Sami attended the Lef Summer School at the University of Antwerp. Here is her story.
Pre-Departure:
When I received my acceptance letter to the University of Antwerp I was ecstatic, and all I could do was daydream and Google images of the different places I had to see on my trip; this lasted for a few days. That is my first tip, don’t get overwhelmed, and don’t get side tracked. Sure, Googling images are cool, but sorting out the technicalities will become a headache if you don’t begin on time. It is the most cliché thing to say, but it is true: plan and divide your time wisely.
I wasted a lot of time in my happy phase, and I completely neglected looking into the steps for payment and at the dates for payment for the summer school. Yes, they moved the date of payment a whole 25 days up, which was pretty unfair, but I hadn’t been to the bank to ask about the procedure for overseas transfers at all which set me back even more. So if you have to pay for the summer school yourself (with this I include your being given the Travel Bursary by the PGIO), please go to your bank as soon as you get your acceptance letter.
The above was actually the hardest part. Accommodation was given to us by the summer school, and I went straight to Antwerp. If you want to arrive early/stay afterwards, find out if you can stay in the same accommodation. This will make your trip easy, and will remove complications for your Visa application (one of the criterion is proof of accommodation if I remember correctly).
Flights! Stalk the different airlines early enough and you’ll save a great amount on your return flight tickets (more Euros for you). Shop around for a good deal on travel insurance—this covers a lot, go to your nearest travel agent and find out what it entails, I didn’t know it also included medical expenses for example—after you’ve bought your flight ticket. While on the subject of transport, find out if you can get discounts/a travel agent from your parent’s membership with an insurance/investment company. I made the mistake of booking my train tickets with my travel agent—this is how I got lost in Antwerp—find out at exactly which station you need to go to. You can do this easily upon arriving (if you speak the language, so rather ask the course coordinator) and it costs less money than booking in advance (which is not what the agent told me).
For my Visa application I had to have paid and sorted out everything prior to my arriving at the embassy: Visa fees, flight tickets, travel insurance, accommodation, spending, food money, and the official acceptance letter. The summer school provided us with food and accommodation, so when loading up my Global Card I only had to have 50 Euro per day instead of the standard 100 Euro per day. After that it was checking the Weather Channel—such a mess! Rather find out what news station they use in Belgium, because I packed for cooler weather and it was ‘hello heatwave’! I was never ready.
Fraternity: Summer School
This was the last summer school in the series on the three pillars of the French Revolution, namely: ‘Liberty, Equality and Fraternity’. These ideals also form part of the policies of modern day Europe, therefore the goal of the course was to investigate how this motto has been interpreted into legislation, and to whom it applies two centuries later. Since the course was focusing on the idea of Fraternity, community, and our feelings and sense of community were gaged throughout the week, with lectures on the history of fraternity; the nation state and patriotism; and how these and other factors led up to the ‘coordinated foreign policy’ of the EU, and the difficulties this now presents in the wake of a globalized world and a Europe under pressure with the influx of asylum seekers and refugees while facing its own problems of democracy, politics and economics (Greece became the topic of conversation during lectures and after class).
We had a range of disciplines because of the importance of the multidisciplinary facet of the summer school. We had lectures and workshop activities in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Theatre, Political Science, Law, and International Relations. Along with these, we had to post three blogs during the week, and a final assignment in which we described what community is to us. The course was crammed quite full; during the day we attended lectures, and in the evening we had planned activities. It was good to participate in these because it allowed for social interaction within the group which translated to us creating our own little community. The lecturers themselves were brilliant and the material was quite exciting. The fact that the work was applied to contemporary issues was the best part as well because that allowed for varied perspectives to be given which gave shape to the idea of having an ‘interdisciplinary’ understanding of Fraternity. I found the lectures at summer school to be far more engaging than Stellenbosch, because interaction with the material and the lecturer in class was specified, with the lecturer posing questions to us many times too. This is also due to the fact that we were given articles to read before class, a group task to prepare, and the blog postings. This translated in more participation from us (students), and it allowed us to grasp information quicker and to have questions to ask. I felt encouraged to share my opinion with the lecturer and my colleagues because of the intimate space that was created. I think the speed worried me at times, but the intensive look at the subject matter made sense with that speed. At the end of summer school I was hoping more Universities would look into Interdisciplinary courses because that would be something everyone would benefit from.
Home:
Returning to South Africa was quite an interesting experience. It still is in essence because many of the same feelings and thoughts keep returning from time to time. Jet-lag was almost non-existent because there is not much of a time difference; but motion sickness was a reality, and the food at the airport and on flight were not at all health-giving.
Apart from getting sick again (long distance flights never loved me) I got home to quite the welcoming party, complete with a helium balloon. I was absolutely ecstatic to be back home, apart from the food, I was happy to hear the sound of South Africa. Yes, Belgium has beautiful architecture and it is so easy to get around with public transport (too easy), but there was a warmth that was missing, a lack of community in the larger context, which is principle in South Africa. Unlike previous years though, my return to Stellenbosch did not have the same wide-eyed excitement. Instead I was rather feeling nostalgic and wistful; I knew I wouldn’t be seeing my classmates from summer school in class in Stellenbosch because arriving on campus would be the final step in calling an end to this journey. In many ways, the first two weeks of class were part of a really long withdrawal from the whole experience. I found myself talking about summer school all the time, and not taking in the data of the new semester which wasn’t a bad thing since it didn’t get swept up in the partying mood and I then had time to reflect on my year so far and on my future prospects with regards to studying abroad. I hadn’t known that I had the possibility of applying for a post-grad in any other country/part of Europe outside of the UK because of the language barrier, and summer school opened my eyes to the reality, and that is that many courses for post-graduate studies are offered in English all over Europe. The negative side of this is that the academic data also fell by the wayside for those two weeks because I was in conversation with my friends from summer school and my friends on campus about summer school.
Mostly, I have an appreciation of my youth. It hadn’t really sunk in that I am not running out of time, but instead I have my youth to experience life. I think being a young person in South Africa creates an anxiety to grow up and find a set career; I found a sense of freedom in Europe in the sense that it was okay to be twenty and want to study further; this was not the case before, especially with this year being my final year for Undergrad. I’m not in the same anxious rush to reach some space, or success; the summer school allowed me to prove to myself that I still have the will and ability to learn more in the time to come (hopefully in Europe on exchange) and be more effective to society from that in the end.
I would like to extend a big thank you to the Post Graduate and International Office for this beautiful experience. It was an absolute blessing and a privilege to be a representative of the University and the Drama Department. I learned so much and saw so many beautiful things that were outside of my known world, and helped clear up some misconceptions about drama students. But mostly, this opportunity has introduced to some of the most outstanding young people who I can now call friends, and it has opened my prospective post-graduate future to the rest of Europe and the opportunities that are available there.