside and, "Courage in difficult moments" on the inside. They asked me to translate it for them right before we started passing it around. At that point it was too late. At least the teacher thought it was funny when they explained what happened.
So that is the first two weeks finished! Next week starts all the university welcome days and the first few days of classes. Also, my 20th birthday! This weekend we are taking the train to the coast. I am very much so looking forward to the fresh air. The city center (where I live) is nothing but car exhaust. Yesterday I ran 7 km along the river and yikes. My lungs were not too thrilled with me after. We have all decided we need to get out of the city. Hopefully we'll get some sunshine because we've had nothing but clouds and grey sky for the last week.
Thinking of you all,
Jacqueline
Today was the last day of the preparatory French course. Two students in our group got a card for the teacher and a pot of orchids for her as a thank you. All the students signed the card in their native language and we went around the room after presenting it to her and pronounced it in both native tongue and English.
The woman in the back middle (grey tank top) is our teacher, Aline. Notice the photoshop job on the guy in blue in the front. He came in just as we'd all returned to our seats. The class let out a collective groan and thus he got added in after the fact.
Just to recap, the countries represented in this picture include: Czech Republic, Spain, India, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Turkey, Bulgaria, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada, Poland, and Belgium!
This brings me to two funny language screw ups people have had in the last week.
1) The Taiwanese student went to a local coffee shop and asked for a latté. Unfortunately for him, the barista heard "le thé" which is French for tea. The pronunciation is extremely similar. He couldn't understand why she insisted on giving him tea so he just gave up and accepted it. When he got back to class holding a tea in confusion we all busted up laughing and explained to him that what he really wanted was café au lait.
2) The card that the class all passed around and signed was not a thank you card... it was a sympathy card! A Bulgarian and a Taiwanese (Mr. Latté) student went shopping for it with their translation dictionaries and got flustered so ended up picking one that looked nice. It says something to the effect of, "Our hearts are with you" on the outside and, "Courage in difficult moments" on the inside. They asked me to translate it for them right before we started passing it around. At that point it was too late. At least the teacher thought it was funny when they explained what happened.
So that is the first two weeks finished! Next week starts all the university welcome days and the first few days of classes. Also, my 20th birthday! This weekend we are taking the train to the coast. I am very much so looking forward to the fresh air. The city center (where I live) is nothing but car exhaust. Yesterday I ran 7 km along the river and yikes. My lungs were not too thrilled with me after. We have all decided we need to get out of the city. Hopefully we'll get some sunshine because we've had nothing but clouds and grey sky for the last week.
Thinking of you all,
Jacqueline
Monday 5 September 2011
Things are picking up!
Bonjour!
Things are really starting to get going for me. Between the French classes, daily exploration, and night time adventuring, it is all coming together.
I am absolutely loving the French class I am in. It is from 9 am to 4:30 pm every day and the instructor only speaks French to us. She is very engaging, in incredible shape (a ridiculously sculpted upper body!), and is doing a fantastic job of teaching the basics. The universal language of the classroom is English though so if someone gets completely stuck, she will revert and say just enough English words to make the understanding occur. It is so neat though! She loves to take opportunities to have people demonstrate what things are like in their culture/language. For example, the picture below is a lesson on numbers. She had a both a Taiwanese and a Korean student right the numbers in their native numbers. Check out the zero in Taiwanese!
Another great moment occurred today. I got to hear tongue twisters from Italy, Mexico, India, Taiwan, and Turkey.
On Friday and Saturday night I went out to "Le Carré" or "The Square". It is literally a square made up by four streets. These streets are nothing but bars, clubs, and restaurants. Because there are no lines, no cover, and alcohol is legal in the streets, not only are all the venues overflowing with people, the streets can be outrageous crowds too. On Friday, the summer students had just written their final summer semester exams. It was absolutely packed. Saturday was surprisingly not nearly as jam packed and we got to see a live band in a cowboy themed place called "Far West". People definitely like to get rowdy and stay out late. However, Liege is not known as a particularly safe city... not that it is downright dangerous, or at least not during the day, but everybody insists on walking each other home at night. Safety in numbers!
On Sunday morning I went to the "Marché de la Batte" - one of the longest outdoor market in Europe! It is full of all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables, clothing, live animals (both for pets and eating), and just about anything you can think of. The weather was unfortunately rather unpredictable and I got absolutely rained on. At least it kept the market from being even busier; it is a very popular place for locals and tourists alike.
Sunday afternoon was spent climbing at a local indoor climbing wall with a new friend from Missouri. He is a far more accomplished climber than I am... it was really rather embarrassing! Especially because I was so completely thrown off by the style of the gym. The walls have no texture, the harnesses are different, the difficulty (grade system) is nothing I've ever seen before, and the routes are marked out in a completely different manner. That being said, there were some AMAZING climbers in the gym. Some of the most impressive climbing I've seen live to date. Definitely gives me something to aspire to once my hands heal from the absolute shredding they feel like they took. The rocks are almost gritty feeling. You can tell I am not a laborer in the slightest just by the pathetic softness of my hands and how one rough climb upset them. Oh well!
