Week 1 in Ghent: Administration

Hi there!! I waited to post this until I could post the whole week because while it's all been very exciting to arrive here and figure out my new city, there isn't a ton to write about, and some of it is a bit dry (just like some of my "lectures" this week)!

Monday, September 4th

This day was a bit of a wild goose chase. My check-in with my faculty of Bioscience Engineering was today and they booked me to have both my bank appointment and my insurance appointment today as well. So today was supposed to be a very productive and busy day. However, it didn't really go like that. The behind-the-scenes administrative work to finish my enrolment and grant me my enrolment certification hadn't been completed yet so I actually wasn't able to accomplish any of the things that I was supposed to... oops! But I tried!! So I first went to my faculty check-in but apparently, I chose the busiest time to arrive! The line of students was out the door and my bank appointment was scheduled too soon to get in. So I waited in line for a bit and met some very nice people from my program, but then left to make sure I didn't miss my bank appointment. Then I walked the 20 minutes to my appointment, sat down there and met more people from my program!! These people were also very nice and informed me that I actually wouldn't be able to set up my bank account without my proof of enrolment so they pointed me to a different UGent building that would be able to help me.

So I took off again, this time to the UGent registrar's office! I arrived and spoke to the registrar about my situation and as helpful as he was, he wasn't able to complete my enrolment, that was something my faculty had to do. This of course was not as short of a process as I'm writing it to be, I think I spent about an hour and a half there sending documents in emails, waiting for the registrar to receive the email, him sending an email back to me, and this went back and forth for quite a while.

Anyway, my enrolment was slightly (very slightly) closer than at the start of the day, so I'll call that a win:) but knowing that my faculty needed to check some boxes for me, I went back to my faculty's check-in! This time the line was a bit shorter so I only waited for about an hour before I was able to check in, get my super cool name tag (it says "Katherine" woah!!!), and get a bit more sorted. They assured me that the boxes that needed to be ticked would be soon and I should be able to get my enrolment certificate in the next couple of days! Yay!

So that was enough running around and administrative stuff for one day so Kimmy and I opted to do some touristy stuff next!! We headed into the city centre and went for a nice long walk through the cobblestone streets and passed beautiful churches, stores, restaurants, and other buildings. It was quite hot so we decided to have a nice glass of wine at a patio along the canal.

A visit to a European city with Kimmy & Katie wouldn't be complete without a riverboat tour so we signed up for one of those and hoped on! The ticket guy realized we were from Canada and even gave Kimmy a $10 bill for free because apparently, he wasn't going to use it! So it was almost like a free boat tour!! So nice!! Our boat tour was lovely and the view of the castle was spectacular!!

After that, we had a meat fondue for dinner and went on a "Ghent at night" walking tour to learn about the dark history of the town. My favourite stop was at the square just outside of the castle where public executions via boiling would take place in the medical times. Now, they've rebranded the square and installed lamp posts that are connected to the 3 hospitals in Ghent where when a mother gives birth she can press a button and the lamps will flicker, signalling to everyone in the city that they have a new member!! What a cute idea (the newer idea, not the historic one)!!

After another day of over 20,000 steps, we were ready for bed so headed home!

Tuesday, September 5th

This was my first day of (administrative) classes! I got to sit in an auditorium with my classmates and all of the other international students (there are about 120 of us) and learn some stuff about the city, the university, and what to expect for the next couple of weeks. We had a ceremonial welcome, lectures/presentations about the library & database systems, and culture shock (including the polite way to sneeze and go to the bathroom, which I thought was common knowledge across the board but apparently not!)

After a day of (odd) learning, I went back home where Kimmy had prepared my apartment for me with groceries, other staple items and flowers! This was amazing and made me feel so much more at home❤️. We then went back to the grocery store, mainly because it was air-conditioned and my apartment at this point was HOT! We shopped around for a little bit and I got the last remaining items and then we went home to cook dinner (for the first time in this apartment!!!). We made burgers and salad and had a glass of wine before it was time for Kimmy to start heading home! I dropped her off at the tram station that would take her to the train station that would take her to the Airport in Brussels where she would spend the night in a hotel before flying home the next morning! It was so so nice to have Kimmy here to get me set up and to get to explore cities with her!! I know she reads this so, thank you again, Kimmy, I love you so much!!

