Pre-departure :
I would advise anyone making the trip to Belgium to A: get your police clearance forms ready/sent away and B: make an appointment at the Belgian consulate the moment you get accepted to do an exchange. I found the most helpful sources to be two friends who had done an an exchange the previous semester who sent my the right documents.
Some practical advice:
- Be over-prepared when you go for the Visa application, rather take more copies of everything than less.
- Do NOT wait for your police clearance for before making the appointment at the consulate, they don’t need the certified one for the appointment, this can always be scanned and sent later.
- Make sure the visa payment is made correctly to their bank IN BELGIUM. I made the mistake of paying it into their South-African account. This overseas payment is a MISSION and once again semi-archaic (…could someone please spread the good news about PAYPAL??)
- I found Bidvest to be the cheapest way of handling money in the beginning before opening a Belgian bank account.
DISCLAIMER!! Unfortunately racism is alive in Belgium. Before going to Ghent, I was under the impression that the nation of Belgium as a whole was liberal and open-minded with regards to inclusion and foreigners. I have found the opposite to be true. GET ACCOMMODATION ASAP!! My friends told me I should wait before I get there to organise accommodation as that would allow me to get an idea of what is out there and a realistic view of what I’d be letting myself in for. My friend who did the exchange was in Antwerp, however, a much more globalized city. To make a long story short, I phoned dozens of houses and was turned down countless times by Flemish landlords after they heard I was South-African. When I said I’d be staying for 5 months as a PhD-student they’d say that’s fine but the moment they heard about the African part I was told they only hire “aan onze eigen studenten”. At long last, after an embarrassing, sleep-deprived cry at the head of the housing-office I got accommodation on the outskirts of Ghent. Since then I’ve gotten a new place, through my parents. I strongly advise organizing this before you leave. I stayed on a friend’s carpet for the first few days and got bedbugs from this…needless to say, it was a rocky start but it cemented a friendship that I hope will last forever.
Experience at the Host University:
As I’m doing a PhD I don’t have to technically take home any “credits” but I’m taking 3 Masters level courses that are dealing with the topic of my research. I am enjoying two of them immensely and the other one to a lesser degree as it is scheduled at 8:30… I am taking a course in “Performance and Temporality” and have found this to be very stimulating. These lectures are in a seminar format with a small group and allows for in-depth discussion. I am also proud to say that my essay for the course will be on a South-African performance artist and I was delighted to hear that our upcoming lecture will be on South-African artist William Kentridge’s “The refusal of time”. I took Dutch at Stellenbosch for three years and can thus follow in class (some of my classes are in Dutch) but they have asked me to speak English instead of my broken Dutch as I apparently have a funny accent.
My other two classes are “Hedendaagse Amerikaanse letterkunde ” about the position of third-generation American Jews and their portrayal in literature and “Hedendaagse Engelstalige letterkunde” which examines how, why, and to what effect the memory of the Holocaust is represented in a wide variety of literary works—novels, essays, plays, and poems from around the world.
I think the Theatre courses compare well with Stellenbosch’s Drama Department but lack in terms of practical footing. They are much more grounded in a philosophical school and are not as text-based as the Theatre Studies in Stellenbosch. I am also taking a Master’s level class, something that doesn’t exist in Stellenbosch as we do a thesis without a structured component. I thus cannot really compare. I find the students to be less participatory and quite shy. The English department’s courses are wonderful and in this regards far ahead of Stellenbosch. I did English 278 as an extra subject in Stellenbosch and was very frustrated by the limited scope of the prescribed texts, largely colonial studies. Here I am confronted with varied texts such as graphic novels and contemporary works located by lecturers in the context of contemporary political discourses and debates. Rap songs, Youtube documentaries and online forums are fully utilized to make the lecture an interactive, multi-modal experience.
Lectures are relay sessions that last for 3 hours. Despite it’s length, I find this to be more time-effective than the 50 minute sessions at Stellenbosch as a lot of time is lost in between classes. These “block” sessions are once a week per subject.
I am seeing a lot of theatre plays, ballets and modern dance productions. Gent has an awful lot of professional theaters that host a variety of international touring productions. I would advise taking your student card with for a discount at the ticket office. Most opera houses, Vlaamse Opera & Ballet included (Gent & Antwerp), have a special price of 10 Euros for students under 26 if you come one hour before the performance starts. I’ve seen amazing international acts for this crazy price, it really is a wonderful deal! Another thing I’d advise is to get a library card when you arrive. Not only at the University but also for the Municipal library. The Belgian government provides massive subsidies for these institutions, the Ghent municipality’s library is a goldmine of DVD’s, CD’s, documentaries & have quite a large section of English fiction. I’ve checked out some of my prescribed texts here so I don’t have to buy the books that I can’t take back home with me.
General tips:
- Hire a bike from the university, it’s the cheapest, greenest, most wonderful way of g(h)e(n)ting around!
- Take a Dutch course at the University Language Centrum, it’s free for exchange students and a cool way of meeting people.
- Gent Every Nation in St Jansvest street is a wonderful church with South-African pastors and a great multi-cultural congregation
- Don’t be too loud in public spaces, the Flemish are very polite and don’t appreciate noise pollution
Return to Stellenbosch :
Returning to South Africa was a wonderful experience. I realized through this trip how wonderful Mzanzi is. When I came back, I was hit by some “Belgian Blues”. I missed the friends I had made, the bike rides along the Coupure and the tulips at the flower mark. The exchange has afforded me with invaluable experience abroad. One of the things I could do through this trip was to visit the Nazi Concentration Camp, Auschwitz in Poland. This has helped me a lot in structuring my research and thoughts on trauma as almost all of the classic literature on memory studies is based on the Holocaust. Other things I take back with me is the language skills I have gained from studying abroad. The best way of language acquisition is definitely immersion, my French and Dutch has improved significantly. I also think there is possibly a stronger bond between our respective Institution’s Theatre Studies Departments. I could really rub shoulders with some of the great theoreticians I write about in my thesis. My superiors could indirectly also connect more with the faculty at Ghent. I would love to study abroad again in future and would love to do an exchange again if ever possible. The greatest thing this experience has afforded me is probably the ability to measure things globally. After living in another culture I no longer only have one world-view according to which I experience the world. Being an exchange student has made me think more laterally and critically. This has shaped me in immeasurable ways and I am very grateful to the University of Stellenbosch for exposing me in this way to the world.
General tips:
- Make sure you weigh your bag before taking it to the airport, I had to give away so much stuff at the airport.
- Stay in touch with your new friends from abroad. I like to write so that’s how I keep in touch.
- I highly advise keeping a journal with your experiences especially if you’re studying something creative. An experience overseas provides endless material for creative projects later in life.
I highly recommend this experience to all students as it is immensely enriching to experience a different culture especially in an academic context. A global experience can provide a fresh perspective on your studies and truly stimulates curiosity.