Sunday evening was a really neat opportunity. The student from Taiwan, we call him TK, invited a group of us over for Chinese food. He did an excellent job of demonstrating some basic Chinese dishes. The best part was probably watching the student from Iran use chopsticks for the first time. It was quite the sight and he was quite a trooper! Our dinner group included an American, 2 Italians, a Korean, a Taiwanese, an Iranian, and 2 Canadians. It was a lot of fun and we have all volunteered to host dinners of foods from our native lands in the near future.
More pictures to come but here's the link to the ones I have posted on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150778773995414.742006.619530413&l=3b589064e3&type=1
Love you all,
Jacqueline
Things are really starting to get going for me. Between the French classes, daily exploration, and night time adventuring, it is all coming together.
I am absolutely loving the French class I am in. It is from 9 am to 4:30 pm every day and the instructor only speaks French to us. She is very engaging, in incredible shape (a ridiculously sculpted upper body!), and is doing a fantastic job of teaching the basics. The universal language of the classroom is English though so if someone gets completely stuck, she will revert and say just enough English words to make the understanding occur. It is so neat though! She loves to take opportunities to have people demonstrate what things are like in their culture/language. For example, the picture below is a lesson on numbers. She had a both a Taiwanese and a Korean student right the numbers in their native numbers. Check out the zero in Taiwanese!
Another great moment occurred today. I got to hear tongue twisters from Italy, Mexico, India, Taiwan, and Turkey.
On Friday and Saturday night I went out to "Le Carré" or "The Square". It is literally a square made up by four streets. These streets are nothing but bars, clubs, and restaurants. Because there are no lines, no cover, and alcohol is legal in the streets, not only are all the venues overflowing with people, the streets can be outrageous crowds too. On Friday, the summer students had just written their final summer semester exams. It was absolutely packed. Saturday was surprisingly not nearly as jam packed and we got to see a live band in a cowboy themed place called "Far West". People definitely like to get rowdy and stay out late. However, Liege is not known as a particularly safe city... not that it is downright dangerous, or at least not during the day, but everybody insists on walking each other home at night. Safety in numbers!
On Sunday morning I went to the "Marché de la Batte" - one of the longest outdoor market in Europe! It is full of all sorts of fresh fruit and vegetables, clothing, live animals (both for pets and eating), and just about anything you can think of. The weather was unfortunately rather unpredictable and I got absolutely rained on. At least it kept the market from being even busier; it is a very popular place for locals and tourists alike.
Sunday afternoon was spent climbing at a local indoor climbing wall with a new friend from Missouri. He is a far more accomplished climber than I am... it was really rather embarrassing! Especially because I was so completely thrown off by the style of the gym. The walls have no texture, the harnesses are different, the difficulty (grade system) is nothing I've ever seen before, and the routes are marked out in a completely different manner. That being said, there were some AMAZING climbers in the gym. Some of the most impressive climbing I've seen live to date. Definitely gives me something to aspire to once my hands heal from the absolute shredding they feel like they took. The rocks are almost gritty feeling. You can tell I am not a laborer in the slightest just by the pathetic softness of my hands and how one rough climb upset them. Oh well!
Sunday evening was a really neat opportunity. The student from Taiwan, we call him TK, invited a group of us over for Chinese food. He did an excellent job of demonstrating some basic Chinese dishes. The best part was probably watching the student from Iran use chopsticks for the first time. It was quite the sight and he was quite a trooper! Our dinner group included an American, 2 Italians, a Korean, a Taiwanese, an Iranian, and 2 Canadians. It was a lot of fun and we have all volunteered to host dinners of foods from our native lands in the near future.
More pictures to come but here's the link to the ones I have posted on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150778773995414.742006.619530413&l=3b589064e3&type=1
Love you all,
Jacqueline
Wednesday 31 August 2011
Getting Set Up
It's hard to believe I've only been here for 46 hours.
Already I have scrubbed my apartment from head to toe (it was actually so filthy...), set up a phone, attended a full day of french class, registered with the international student office, tried to register with the city administration 3 times (their hours are SO finicky), taken a tour with a ULg student, tried Belgium fries for the first time, tried Belgium chocolate for the first time, and gone grocery shopping. There are just not enough hours in the day! Actually, plenty of hours but everything is closed by 7:00 pm. It is so bizarre not to have a supermarket or Walmart type building open 24/7. Certain elements of my day definitely take more planning now.
The French class was amazing. I jumped in with the beginner level this morning because I missed the placement testing and first two days of classes. It is extremely extremely basic and I would like to say I could've made placement into a higher level. However, because the instructor only speaks French to us, and I know what she wants us to learn, I am able to learn so much more from her instructions than her lessons. Her lessons are great refresher material but knowing what to listen for and being able to interact with her was an absolute joy. It made me feel like I might actually come away with decent French by the end of this exchange. I expect vast improvement even by the end of next week!
