Category: University of Antwerpen

The final weeks leading up to my departure to Antwerp were jam-packed, exciting and emotional. At first it seemed like the Visa application was the most difficult part of the process, but I soon discovered that packing was. Packing for 6 months with a limited weight of 33kg can be challenging. Not knowing what necessities your room will be equipped with on your arrival was rather scary. My tip would be to always pack less and remember that almost everything you need can be bought or borrowed.

And so the day of my departure finally arrived. The fact that I was leaving for six months had not sunk in until I was sitting at the boarding terminal. It was emotional saying bye to my family, but I had forgotten the power of technology (Skype) and how it can shorten distances! After a long flight I finally arrived in Brussels where I took a train to Antwerp. From there I could have walked to my accommodation but my bags were far too heavy and so I took a cab.

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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.

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ARRIVAL IN ANTWERP:

So having been in Antwerp for nearly a month now, here is my first report on things have gone down so far.

Firstly, in terms of getting here it was really convenient (Lufthansa operates the cheapest and shortest flights) as I flew in to Brussels central and then caught the train from the station to Antwerp central which is within easy walking distance to the main campus.

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