BELGIUM II

I am coming from a small country, Liechtenstein, and in a summary, my first month in Gent was just chaos. Moving from Vaduz to a neighbourhood which has the same population as whole town of Vaduz was quite a challenge. Relearning how to live within a big population is where I find the real fun. The most interesting part is the difference between how people use sidewalks. In Gent, they arre mostly occupied by bicycles and it is sometimes hard to find a space to walk but there is always enough  for cycling. If you compare to this to Vaduz, it is easier to walk than to cycle with all the hills, etc. However, it was very easy and quick for me to adapt to this lifestyle. Now, I don’t know how to live in Gent without a bicycle. The pace of the life is quite fast for an Erasmus student. There is always a party, a festival, a cultural meeting, or something to explore. I live in a dormitory called Upkot Timi. It is very hard for students to find an appartement in Gent . I have met people who pay 800€ per month for a place to stay in Gent. During my first day at the dormitory, I met Filip from Sweden and Adam from France who also study Architecture. Later, I learnt that every Erasmus student in my dormitory studies Architecture. It is very practical.

Gent is  very well preserved and also very multicultural. People from all around the world live in or visit Gent. I didn't know much about  Belgium before as there is not much advertised and appears under the shadow of the Netherlands and France. I must say that staying here is way better than I could have imagined. Walking around the city, everytime I discover something new. In every corner, I don't look, I seem to miss something. As an Architecture student, I am enjoying the city every single day. Furthermore, there are always parties or festivals taking place or  we just go out to eat, etc.It is easy to meet with people from all around the world. It has been around 5-6 weeks and I already have plans with some of them for the summer. Hiking in the Faroe Islands with a Danish friend, partying in Madrid with Spanish friends, cycling to Zürich from St. Gallen with Swiss friends or camping near Lake Léman. Right here I got the chance to meet mostly with people from Spain and Scandinavia. It is a quite a cultural mix. When planning something as a group of friends we must talk about meeting times since, dinner for the Spanish friends is at 23:00 and Scandinavians at 18:00. Sometimes there are misunderstandings and we meet at the wrong time. My first trip was with a friend from Sweden to Luxembourg. We were randomly talking about Liechtenstein and we decided to take the train next day to Luxembourg. It was quite an amazing trip to take.

Beer makes Belgium unique. Opinion on beer is like having a political opinion on a certain subject. I personally enjoyed every beer I have tried. According to some bars, I need to try 300 more types of beer. Amazing, it looks like I need to come back again.

During my stay, I have noticed how disorganised Belgium is and how lazy some people are. Over a year living in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, I only once, had a problem with schedules. In here, it is okay for them to miss your train connection and stay in another city for 2 hours or even there is a chance you might stay in the station overnight. It is quite stressing when you take the public transportation. In some parks it is quite dangerous and we didn’t know it before and we were using it for quite some time where there are reports of rapes, theft and drugs usage…

Since the moment I arrived in Belgium, I have never regretted my decision to do my exchange semester here. I am glad that I came here. It has not been long since I am here but I have gained a lot of experience. I have more plans to dive further into the Belgium culture.