In the meantime, this hasn't made my recent French exchanges any better. I had an issue with my kot's heater. Basically I turned it on and couldn't get it off no matter what I tried. I eventually unplugged it out of fear of it burning down the building. Little did I know, when you unplug it it switches to battery. It just kept right on burning. I went upstairs and grabbed my housemate, Lionel, and tried to explain to him my problem. He came and took a look but had no idea. He offered to get the landlord (LL) for me. Turns out the store I live above is owned and operated by the landlord! Wish I'd known that! So we went downstairs and grabbed the LL, came back up, he took a look, did a lot of explaining in French to Lionel, and bid us au revoir. Lionel explained the bit about it being backed up by battery and tried to explain other things. It didn't really come across so I thanked him regardless. As long as it is off from here on in, that's all I want. It has taken a full day since but it is finally almost cooled off. I talked briefly, and awkwardly in broken franglish (sigh) to the LL today and he asked if it had turned off. I wasn't sure at that point because I hadn't been home in 10 hours. I said I'd check and let him know. He said to come tomorrow as it takes 3 days in the summer/1 day in the winter for heater controls. Or something like that. I think he knows more English than he lets on. I definitely know less French than I pretend.
Still so much to do before classes start on the 15th. I'm very grateful I came two weeks early for the French preparatory course. I feel like I've started to really appreciate the implications of my exchange. I've met people from Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Chile, Poland, Germany, USA, Belgium, Ireland, Taiwan, and Somalia in the past day. It is amazing to talk with them, compare countries, and struggle through language barriers together. I've had a PhD student from Iran ask me for help practicing his English after our French classes. It was a nice reminder that although I am focused on how jilted my French is right now, I am very very very fortunate to be fluent in English.
I found it extremely entertaining to see all the different versions of French-other language dictionaries. The Chinese-French and Poland-French are definitely two favorites.
I took a tour with a girl from ULg named Alice. She showed Chelsa and I some main places and provided general information about Belgium and Liege. It was fantastic to hear her input. We tried french fries (frites) with her and learned that they are so delicious because they are double fried. Once at ~160 F and then again at ~180 F. The second, hotter frying really crisps them up.
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Already I have scrubbed my apartment from head to toe (it was actually so filthy...), set up a phone, attended a full day of french class, registered with the international student office, tried to register with the city administration 3 times (their hours are SO finicky), taken a tour with a ULg student, tried Belgium fries for the first time, tried Belgium chocolate for the first time, and gone grocery shopping. There are just not enough hours in the day! Actually, plenty of hours but everything is closed by 7:00 pm. It is so bizarre not to have a supermarket or Walmart type building open 24/7. Certain elements of my day definitely take more planning now.
The French class was amazing. I jumped in with the beginner level this morning because I missed the placement testing and first two days of classes. It is extremely extremely basic and I would like to say I could've made placement into a higher level. However, because the instructor only speaks French to us, and I know what she wants us to learn, I am able to learn so much more from her instructions than her lessons. Her lessons are great refresher material but knowing what to listen for and being able to interact with her was an absolute joy. It made me feel like I might actually come away with decent French by the end of this exchange. I expect vast improvement even by the end of next week!
In the meantime, this hasn't made my recent French exchanges any better. I had an issue with my kot's heater. Basically I turned it on and couldn't get it off no matter what I tried. I eventually unplugged it out of fear of it burning down the building. Little did I know, when you unplug it it switches to battery. It just kept right on burning. I went upstairs and grabbed my housemate, Lionel, and tried to explain to him my problem. He came and took a look but had no idea. He offered to get the landlord (LL) for me. Turns out the store I live above is owned and operated by the landlord! Wish I'd known that! So we went downstairs and grabbed the LL, came back up, he took a look, did a lot of explaining in French to Lionel, and bid us au revoir. Lionel explained the bit about it being backed up by battery and tried to explain other things. It didn't really come across so I thanked him regardless. As long as it is off from here on in, that's all I want. It has taken a full day since but it is finally almost cooled off. I talked briefly, and awkwardly in broken franglish (sigh) to the LL today and he asked if it had turned off. I wasn't sure at that point because I hadn't been home in 10 hours. I said I'd check and let him know. He said to come tomorrow as it takes 3 days in the summer/1 day in the winter for heater controls. Or something like that. I think he knows more English than he lets on. I definitely know less French than I pretend.
Still so much to do before classes start on the 15th. I'm very grateful I came two weeks early for the French preparatory course. I feel like I've started to really appreciate the implications of my exchange. I've met people from Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Chile, Poland, Germany, USA, Belgium, Ireland, Taiwan, and Somalia in the past day. It is amazing to talk with them, compare countries, and struggle through language barriers together. I've had a PhD student from Iran ask me for help practicing his English after our French classes. It was a nice reminder that although I am focused on how jilted my French is right now, I am very very very fortunate to be fluent in English.
I found it extremely entertaining to see all the different versions of French-other language dictionaries. The Chinese-French and Poland-French are definitely two favorites.
I took a tour with a girl from ULg named Alice. She showed Chelsa and I some main places and provided general information about Belgium and Liege. It was fantastic to hear her input. We tried french fries (frites) with her and learned that they are so delicious because they are double fried. Once at ~160 F and then again at ~180 F. The second, hotter frying really crisps them up.
Love you all!
Jacqueline
Tuesday 30 August 2011
Arrival
Hello Everyone!
I have arrived safe and sound after a fairly uneventful travel day. This post is a little mangled because I am so jet lagged, hungry, overtired, and have yet to see the light of day in Belgium. However, here it is before I forget it all.
- The plane started boarding passengers about 25 minutes late but somehow we still managed to leave on time. I am still impressed by this.
