So it has been another interesting week here in Liege. I've now been to the first of all of my classes and let me tell you, it's going to be a LONG semester! My shortest class is 2hours, which means that they are throwing a lot of information at us with very little time to absorb it before moving on to the next topic. Also, over half of my courses are "Master level" here, so there is a ton of course work for very little credit. That being said, aside from my evening French course, I only have classes regularly on Thursday and Friday. I say regularly because my Diversity Management is only on 4 Mondays of the entire semester. That is the whole course. 4 classes, 3 1/2 hours each... Lord help me!
Probably the hardest part about being on an exchange semester is you have to start from scratch. Back home, I have a TV, blu-ray player, dishes, pots & pans, printer, car etc. Here, all I have is clothes and my computer, meaning I have to buy all of that again or make do without! I had to buy a printer today, because the nearest printer to my apartment is a 20 minute walk, and they charge roughly $0.50 a page for black. In the long run, with all I have to print for my Finance class, it's roughly the same prince as buying one, plus having my own is more convenient, and I can sell it at the end of the semester (hopefully!).
Another huge sticking point here is that everyone drinks. And I don't mean, its Friday lets have a good time drink, I mean, the sun went down lets drink until it comes back kind of drinking. It doesn't matter what day of the week it is, if its night, everyone is partying. And I'm the complete opposite. I prefer to hang out with friends and watch movies or play pool. Apparently here, I'm alone in this sentiment. Oh well, the good part is that if I do ever need to blow off steam, there will be someone I can go out with.
Also, the faculties here are not very helpful. Nothing is marked properly to figure out yourself, and people aren't really interested in helping you. I had a class on the Sart-Tilman campus today (10km south of my regular campus) and it's huge! It's basically the size of the U of A, but with forests everywhere. I found the correct building right away (I had a map thank goodness!) but it took me an hour to find the right classroom. I asked EVERYONE and no one knew where this classroom was! Finally I just started opening doors and checking inside until I found the right room! Thank goodness that's my diversity management class so I only have to go 3 more times.
This weekend I'm going to Lille in France with the Exchange Students Network (ESN) here at the school. We leave 6 am Saturday morning, stay in the youth hostel overnight, and come back by 8pm on Sunday. It's 65 euros and that includes transportation, accommodation, two meals and entrance into the museum. Which is not bad, its roughly $100. It's my first trip since arriving and lots of my new friends are going so it should be a lot of fun.
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