First week in Belfast!
02 Februari 2016 | Verenigd Koninkrijk, Belfast
I can't believe it has just been a week since I got here. The days flew by, and I already feel so at home here, that it feels like so much longer.
I really enjoy Belfast and the Erasmus students are very nice and friendly.
My journey started last Monday. My mother and I drove to Soest, where we stayed the night in a lovely hotel. I had already said goodbye to the rest of the family, but on Tuesday it was time to say goodbye to my mom too. My flight left at 12:40, and I arrived at the airport at 9:30. Very early, but I barely had to wait anywhere because of that, so that was nice. I was almost the first in line everywhere we had to wait. The flight was fine, it was very short. When I arrived in Belfast I was welcomed by the lovely Irish weather. It was so windy that you could barely walk off the stairs. I was surprised by the airport, it's very old and small. Since it is an International airport, I was expecting it to be bigger and nicer. We got our passports and ID's checked again, and after getting my suitcase, it was time to find the one who was going to pick me up. He arrived about 30 minutes late, but at least someone picked me up.
Paul (the driver) drove me to West Belfast, where we live. He showed me St. Mary's and after that, he walked me over to the house. It is a very short walk, less than 3 minutes. Laure and Seppe (two of my housemates) where there to welcome me. Laureen arrived a bit later. Laure and Seppe are from Belgium, Laureen is from the Netherlands. They took me to all of the other Erasmus houses, and some joined us to go to the city centre. After that, we went to a very nice pub.'
On Wednesday, I had my first class; European History. The class is interesting, but kind of hard to follow. The teacher is talking for 60 minutes, and he gives us so much information, that it sometimes hard to keep up. I really like the teacher though, he knows so much about History. This was the only class I had on Wednesday. I basically have one class every day, only on Tuesday's I got two. On Friday's I don't have any classes. 5 hours a week is not much, so we got a lot of free time. I've been told that they are trying to come up with a solution, though. I don't mind having so much free time, though. After that, I went to the city centre again and bought some stuff at the Primark.
On Thursday, I had two classes, European History and an obligatory class that I have to follow in order to go to my internship. I am going to teach 5-6 year old, which I am really looking forward to. The only downfall, is that it is pretty far away so I will cost quite a lot of money to get there every day. I went to the gym in the evening with my housemate, Laure.
On Friday we had no classes, so I went to the gym again. In the evening we had a Karaoke party in St. Mary's. We could only be there until 9 though, so after that we went to one of the houses and continued partying. We went out, but we didn't really like the club so we left very quickly.
On Saturday I went to Ulstar museum and saw Queen's University. Ulstar Museum is really nice, it's about history, science, art and nature. I saw a real mummie and lots of other cool stuff. Queen's University is really pretty, too. The walk over there was quite freaky though, we had to go through the Protestant's area, and they are not very fond of foreigners. Some of the houses even had 'Locals Only' written on their windows or doors. We were adviced to not speak and not to respond to people.
In the evening, we went out again. This time, we had a lot of fun but sadly the club already closed at 1:30! Apparently all clubs close at 3:00 (at the latest), which I'm not really used too.
Overall, I really enjoy it here. I've met so many new people and I really like them. We have people coming over almost every day, to watch movies etc. We call Laure our 'mom', because she is cooking dinner everyday (her choice) and she is very good at it! She even makes sure we have dinner, when she is not here. The Irish people I've met are also very nice, I have yet to find something that I do not like.
I really enjoy Belfast and the Erasmus students are very nice and friendly.
My journey started last Monday. My mother and I drove to Soest, where we stayed the night in a lovely hotel. I had already said goodbye to the rest of the family, but on Tuesday it was time to say goodbye to my mom too. My flight left at 12:40, and I arrived at the airport at 9:30. Very early, but I barely had to wait anywhere because of that, so that was nice. I was almost the first in line everywhere we had to wait. The flight was fine, it was very short. When I arrived in Belfast I was welcomed by the lovely Irish weather. It was so windy that you could barely walk off the stairs. I was surprised by the airport, it's very old and small. Since it is an International airport, I was expecting it to be bigger and nicer. We got our passports and ID's checked again, and after getting my suitcase, it was time to find the one who was going to pick me up. He arrived about 30 minutes late, but at least someone picked me up.
Paul (the driver) drove me to West Belfast, where we live. He showed me St. Mary's and after that, he walked me over to the house. It is a very short walk, less than 3 minutes. Laure and Seppe (two of my housemates) where there to welcome me. Laureen arrived a bit later. Laure and Seppe are from Belgium, Laureen is from the Netherlands. They took me to all of the other Erasmus houses, and some joined us to go to the city centre. After that, we went to a very nice pub.'
On Wednesday, I had my first class; European History. The class is interesting, but kind of hard to follow. The teacher is talking for 60 minutes, and he gives us so much information, that it sometimes hard to keep up. I really like the teacher though, he knows so much about History. This was the only class I had on Wednesday. I basically have one class every day, only on Tuesday's I got two. On Friday's I don't have any classes. 5 hours a week is not much, so we got a lot of free time. I've been told that they are trying to come up with a solution, though. I don't mind having so much free time, though. After that, I went to the city centre again and bought some stuff at the Primark.
On Thursday, I had two classes, European History and an obligatory class that I have to follow in order to go to my internship. I am going to teach 5-6 year old, which I am really looking forward to. The only downfall, is that it is pretty far away so I will cost quite a lot of money to get there every day. I went to the gym in the evening with my housemate, Laure.
On Friday we had no classes, so I went to the gym again. In the evening we had a Karaoke party in St. Mary's. We could only be there until 9 though, so after that we went to one of the houses and continued partying. We went out, but we didn't really like the club so we left very quickly.
On Saturday I went to Ulstar museum and saw Queen's University. Ulstar Museum is really nice, it's about history, science, art and nature. I saw a real mummie and lots of other cool stuff. Queen's University is really pretty, too. The walk over there was quite freaky though, we had to go through the Protestant's area, and they are not very fond of foreigners. Some of the houses even had 'Locals Only' written on their windows or doors. We were adviced to not speak and not to respond to people.
In the evening, we went out again. This time, we had a lot of fun but sadly the club already closed at 1:30! Apparently all clubs close at 3:00 (at the latest), which I'm not really used too.
Overall, I really enjoy it here. I've met so many new people and I really like them. We have people coming over almost every day, to watch movies etc. We call Laure our 'mom', because she is cooking dinner everyday (her choice) and she is very good at it! She even makes sure we have dinner, when she is not here. The Irish people I've met are also very nice, I have yet to find something that I do not like.
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