- Although not full, the plane had a capacity of about 380 passengers.
- I lucked out and was one of maybe three people who had an entire row to myself. Originally I'd planned to try to stay awake on the flight but once I raised those arm rests and laid out across those seats I was done.
- I slept for about 6 hours in a very restless-your neck-will-never-forgive-you way.
- The final two hours of flight were passed eating a quick breakfast (orange juice, yogurt, and a cinnamon roll thing) and reading on my kindle.
- The plane landed way earlier than expected. I don't know if we made fantastic time or if the ticket was just plain old wrong but it was at least 45 minutes earlier than I had expected. Thank goodness too because my train was bang on time and the extra time to get to it was greatly appreciated!
- Customs was a really quick process and getting my bag didn't take too long either. Finding the train station caught me off guard. I had looked at maps of the Frankfurt terminal and thought the train station was in the basement. It is really at a separate terminal. I still think the way the map is drawn is silly. Anyways, found out I had to catch a shuttle over.
- Moved my train ticket to my jeans pocket because I kept pulling it out, trying to find clues as to where my train would be, and was clueless. Went to ask someone for direction, reach into my pocket and find it missing. Mentally flip out for 2 seconds as my hand checks other pockets knowing it was in that front right side, glance around, see it lying on the ground 25 feet away. Sheesh. Lesson learned.
- The train ride was nice enough. Wish I'd been forward facing instead of backwards but that's ok. The German country side was pretty.
- Get to the Liege-Guillemins station and see that the student with the Erasmus Student Network isn't there to pick me up yet. After 20 minutes I turn on my phone and text him. 10 minutes later he returns my text saying he can't make it and call Chelsa (the other U of Lethbridge student). After giving her a quick call, I end up taking a taxi to my apartment. It ended up being 7.65 euros and holy moly. The cab driver did not understand my French at all! I really really really need to work on it. We managed to hash it out eventually but yikes.
- My building mate, Lionel, let me in, carried my heavy bag up to my apartment for me and handed over the keys. He tried explaining the water heater thing to me but he has such little English and my French is apparently just not happening so we just kind of laughed and that was that. I have yet to figure out the lock on the bathroom door. I know how it should work, I just can't get it to actually do up. Throw it on the list of things to learn in the daylight.
- I am on a fairly busy street. It was quite noisy until about 10:30 pm but as the businesses closed, it isn't too bad anymore. It is however extremely bright and the curtains don't do much. I'm glad I brought ear plugs and a sleep mask.
Tomorrow will be the day to start assessing what I really think of the situation. I was such an overtired bundle of nerves throughout travel and arrival that I didn't get a great impression. Even now, it is 4:19 am local time. I managed to sleep from 11 pm - 2:45 am but jet lag has apparently decided to have its way with my sleep patterns.
The point is I am here and hopefully the morning will shed some light on the situation.
Love you all,
Jacqueline
I have arrived safe and sound after a fairly uneventful travel day. This post is a little mangled because I am so jet lagged, hungry, overtired, and have yet to see the light of day in Belgium. However, here it is before I forget it all.
- The plane started boarding passengers about 25 minutes late but somehow we still managed to leave on time. I am still impressed by this.
- Although not full, the plane had a capacity of about 380 passengers.
- I lucked out and was one of maybe three people who had an entire row to myself. Originally I'd planned to try to stay awake on the flight but once I raised those arm rests and laid out across those seats I was done.
- I slept for about 6 hours in a very restless-your neck-will-never-forgive-you way.
- The final two hours of flight were passed eating a quick breakfast (orange juice, yogurt, and a cinnamon roll thing) and reading on my kindle.
- The plane landed way earlier than expected. I don't know if we made fantastic time or if the ticket was just plain old wrong but it was at least 45 minutes earlier than I had expected. Thank goodness too because my train was bang on time and the extra time to get to it was greatly appreciated!
- Customs was a really quick process and getting my bag didn't take too long either. Finding the train station caught me off guard. I had looked at maps of the Frankfurt terminal and thought the train station was in the basement. It is really at a separate terminal. I still think the way the map is drawn is silly. Anyways, found out I had to catch a shuttle over.
- Moved my train ticket to my jeans pocket because I kept pulling it out, trying to find clues as to where my train would be, and was clueless. Went to ask someone for direction, reach into my pocket and find it missing. Mentally flip out for 2 seconds as my hand checks other pockets knowing it was in that front right side, glance around, see it lying on the ground 25 feet away. Sheesh. Lesson learned.
- The train ride was nice enough. Wish I'd been forward facing instead of backwards but that's ok. The German country side was pretty.
- Get to the Liege-Guillemins station and see that the student with the Erasmus Student Network isn't there to pick me up yet. After 20 minutes I turn on my phone and text him. 10 minutes later he returns my text saying he can't make it and call Chelsa (the other U of Lethbridge student). After giving her a quick call, I end up taking a taxi to my apartment. It ended up being 7.65 euros and holy moly. The cab driver did not understand my French at all! I really really really need to work on it. We managed to hash it out eventually but yikes.
