This is not a Snow Day

It’s snowing outside. A lot. And the wind is blowing, so the snow feels like little bullets hitting you. And there was thunder and lightning. Every other school (university, college, high school, elementary) in what seems like a 250km radius has thrown in the towel. Not ours! A friend and I decided to be crazy and braved the 8 minute walk to the athletics centre this morning for an 8.30am workout. Now I’m sitting in the campus TV office where I prefer to work over the library, where it is warm and cozy, and dreading the fact that in 10 minutes I have to go outside again to go to work. Night class, (which I have), cancellations will be announced by 3pm. Somehow if they aren’t calling this a snow day, it’s really unlikely that I’ll get out of my night class.

This is why I’m moving somewhere warm.

In better news, I’ve heard the groundhogs have predicted an early spring. It’s hard to believe right now! Happy Groundhog Day!

The final stretch

I’m back in Canada and back at school. It’s a nasty shock, both having to get back into classes after a month off, and the 20 degree difference in temperatures (meaning +10 in Belgium and -10 in Canada). I long to be back in Europe, with someone to snuggle with at night. At least the desire to return gives me motivation to solidify my future post-grad. Only four months to go.

Is Working Hard Hardly Working?

Between class, extracurricular activities, and two part-time jobs, and a full-time job search for post-grad, I feel like I don’t have time to find myself and figure out what I want to do next year. Which makes all this hard work seem less important, meaning I’m lacking in motivation. I can’t just toil in low-level jobs for the rest of my life (although it is very tempting). It seems like university is suppose to be a time to find yourself, and somehow I missed the ship on that. So now I have to cram four years of finding myself into the next few months. The only thing I have truly found out: I don’t want to be an accountant. Good progress.

Administration

The last few days have been extremely busy. Despite being tired from all the exchange student nights out, there are so many administrative things to take care of. Register at the university, register at town hall, get a bank account, a train card, buy everything you couldn’t fit into your suitcase, and wait in a never ending amount of lines. Oh, and attend classes. Tuesday we had afternoon classes cancelled, which is the first time I would have had class this week, so I was luckily able to get the majority of my errands done. Yesterday was the first day of classes for me, European Business Cases, Industrial Relations in Europe, International Financial Management, and European Corporate Governance. Due to class lasting around 30 minutes each time, and our IR professor never showing up, I had a lot more time to finish up everything I still needed to do, and actually eat real meals for a change.

So now I’m up and getting ready for Brand Management. My bags are all packed because right after class (provided it actually runs the full time) I’m off to the train station to go to Paris for the weekend!

Louvain-la-neuve

It’s been a couple frustrating but amazing days in Belgium so far. Upon arriving I was told the room I had rented was inconveniently located 10 minutes by train from the university. Not that bad, except after 11pm there would be no way to get home, and considering that generally the night doesn’t start until after that I would be forced to crash with people way too often. So instead of going to my room, I went to the exchange student house thinking it would be good to meet the other students anyway. But then the person who was suppose to meet me wasn’t there, and I spent 45 minutes with a random stranger helping me try to find the place with my two massive suitcases.

I’ve been staying at the exchange student house since Thursday, and I’ve found a better place to rent right in town. My other landlord is understandably pissed, and I’m just frustrated at the housing service for not providing adequate help in finding me a place (since I was waitlisted for the university housing). If someone had just told me straight off that I probably wouldn’t want to live anywhere but downtown, I wouldn’t have taken the other place. Oh well, in the end everything is sorted out now.

The Grand Place in the centre of Brussels.

Yesterday a group of us spent a casual Saturday afternoon wandering around downtown Brussels. It’s not too far on the train, generally about an hour just because there is always some reason the train falls behind schedule. We got waffles, saw the statue of the peeing boy, and wandered around enjoying the sights, and surprisingly not getting lost!

We’ve been out each night enjoying the Belgian nightlife, but tonight is the traditional UCL cercle. It should be a very interesting night…

So much for Finnish fun…

I have yet to leave the house and experience anything except the lovely view of the bathroom. Sick count = 8. On the brightside I’m able to stomache small amounts of food now.