Erasmus in English - finally, guys!

So! Since many English speaking people ask me again and again how I'm doing here in Belgium, I finally slapped myself and said: You gotta save their souls! And my head..

Let's start from the middle. Or from the boring stuff. I live in student residences, or dorms, which are only about 6 months old, with big modern kitchens, the rooms have shower and toilet and a fridge and I don't share it with anyone, so it's pretty, and pretty expensive. I pay €383 monthly and my grant is €404. So before I came here I was all like: I'm not gonna drink at all, and I'll eat cheap....well, I do eat cheap, but I also buy beers so you can imagine... Student life. Last week's special Wednesday's beer offer in our Erasmus pub called The Porter House (aka cheesy Irish pub) was Delirium Tremens, and I can tell you, nomen omen. Next day I was praying for a quick painless death. Painfully enough, I survived and promised myself that I'm gonna stay dry for at least one week. It's going pretty well so far.

Porter House's barman on the left. He really calls himself Wolverine.

The city of Gent is beautiful, picturesque, exciting, lively (well, especially after midnight. And especially under my windows, grrrr), historical, and I'm not gonna say magical cos that would be Prague alright. I love it already, nearly as much as I love Prague.

Most people ride bikes, car drivers are calm and well-behaved, bike lanes are in good shape and I'm not falling down anymore. Two weeks ago I had a flat tyre though, because one of the drunkards' popular pastimes is breaking glass in front of Porter which is located at Overpoortstraat (the hardest drinking street for the youth) and which happens to be 100m from my place. Beer there is €1.80 (0.25L! Oh how I miss Czech pints!), €2 if it's a special offer of a special beer (how many Belgian beers do you know? Duvel, La Chouffe, Rodenbach, Delirium, Westmalle, Troll (really!), Kriek, Jupiler, Maes, then a million trappist beers...). 

So it's hard to avoid the temptation. Last week we went to the Ardennes for the weekend. The plan was simple: party, party in costumes, visit to a medieval fort. This trip has over the years become known as the (in)famous binge trip for Erasmus students so I knew I cannot miss it. And it was great. Food and drinks included, we stayed in a cottage and partied hard. We also played cards, volleyball and football, just to show that we actually can do something else than getting hammered. The second night it was time for the costume party. The goal was to look as stupid as you can. A Czech guy blew up condoms (chocolate flavour! I don't know why. And I don't wanna know why.), put them in a bra, took on g-string panties and looked just awesome. Maybe he finally understands how it feels when men are looking at your boobs or even trying to squeeze them. We had loads of fun!

 This is us before going to the party. Most of the Czechs I know here.


So here I am, drinking milk and wondering how I'm going to write my diploma thesis within one month when there are so many things to do! The weather is mostly warm so we can go out to the big Citadel park with lakes and ducks and swans and gooses and caves, or to Blaarmeersen which is a huge lake with beaches all around. Or sit near any of the numerous kanaals and enjoy the architectonical beauties. Or go to a Sunday market and buy mussels or escargots or chocolate or FRIES! Fries are everywhere, and god bless them, they are nothing like the McD splinters! They are fat, juicy, hot, tasty, with any kind of sauce you can imagine. I could eat kilos of them! The best place for fries is a stand at Overpoort which is run by a Bulgarian who doesn't speak English. But I don't speak Dutch. €2,40 for medium fries and sauce. I usually take Samurai or American sauce (not to be confused with BBQ) - they are spicy and delicious.


As of school, I have an individual plan because the classes are in Dutch. No, really! The University of Gent, est. 1817, has no English classes whatsoever. I need to pass 5 courses and for 4 of them I still have no idea what to do. Trust me, chaos and a total peace of mind is typical here. But the people are friendly, most of them speak very good English and if you smile, everything is easy. So I hope we will solve it...somehow...


That's all for now, folks, I hope next time I scribble something I will be strong and write it in English too. If it looks too weird, that's cos I was too lazy and put it in google translator.
Cheers!