- My building mate, Lionel, let me in, carried my heavy bag up to my apartment for me and handed over the keys. He tried explaining the water heater thing to me but he has such little English and my French is apparently just not happening so we just kind of laughed and that was that. I have yet to figure out the lock on the bathroom door. I know how it should work, I just can't get it to actually do up. Throw it on the list of things to learn in the daylight.
- I am on a fairly busy street. It was quite noisy until about 10:30 pm but as the businesses closed, it isn't too bad anymore. It is however extremely bright and the curtains don't do much. I'm glad I brought ear plugs and a sleep mask.
Tomorrow will be the day to start assessing what I really think of the situation. I was such an overtired bundle of nerves throughout travel and arrival that I didn't get a great impression. Even now, it is 4:19 am local time. I managed to sleep from 11 pm - 2:45 am but jet lag has apparently decided to have its way with my sleep patterns.
The point is I am here and hopefully the morning will shed some light on the situation.
Love you all,
Jacqueline
Friday 29 July 2011
Bookings are Booked!
Hello!
I have done it! Both plane and train are booked. Both flight and train ride are direct from Point A to Point B and both were really cheap! Bonus! The flight ended up being $326 and the train ride was just under $80. I am making it to Europe for ~$400. That is INSANE.
I fly out on August 28 at 11:55 pm from Calgary International Airport and arrive at the Frankfurt International Airport at 5:40 pm on August 29. The flight is only about 9 hours but Belgium is 8 hours ahead (Central European Time). From Frankfurt I go to the train station, which is in the airport, and catch a 6:43 pm train and arrive in Liege at 8:44 pm. Super slick!
However, I arrive and have no where lined up to stay. I am going to make some final efforts to house hunt and then probably just give in and book a hostel.
Exactly one month. Holy sheet.
Jacqueline
I have done it! Both plane and train are booked. Both flight and train ride are direct from Point A to Point B and both were really cheap! Bonus! The flight ended up being $326 and the train ride was just under $80. I am making it to Europe for ~$400. That is INSANE.
I fly out on August 28 at 11:55 pm from Calgary International Airport and arrive at the Frankfurt International Airport at 5:40 pm on August 29. The flight is only about 9 hours but Belgium is 8 hours ahead (Central European Time). From Frankfurt I go to the train station, which is in the airport, and catch a 6:43 pm train and arrive in Liege at 8:44 pm. Super slick!
However, I arrive and have no where lined up to stay. I am going to make some final efforts to house hunt and then probably just give in and book a hostel.
Exactly one month. Holy sheet.
Jacqueline
Sunday 3 July 2011
Getting It Together
Hello!
Finally got the acceptance letter from ULg in around mid June. Due to the post office strike of the last couple weeks and a shuffle in exchange coordinators, it has been quite the endeavor to get everything together to send off for an exchange visa. For anyone who does this exchange in future (or any exchange), definitely get an early start on things like the medical certificate, police records check, and anything to do with financial statements. Make lots of photocopies of any and every document to do with your exchange and make sure to read the instructions closely. For example, I screwed up and sent the Belgium Embassy the wrong type of self addressed prepaid stamped return envelope for them to return my documents and passports to me. It was supposed to be a courier envelope (i.e., FedEx) and I sent a regular office Canada Post one. Now I get to call in and ask them what they want me to do about it. My prediction is that I will probably get to mail them an envelope within an envelope. More money and more delays! Sheesh. My own oversight too.
Scholarships for exchange were due July 1st. I managed to get them all in despite an extreme lack of motivation. It is hard to justify filling in a bunch of paperwork and jumping through the hoops when the scholarships:
A) Don't tell you how much they are worth
B) Ask really ridiculous questions about your finances
C) Specify that if you are awarded scholarship A you are ineligible for scholarship B and vice versa. Tedious and unnecessary work is unavoidable.
Because the pre semester French course starts on August 29th, I hope to fly out on the 28th or 27th, spend a night or two in a hostel and house hunt like crazy. It is really stressful not knowing where I am living when I get there. However, living in the residence is so inconvenient, CityLiving is way too expensive, and house hunting internationally is the next best thing to impossible. Fingers crossed for a quick find once I get there.
I hope to book flights in the next week or so. It's slowly coming together. Less than two months!
Jacqueline
Finally got the acceptance letter from ULg in around mid June. Due to the post office strike of the last couple weeks and a shuffle in exchange coordinators, it has been quite the endeavor to get everything together to send off for an exchange visa. For anyone who does this exchange in future (or any exchange), definitely get an early start on things like the medical certificate, police records check, and anything to do with financial statements. Make lots of photocopies of any and every document to do with your exchange and make sure to read the instructions closely. For example, I screwed up and sent the Belgium Embassy the wrong type of self addressed prepaid stamped return envelope for them to return my documents and passports to me. It was supposed to be a courier envelope (i.e., FedEx) and I sent a regular office Canada Post one. Now I get to call in and ask them what they want me to do about it. My prediction is that I will probably get to mail them an envelope within an envelope. More money and more delays! Sheesh. My own oversight too.
Scholarships for exchange were due July 1st. I managed to get them all in despite an extreme lack of motivation. It is hard to justify filling in a bunch of paperwork and jumping through the hoops when the scholarships:
A) Don't tell you how much they are worth
B) Ask really ridiculous questions about your finances
C) Specify that if you are awarded scholarship A you are ineligible for scholarship B and vice versa. Tedious and unnecessary work is unavoidable.