Wednesday, September 6th

Today I woke up by myself in my apartment and started getting ready for another administrative day at school! I had a croissant and a coffee at my apartment then walked the short 4 minutes to my campus. Today, our lectures were about how our insurance works, where to get mental health support, and other information like that! Here's a fun fact that I learned today: if there is an emergency, like I need a new organ in Canada or someone close to me at home has an emergency or passes away, my insurance company will not only pay for my round trip flight home but will also do all of the bookings for me!! That's pretty sweet!! Let's hope I never have to use it but it's pretty nice that it's there!!

We were supposed to have a presentation from a police officer about traffic safety and how to properly navigate biking, walking, and other forms of transiting in the city, but ironically he got into a biking accident on his way to talk to us. He is physically ok, but I feel like his reputation on this subject is a bit damaged now....

In the afternoon my classmates and I got to have a break from lectures and got to do a "fun activity". I selected a Belgian cooking class, but the other options were to go play sports at the UGent gym or go on a boat cruise. The cooking was super fun!! We made chocolate mousse, which we somehow messed up and made more of a liquid-y chocolate pudding, our lab skills are obviously not refined yet, oops. We got to try 5 different Belgian beers (at school!! I know!! Crazy!!!). And we made what they call "pancakes" but I would consider "crepes". And they put brown sugar on them and not maple syrup, what's up with that??

My afternoon was super fun and we played some games while drinking the leftover beer.

I went back to my apartment to meet my landlord and help to set up faster wifi, then I did some online administration for my residency permit as my enrolment certificate was finally available!! So I am now officially a UGent student and I even have a UGent.be email to prove it!!!

It was a beautiful evening so I went for an hour and a half walk along the canals and the more "student" area of the city to watch the sunset and I finished the night by watching a movie over FaceTime with James!!

Ps. Don't watch Godmothered, it's not very good and it's the reason I won't be allowed to pick the next couple of movies I watch with James, hehe.

Thursday, September 7th

Today we had a free morning with no lectures so I went l pick up my enrolment certificate from my faculty and headed to my bank appointment (again, but this time with all the required documents). I had some time in between so I sat at a nice cafe and drank a "Canadian ice coffee" which was iced coffee with maple syrup (real maple syrup, the barista even showed me the bottle after I said I was Canadian) and almond milk. It was pretty good!

Then I had my bank appointment where I was able to set up my Belgian bank account, another thing off the to-do list! I got to use a really cool card reader that acts as a second-factor authentication device and that was pretty cool!! After my appointment, I ran back to my apartment to change really quickly (this heat is crazy!), before heading back to campus for more "onboarding" sessions.

In "class" today we had lectures about common IT issues, how the garbage system works in Ghent and a Dutch lesson! The first two topics were quite boring but learning a couple of Dutch works and a Dutch song was super fun! We took a group photo at the end (I will post it when I get it) then I went back to my apartment.

I cooked & meal prepped for the next couple of days and got myself organized for the start of "real" classes.

Friday, September 8th

Today I had an early start to make it to my health insurance appointment! I thought I was going to be late so I was really speed walking to get there but I made it! I filled out all of the forms so now I wait for my insurance card in the mail (whoo hoo!!). After that appointment, I went to the Ghent Migration office to get some Visa stuff sorted out, but it turns out I have to call! So then I went for a very long (9.88km to be exact) walk through the city centre, stopping to look in cute shops and the "Friday Market". This Friday Market has to be one of the most chaotic things I've ever seen. It fills an entire square and has booths of everything that you could imagine. There are plants, raw meats, vintage popups, designer popups, dollar stores(?), bakeries, the list goes on.

I also walked to see some nice historic buildings. They are everywhere around Ghent and each one is so beautiful!!

In the evening, I took more time to get my computer (and brain) ready for some classes starting this week and started thinking about some more travel plans. I booked a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest at the end of September so that should be super fun and a great way to celebrate finishing my first week of school!

My plans for the next couple of days:

There are still a couple of administrative things I need to do like get my student card, have a police officer visit my apartment, etc. but I am also making some fun plans, so here's what I'm thinking:

Saturday: some of my new friends from Indonesia invited me to go to a Jazz festival in a park! I'm not a huge Jazz person but it sounds like a good time, I'll let you know how it is!

Sunday: I'm thinking I'll take a day trip to Antwerp!

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: We have refresher chemistry and statistics classes all day to make sure we're all on the same page before starting class.

Thursday, Friday: Supposed to be "self-study" days for the chemistry and statistics classes - I have yet to decide if I will be self-studying or doing something fun

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday: Maybe go to Amsterdam for a couple of days, my Grandparents will be there sometime in these days so I'd love to see them there!