My Erasmus experience in Brussels at l’Université Saint Louis Moniek Boskma
Hi everyone,
While I am writing this I am back in Groningen since two weeks, missing everything about my stay in Brussels. I would like to tell you about my amazing experience I had in Brussels. Let's start, like every story, at the moment where it all began.
When I started studying IRIO at the university of Groningen three years ago I was already looking forward to the third year because of the fact that there is an opportunity to study abroad for half a year. At the end of the first semester in the second year, it was already the moment where I had to choose whether I wanted to do this and if yes where I wanted to go. The first question was answered pretty quickly: of course I want this, this is an opportunity you will probably never get again during your career as a student. About the place where to go I had to think a bit longer.
Because I had already followed french classes in high school and one and a half year at university I decided to choose a french-speaking country, so I would finally be able to really improve my french skills. My first choice was Montpellier, my second choice was Brussels, and just to have a third choice I picked Paris. As you already know, I got my second choice. At that time, I was quite happy with that, but I had literally no idea what to expect from Brussels. Once I was assigned to Université Saint-Louis in Brussels, I received all kinds of information from them pretty quickly. This information was very clear and complete. They, for example, explained how to choose courses, they told me about a specific course only for erasmus students, they gave an overview of the agenda of the academic year, and, also very important, they send a lot of information about the introduction week, the french-intensive week and the university housing. For the courses, at first it was a little bit difficult which courses to choose, but in the end I decided to follow four courses taught in French and two taught in English. I will tell you a bit more about this later on.
After the learning agreement got signed, a few months passed by, and before I knew it was already the last day of August, on which I planned to travel to Brussels. A week before, I already moved all my things with my parents to my room in Brussels, and the week that passed I already said my goodbyes to everyone, so on the 31st of august I just travelled by myself with a
backpack to Brussels by train. A train ride to Brussels is relatively fast, it takes you about five hours, and if you buy a ticket a few weeks before your departure, it will only cost you around twenty euros. If you choose to live in the accommodation provided by the university, it is only a ten minute walk from Brussels north station to the house.
In Brussels, I was living in the student accomodation of the university. Immediately after your application has been sent to the host university bij the RUG, you will also get information about this student accommodation. Even though it is a big building with around 150 rooms, of which 40 or so for Erasmus students, I recommend you to be very fast in replying to them if you want to live in such a room. They are very popular and after two or three days most rooms are already taken. You have the option to choose between a standard room, a standard plus room, or a studio. I chose for the standard room, which is €430 each month. The building is very new (it was opened in 2017) and the standard room has everything you need. I had to share the
three toilets, four showers and the kitchen with 11 other people. You have to be a bit lucky with these people in terms of how clean and proper they are. But if not, you have the luxury of a dishwasher, and every other day cleaning people come to clean the kitchen, toilets and showers. This building is around the corner of the university, so you can walk out of the house five
minutes before your course starts. It is located in the city center, it is for example only a 300 meter walk to the big shopping street, and around a ten minute walk to the grand place (on the picture of the front page). I would really recommend this housing if you want to find a place in Brussels right in the city center and if you would like to live with other Erasmus students and locals.
After the first weekend, in which I already met some people in the student house, the
introduction week started. This week was perfectly organized, with trips to other Belgian cities, a tour with locals, museum visits, trips into nature, a visit to the Belgian parliament, two lectures on the Belgian political system and its culture, a chocolate tasting, and of course a few beer tastings. I was really happy that a signed up for this week. It was a great opportunity to get to know many new people and to get to know the city a little bit as well. After the introduction week there was the possibility to participate in a French intensive week. During this week you would have French classes either in the morning or afternoon depending on your level of French. I myself did not attend this week, because I have had French classes for a long time. However, if you want to learn the basics or want to refresh your knowledge of the French language, I would definitely recommend this week, which is for free! In the first semester there was quite a lot of time for both the introduction week and the French week. In the second semester the university combines these weeks, with classes in the morning and trips or visits in the afternoon.
After these two weeks the courses started. In this week Erasmus students were allowed to follow almost every course taught at the university which they were interested in. This gives you the possibility to follow many different courses, which, in turn, gives you the opportunity to pick courses you like and maybe drop the courses which are on second thought not that
interesting for you. As I said, my intention was to follow four courses in French, but after the first two days I got the feeling that this might have been too difficult for me. The level of French is of course very high and the difficulty of most courses can be compared to the level of the courses taught at the University of Groningen. During this week I had email contact with the IRIO study advisors whether the courses I wanted to change would get approved. I always received a response really fast and they were really helpful in this. In the end I took two courses taught in French: doctrines politiques & droit, gouvernance et développement durable, three courses which where taught in English: ethics and the economy, communication science, and corporate communication and public relations, and my sixth course was taught in Dutch, which was mens en organisatie. So in the end I switched quite a lot of courses, and I took a few ones which are courses from another faculty, which was not a problem at all.
The organization of courses and exams at Saint-Louis is a little different than what I was used to at the RUG. First you have thirteen weeks of courses, in which you start with only lectures and after two or three weeks it is possible that for some courses a seminar is added, which are mandatory to attend. After these weeks, you have two weeks to study, which is called ‘blocus’. In these weeks you do not have any courses, but you will have time to study. In the first semester,
the second week of blocus is during christmas, so most people would go back home then. After these two weeks of blocus, you have a whole month of exams. In the first semester, this was from the third of January till the twenty-sixth. I was quite lucky that my first exam was on the tenth, so I still had some time to study after Christmas. However, I was not used to having six exams (30 ECTS) at the same time. As said my first exam was on the tenth and my last one was at the twenty-fourth, which is quite a long time to keep motivating yourself to study. I would say that the amount of work for one exam was the same, or even more in the case of the courses in French, as the amount of study time I need for the exams at the RUG. This was a rather stressful period, but if you keep track of your work during the semester it is really possible to pass all the exams. Which, fortunately, I managed to do.
Of course, next to studying, Erasmus is also a period in which you get to meet new people, discover other cultures, the country, and so on. During my semester, there were no other Dutch Erasmus students, so I made a lot of friends from different countries, which helped me greatly with improving my English. Together we travelled to different cities in Belgium and we went to Paris, because one of my friends was from there. This was great, because you just have your own private tour guide for free. Which brings me to the average expenses during a stay in Brussels. Brussels is a little more expensive than the Netherlands when it comes to doing groceries, going out for dinner or going for a drink. Of course, it very much depends on yourself how much money you spend. For example, some people (mostly non-Europeans) went to Paris, to London, to Amsterdam and to Budapest during their stay. For me, I think the average amount I spend monthly was around €600/€700 (including the rent for my room).
In these five months I fell in love with Brussels, I met people who I can call really good friends and I learned a lot about life and about myself. Brussels is a beautiful city, which has a lot to offer and where you will never get bored. What I would like to make clear with this letter is that you do not have to go to the other side of the world to have one of the best experiences of your life. It took me a four hour train ride to find myself to experience something I will never forget and from which I have learned more than I could have ever imagined.
I hope that through this report I have informed you a little bit more about Brussels and
Université Saint-Louis. If you have any questions about anything, you can always contact me via the email address that is one the front page. I would be really happy to help you!
Kind regards, Moniek