Because the pre semester French course starts on August 29th, I hope to fly out on the 28th or 27th, spend a night or two in a hostel and house hunt like crazy. It is really stressful not knowing where I am living when I get there. However, living in the residence is so inconvenient, CityLiving is way too expensive, and house hunting internationally is the next best thing to impossible. Fingers crossed for a quick find once I get there.
I hope to book flights in the next week or so. It's slowly coming together. Less than two months!
Jacqueline
Friday 1 April 2011
Advice from the Expert
Hi Guys,
Two days ago I had the opportunity to chat with a guy named Eugene. He did a 10 month Belgium exchange last year and as such is a very valuable resource to this year's outgoing students. Over the course of our 1 hour chat I was able to glean quite a bit of information from his experiences. Eugene designed his exchange to be entirely travel oriented. In the span of 2 semesters he managed to travel to 20 different countries in Europe and racked up an $18 000 travel bill - not including tuition at ULg. Although I definitely want to travel as much as possible, I will definitely not be Eugene level extreme. He ended up skipping most of his classes and doing a lot of travel alone as all the other students opted out of a lot of his trips. Imagine that. To be fair though, Belgian classes often have one component, such as an assignment or exam, that make up almost 100% of your mark. As long as you do well on that one thing, you're set.
To summarize the conversation in list form:
1) Set up a bank account while there, pay the one time transfer fee to transfer all your money, and use a European debit card.
2) Flights are really cheap so don't settle for cheap by Canadian standards. From Belgium to Poland (round trip) cost Eugene 40€. When he paid 75€ for flights to Rome he was later told by Belgians that they would never pay that much.
3) There is a fantastic fresh food farmer's market along the river every Sunday, year round, from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm that is relatively inexpensive. The only issue is most things are sold in bulk and fridge space tends to be limited.
4) Some bus passes and rail passes are specifically for tourists who don't know better. Eugene had a bus pass that made every bus ride equivalent to 30 cents. The tourist pass made each bus trip several dollars.
5) Travel in groups at night and always keep your eye on your stuff.
6) Www.couchsurfing.com is the way to go if you want to stay cheaply in the comfort of someone's home instead of an overcrowded hostel
7) Insist that a woman named Amanda is your exchange advisor. A woman named Joan caused some real issues for Eugene.
8) Belgium is colder than you'd think because of the humidity. Eugene is from northern BC and said he'd never been colder in his life. Minus 5 degrees Celsius in Belgium feels like our minus 20.
9) Be spontaneous. Make friends with locals. Use the opportunity to learn as much French as possible.
What fascinates me is that Eugene is now super involved with the U of L International Center and has learned proper French from that. He said most of his French has developed from hooking up Belgian exchange students with places to stay in Lethbridge and from hanging around with them here. Also interesting, he said that of the people he knew who lived in City Living Student Hotel, most came away with more Spanish or Italian than French. The international students that stay there are predominantly from Spain or Italy and as such, Canadians don't get much opportunity to practice their French.
Another thing that Eugene threw out there was that he wished he'd spent more time exploring Belgium. As great as it was to visit tons of countries, he would've liked to have gotten to know the host country more thoroughly. Also, because of all his international travels, he didn't fall in love with Liege until the very end. I think those comments have really helped to shape in my mind what sort of exchange I want to have. While I will take as many opportunities as possible to travel internationally, I want to really delve into the Liege and Belgian communities and establish a friend base.
All my best,
Jacqueline
Two days ago I had the opportunity to chat with a guy named Eugene. He did a 10 month Belgium exchange last year and as such is a very valuable resource to this year's outgoing students. Over the course of our 1 hour chat I was able to glean quite a bit of information from his experiences. Eugene designed his exchange to be entirely travel oriented. In the span of 2 semesters he managed to travel to 20 different countries in Europe and racked up an $18 000 travel bill - not including tuition at ULg. Although I definitely want to travel as much as possible, I will definitely not be Eugene level extreme. He ended up skipping most of his classes and doing a lot of travel alone as all the other students opted out of a lot of his trips. Imagine that. To be fair though, Belgian classes often have one component, such as an assignment or exam, that make up almost 100% of your mark. As long as you do well on that one thing, you're set.
To summarize the conversation in list form:
1) Set up a bank account while there, pay the one time transfer fee to transfer all your money, and use a European debit card.
2) Flights are really cheap so don't settle for cheap by Canadian standards. From Belgium to Poland (round trip) cost Eugene 40€. When he paid 75€ for flights to Rome he was later told by Belgians that they would never pay that much.
3) There is a fantastic fresh food farmer's market along the river every Sunday, year round, from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm that is relatively inexpensive. The only issue is most things are sold in bulk and fridge space tends to be limited.
4) Some bus passes and rail passes are specifically for tourists who don't know better. Eugene had a bus pass that made every bus ride equivalent to 30 cents. The tourist pass made each bus trip several dollars.
5) Travel in groups at night and always keep your eye on your stuff.
