Well today was FREEZING cold, after the string of amazing sunny days we have had here. Gent has been shrouded in a thick fog all day, which was amusing because every breath I took outside fogged up my glasses! This photo is of me defrosting my nose after I got home this evening!
Yesterday I visited the Faculteit Rechtsgeleerheid (School of Law) so I had a reasonable idea of where to go. I arrived at the classroom this morning 10 mintues early, just to make sure I got the right place etc. I was a bit worried at 10:15 when no-one else had shown up and the class was due to start at 10am. But eventually some more people showed up, and at 10:30am the Professor showed up! Apparently here (and in most of Europe?) the Professors just show up whenever, so the students come late too. Odd. But then again I suppose the classes do run from 10am until 5:30pm, so the Professors must get sick of talking!
My class today was Penal Systems in Europe (haha Peenal studies Penal!). It was really interesting actually, we had a bit of an overview of the course (which really only consists of 3 intensive days, and then we have the rest of the semester to complete a paper and presentation on a specific topic). Although by the end of the day we had all had enough! There are only about 20 people in the class, most of the students are Belgians taking Masters, but there are I think 5 exchange students, all of whom I know. It was so freezing at lunch time that no-one wanted to go outside, so we all stayed at Uni and went to one of the student restaurants for lunch. There (with student ID) you can get a cheap, warm meal. For 3 euro I had meatballs, beans with onions and mashed potato, and of course Belegde Brood (which, if I spelt it right, means Belgian bread). Yum!
Tonight there are 2 parties - one at my residence, and the other is at the erasmus pub 'The Porter House' - an Irish pub. The party at my residence is a Carnaval Masquerade party with a safe sex theme. Hmmm. Not quite sure exactly what that means, but I am going to the Porter House anyway because it sounds less dodgy. In Gent, the students seem to go out on weeknights instead of weekends, because all the Belgians go back to their home towns for the weekends, so there are never any parties! So I will go the the Porter House and see what's happening there, before trying to have an earlyish night for classes tomorrow! Tomorrow evening I also have my first Low Countries Studies class!
I forgot to take my camera today so that's why I didn't take any photos of the law school, but i will take some soon and post them up.
Special ups to nean, hope the jaw is ok and you are now less wise :) And happy valentines' day to the rest of you NZ folk. xxx
No comments:
Post a Comment