Preparing for take off:
How I envy some of my fellow classmates with duel citizenship or European passports. When preparing to travel abroad you realize how much admin your green book can cause you (not even to mention the embarrassing awkward school photo). One of a few things you need for a Belgium Student Visa is police clearance. This document can be obtained from your local police station and indicates that you are not a smooth criminal. After getting all ten fingerprints, and two hand-prints (Yes, I also didn’t know that existed) done, your file must be couriered to Pretoria for authorization. Plan enough time for this as a lot can go wrong. In my case my first police clearance got lost somewhere on the way to Pretoria. It had to be reissued and re-couriered. When receiving this long awaited A4 sheet I was naturally ecstatic. The Belgian embassy would not accept this official police document (with the official SAPD stamp) unless it was apostilled by DIRCO (This means that another officer must say that the officer who signed the certificate is legitimate). Of course, this can also only be done in Pretoria. Some lessons thus far: do not to count your chickens before they hatch and make sure you build good relations with the courier service as you might need them a lot – we where lucky third time round.
Then followed the heaps of paperwork. Literally three identical heaps. All completed by hand, not photocopied: police clearance, medical examination documents, bank accounts, proof of acceptance and so much more. Some call it the curse of the green mamba, others call it the curse of dealing with people in authority positions. My advice is to smile and wave and provide them with everything they ask, because getting that Schengen Visa is more than worth the effort. I had 7 months of freedom in all Schengen countries – something I surely tried to abuse.
My only other pre departure advice would be to travel light. I packed and repacked five times and successfully took only half of the original batch. And I got by more than sufficiently. Partially as I flew KLM and was only allowed 23kgs, but also because previous travel experiences had taught me that there is nothing worse than carrying unnecessary weight around. Get on the plane with as little preconceived ideas as possible, have an open mind for different experiences and be prepared to have the time of your life.
All About Antwerp:
LIVING IN ANTWERP
Antwerp is not only the second biggest city in Belgium, but also both the diamond and fashion capital. Living here was never boring or predictable – somewhat due to the unstable weather conditions, but mostly due to the fact that there are always some pop up shops, markets and festivals appearing all over the city assuring daily pleasant surprises. I loved living in Antwerp. The Antwerp to-do-list is never ending and includes: Grotemarkt with the fountain of Brabo; the view over the city from the rooftop of the 10 story MAS museum; arriving at the most beautiful central station, shopping in Meir street, taking a Velo bike through the tunnel underneath the river to view the Antwerp skyline from the Linkeroewer and indulging in Belgian waffles, chocolate, fries and beer. If you are Afrikaans you would also love hearing people speak Dutch. I could understand everything easily and sometimes it is quite funny. The fact that I was not as ‘lost in translation’ as the other exchange student definitely made the adaption of being in a foreign place easier. You can also do evening classes in Dutch for beginners at Kampus Drie Eiken, the medical campus, which I would recommend.
STUDYING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ANTWERP
We were 192 exchange students from 36 different countries doing a semester at the University of Antwerp. The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) organized various welcoming events; including an international bingo night, a city tour, a pub-crawl, a weekend-away in the Ardennes and an international food evening where everyone must bring a traditional dish. This makes settling in very easy. To be a true Belgian student you have to experience a Cantus, one of the most famous student traditions in Antwerp. This is a night that involves a lot of singing and beer and some complicated Latin words and rules to memorize. The most important thing to remember throughout a Cantus is that in Belgium beer is a holy drink and therefor one should treat beer with respect. Ad fundum.
WHERE TO LIVE?
In Belgium student rooms are called a ‘kot’, unfortunately the reason for this is still unknown to me. I received a housing scholarship from the University of Antwerp and ended up living in Lange Winkelstraat 19. We where 15 students living together from all over the world including Canada, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Turkey, Germany, Czech Republic, China and Hungary. Living in this building was ideal as the kot is situated within 100m radius of center campus, a supermarket, a frietes (Belgian fries) take away shop, an night shop (open 24h), an indoor sports hall, a pharmacy, an ATM and the local student pub Cafe De Prof . Rodestreet is located in the same area and a lot of student rooms are also available there. If you put in the effort to read this and will be studying in Antwerp or any of the Belgian university, feel free to contact me on facebook (Anke Joubert) for advise with finding an additional bursary or any further travel tips… I’d be glad to help.
Returning to my motherland:
After six months exposure to anything new, one cannot help but see your previous circumstances in a different light. It was interesting to live and speak to people from all over the world about political and circumstantial differences in our countries. I realized that often we as South Africans have become desensitized to our extremely unequal society. I hope that one day we can overcome this disparity and I would love to see South Africa develop in areas such as public transport, education and safety. South African weather on the other hand, is something I will never take for granted again. Blue skies in Belgium is not a given and Summer in Europe has nothing on Summer in South Africa.
I am proudly South African. I believe that growing up with what some would refer to as ‘the South African mentality’ is not all bad. Yes, I have burglar bars in front of all the windows in my house. I lock my door when I leave my apartment or when I stop at a red traffic light after dark. I would not leave my laptop unattended in a public area or my handbag at the table when I go to the restroom at a restaurant. Primarily and sadly because odds are it would be stolen. Although the common thread between these scenarios might be safety precautions, it has also taught me to take responsibility for my actions and think about how I live, what I do and why I do it and most importantly to always be aware of my surroundings – qualities that I find integrally important to survival in any place on earth. Thus I feel I was prepared to fully experience, enjoy and take advantage of my six month experience abroad. I wish you a safe and memorable journey.