6) Www.couchsurfing.com is the way to go if you want to stay cheaply in the comfort of someone's home instead of an overcrowded hostel
7) Insist that a woman named Amanda is your exchange advisor. A woman named Joan caused some real issues for Eugene.
8) Belgium is colder than you'd think because of the humidity. Eugene is from northern BC and said he'd never been colder in his life. Minus 5 degrees Celsius in Belgium feels like our minus 20.
9) Be spontaneous. Make friends with locals. Use the opportunity to learn as much French as possible.
What fascinates me is that Eugene is now super involved with the U of L International Center and has learned proper French from that. He said most of his French has developed from hooking up Belgian exchange students with places to stay in Lethbridge and from hanging around with them here. Also interesting, he said that of the people he knew who lived in City Living Student Hotel, most came away with more Spanish or Italian than French. The international students that stay there are predominantly from Spain or Italy and as such, Canadians don't get much opportunity to practice their French.
Another thing that Eugene threw out there was that he wished he'd spent more time exploring Belgium. As great as it was to visit tons of countries, he would've liked to have gotten to know the host country more thoroughly. Also, because of all his international travels, he didn't fall in love with Liege until the very end. I think those comments have really helped to shape in my mind what sort of exchange I want to have. While I will take as many opportunities as possible to travel internationally, I want to really delve into the Liege and Belgian communities and establish a friend base.
All my best,
Jacqueline
Tuesday 29 March 2011
Accommodations
Hi Crew,
I am presently going through the process of trying to find accomodations for next year. I have four options available to me:
1) University Residence
2) Private Accommodation AKA Kot
3) City Living Student Hotel
4) Self Initiative Search
The university residence isn't really an option. All the descriptions I've read and people I've talked to have said that although the price is attractive, the location is isolated and undesirable. It is located on the campus of Sart-Tilman which is actually outside of town. Buses stop running at about 11:00 pm which can make getting home difficult. No thank you.
The private accommodations option definitely shows some potential. ULg has what is called the "International Exchange Student Network" (ESN) which is a student association that among other things will locate and negotiate the terms of a lease for incoming international students. The average price of housing found through the ESN is 300€ monthly and the administration fee for finding a place and working out the details for you is relatively low at 20€. I have filled out the registration form and submitted it so hopefully I hear back relatively soon.
The City Living Student Hotel is a neat concept. It is a complex that house about 150 students and is 10 minutes away from the downtown ULg campus. A full time building manager is always floating around and the complex is extremely secure and is know for being a safe place. There are four different room types that range from basic to over abundance. The room I am considering is the most basic bedroom. Consisting of simple furniture and a bathroom with stand up shower, the cost for the "standard" level rooms are about 460€ a month with utilities not included. The more advanced rooms have more space, double beds, full bathrooms, and full kitchens if you are willing to pay for them. There is one common room and study area for the building but full kitchens on each floor. The kitchens have locking cupboards for each resident. I think that is a brilliant idea. Another nice thing about City Living, although again expensive, is that they sell basic linen and kitchen packages that have all the basics you need. It would be nice if these were provided but I can't imagine it would be too hard to buy a set of an outgoing student for relatively cheap. My only hesitation with City Living at this moment in time is one or two of the contract clauses. Before I apply I will definitely be consulting with someone who is wiser than I.
My last resort is trying to find something on my own. This may prove rather difficult from Canada but I'm sure I could dig something up.
Tomorrow I have a meeting set up with a former Liege exchange student named Eugene. He did a double semester 10 month exchange and lived one semester in residence and one semester in a Kot. Hopefully he will be able to provide some insight.
153ish days until take off!
- Jacqueline
I am presently going through the process of trying to find accomodations for next year. I have four options available to me:
1) University Residence
2) Private Accommodation AKA Kot
3) City Living Student Hotel
4) Self Initiative Search
The university residence isn't really an option. All the descriptions I've read and people I've talked to have said that although the price is attractive, the location is isolated and undesirable. It is located on the campus of Sart-Tilman which is actually outside of town. Buses stop running at about 11:00 pm which can make getting home difficult. No thank you.
The private accommodations option definitely shows some potential. ULg has what is called the "International Exchange Student Network" (ESN) which is a student association that among other things will locate and negotiate the terms of a lease for incoming international students. The average price of housing found through the ESN is 300€ monthly and the administration fee for finding a place and working out the details for you is relatively low at 20€. I have filled out the registration form and submitted it so hopefully I hear back relatively soon.
The City Living Student Hotel is a neat concept. It is a complex that house about 150 students and is 10 minutes away from the downtown ULg campus. A full time building manager is always floating around and the complex is extremely secure and is know for being a safe place. There are four different room types that range from basic to over abundance. The room I am considering is the most basic bedroom. Consisting of simple furniture and a bathroom with stand up shower, the cost for the "standard" level rooms are about 460€ a month with utilities not included. The more advanced rooms have more space, double beds, full bathrooms, and full kitchens if you are willing to pay for them. There is one common room and study area for the building but full kitchens on each floor. The kitchens have locking cupboards for each resident. I think that is a brilliant idea. Another nice thing about City Living, although again expensive, is that they sell basic linen and kitchen packages that have all the basics you need. It would be nice if these were provided but I can't imagine it would be too hard to buy a set of an outgoing student for relatively cheap. My only hesitation with City Living at this moment in time is one or two of the contract clauses. Before I apply I will definitely be consulting with someone who is wiser than I.
My last resort is trying to find something on my own. This may prove rather difficult from Canada but I'm sure I could dig something up.
Tomorrow I have a meeting set up with a former Liege exchange student named Eugene. He did a double semester 10 month exchange and lived one semester in residence and one semester in a Kot. Hopefully he will be able to provide some insight.
153ish days until take off!
- Jacqueline
Sunday 27 March 2011
Up and Running
Hi Crew,
Although I don't leave for another five months, I figured it would be best to get the blog up and running before I leave. Besides taking the time to tinker away on small details like colour schemes, I will also post on what it takes to get set up for a trip like the one I am taking. For those who don't know, I am embarking on an international exchange through the University of Lethbridge's (U of L) Faculty of Management to Liege, Belgium from September 2011 - June 2012. During these 10 months, I will be studying at the University of Liege (ULg) at the HEC Management School. Although I will receive credit for the courses I take, let's be honest. I am Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science major going on an international management exchange. My actual goals are as follows:
1) Learn how to survive on my own in a foreign country
2) Become fluent in French
3) Travel as often and as broadly as possible
4) Seduce a handsome Belgian Prince and create a Canada/Belgium mega-nation
In actuality, I will serve as a convenient excuse for any friends and/or family that have always wanted to explore Europe to finally jump on a plane. That being said, you are all highly encouraged to come visit me.
In the mean time, I am going through the process of applications to ULg, acquiring a student visa, filling out all the fun liability forms the Faculty of Management requires, and attending information sessions and meetings. Last Friday we had a meeting that was Culture Shock and Risk Management. Instead of scaring me with all the things that could possibly go wrong, it only served to build my excitement as we talked about little customs that are intimate to the Belgian culture. For example, when invited to a house, bring flowers or fine chocolates for the hostess. If you bring flowers, they cannot be chrysanthemums (which symbolize death) and they must be in an odd number but not 13. Exposure to these culture differences, no matter how small and specific, is exactly why I'm going.
I am fortunate in that I have another student going on exchange with me to the same school for the fall semester. Her name is Chelsa. She is a third year management major and wants to travel as much as possible during her single semester exchange. We are extremely fortunate to be able to plan together for housing, flights, rail passes, etc. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, she is only going to be in Belgium from September to December. As such, I will be on my own for the second semester unless another handful of students from U of L arrive for the spring semester. Being on my own is a relative term though. ULg has an absolutely enormous international student population.
Cheers,
Jacqueline
PS: The name of this blog is a reference to a friend from Lethbridge. Having spent 7 months in Tanzania prior to when we met, he would often start his stories with, "This one time in Tanzania...". After I called him out on overusing that line, he told me my karma for teasing him would be finding myself constantly starting all my future stories with, "This one time in Belgium...".
Although I don't leave for another five months, I figured it would be best to get the blog up and running before I leave. Besides taking the time to tinker away on small details like colour schemes, I will also post on what it takes to get set up for a trip like the one I am taking. For those who don't know, I am embarking on an international exchange through the University of Lethbridge's (U of L) Faculty of Management to Liege, Belgium from September 2011 - June 2012. During these 10 months, I will be studying at the University of Liege (ULg) at the HEC Management School. Although I will receive credit for the courses I take, let's be honest. I am Bachelor of Science in Exercise Science major going on an international management exchange. My actual goals are as follows:
1) Learn how to survive on my own in a foreign country
2) Become fluent in French
3) Travel as often and as broadly as possible
4) Seduce a handsome Belgian Prince and create a Canada/Belgium mega-nation
In actuality, I will serve as a convenient excuse for any friends and/or family that have always wanted to explore Europe to finally jump on a plane. That being said, you are all highly encouraged to come visit me.
In the mean time, I am going through the process of applications to ULg, acquiring a student visa, filling out all the fun liability forms the Faculty of Management requires, and attending information sessions and meetings. Last Friday we had a meeting that was Culture Shock and Risk Management. Instead of scaring me with all the things that could possibly go wrong, it only served to build my excitement as we talked about little customs that are intimate to the Belgian culture. For example, when invited to a house, bring flowers or fine chocolates for the hostess. If you bring flowers, they cannot be chrysanthemums (which symbolize death) and they must be in an odd number but not 13. Exposure to these culture differences, no matter how small and specific, is exactly why I'm going.
I am fortunate in that I have another student going on exchange with me to the same school for the fall semester. Her name is Chelsa. She is a third year management major and wants to travel as much as possible during her single semester exchange. We are extremely fortunate to be able to plan together for housing, flights, rail passes, etc. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, she is only going to be in Belgium from September to December. As such, I will be on my own for the second semester unless another handful of students from U of L arrive for the spring semester. Being on my own is a relative term though. ULg has an absolutely enormous international student population.
Cheers,
Jacqueline
PS: The name of this blog is a reference to a friend from Lethbridge. Having spent 7 months in Tanzania prior to when we met, he would often start his stories with, "This one time in Tanzania...". After I called him out on overusing that line, he told me my karma for teasing him would be finding myself constantly starting all my future stories with, "This one time in Belgium...".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)