Week 2 in Ghent: Preparation

Hi there! You've already heard from me on Tuesday but this is a bit of a catch-up post about what I've been up to this week and what I'm heading into the next couple of days!

Monday, September 11th & Tuesday, September 12th: Class!

You've already heard all about my day on Monday as it was my birthday! Tuesday was the same kind of thing in terms of classes. We had a morning session of statistics followed by an afternoon session of chemistry. These classes were intended to make sure we were all on the same page in terms of content for stats and chem but all it got us on the same page for was that none of us knew we were supposed to review all of the material before showing up to these sessions. 3 hours of statistics was way too long but the topics we went over were topics I had seen before so I actually do feel more prepared for my Advanced Statistics class that starts at the end of September! In terms of chemistry, these were topics that I hadn't touched since grade 11 and I've heard that we will not have to know for any of our courses in the next 2 years. The "BePrepared" course, which these classes are a part of was a "highly recommended" (i.e. strongly encouraged/basically mandatory) part of our enrolment at the school and really it just seems like a very good waste of 80€. All in all, I think it was nice to sit in a classroom with low stakes before jumping right back into school because I've heard that the workload and content, is going to be a bit of a shock.

How did I hear this you ask? Well Tuesday evening, we had a "fare-welcome" event where the graduates from the first cohort (us, but in 2021) and our class got to meet, honour a retiring professor and meet more of the faculty. There were speeches, yummy appetizers, lots of mingling and of course an open bar (how European). In fact, at 7 PM the caterers left and this was when our professors rolled out a laboratory fridge full of beers and told us to help ourselves. This was not something I was expecting at a school event but why not!! The retiring professor is Peter Bossier who is the founder of our program and a world-renowned researcher. He is a big name in aquaculture so while it sucks that he won't be around to teach us, it was really cool to get to meet him and chat with him and he will still be around for a little bit to set us up for the year.

This was a really fun event and it was really nice to get some insider knowledge on what to expect for the next two years. I am getting very excited for next semester, and a little worried about the workload this semester but I am very excited nonetheless!

Wednesday, September 13th: More classes, but different subjects!

So after two days of statistics and chemistry, the programme coordinators decided that this was enough time to get caught up on everything we needed to know so today we had different classes, thank god! Today we had workshops on scientific communication and study efficacy. Both of these topics were kind of old news to me and I feel like schools in Canada really hound these topics so today was a slow morning. In the afternoon we had an introduction to R workshop which is also another topic that I consider myself a pro. So today the content all around was a little slow for me.

The nice part of these days is that my program didn't do a very good job of planning how long these workshops would actually take so we got really long lunch breaks between the sessions. So I was able to go back home and relax and make yummy charcuterie lunches like this.

After school, I was able to catch up with my best friend, Paris! She's in Halifax and we haven't been able to find a time to catch up until today so it was so nice to chat!! I also know she reads these so hi Paris!!

Thursday, September 14th: I did something crazy!!

Today was my first day, in what seems like a long time, with no plans! So I took the morning to get organized and be responsible and I went to a couple of grocery stores to stock my apartment. I bought some things to make a yummy pasta (see later) and some staple items to feed myself for the next little bit.

In the afternoon I did something crazy!!! As you might not know (partially because I'm a bit embarrassed and I don't tell many people), I am not a very good bike rider. I learned about 10 years too late and my learning experience was a bit traumatizing, ending with an old woman in Toronto yelling at me and me crying in a busy park. You'd imagine that this might have happened when I was 8 but unfortunately I was 18. Today I was not letting that stop me so I rented a bike and decided today was the day that I'm going to become a confident bike rider!!!

Ghent has rental bikes similar to electric scooters in big cities where you can use an app (of course!) to pick up a bike and drop it off wherever. So I downloaded the app, found a bike not too far from me and identified a park with big, wide, long bike trails. The unfortunate thing was that between the bike pick-up spot and the learner-friendly park was a busy street with a narrow bike lane so there was no chance I was starting there. So I walked my newly rented bike the 1 km to the park and hopped on there. I was only asked twice if there was something wrong with the bike, to which I replied the bike is fine, the rider is not. After many strange looks, I made it to the park!

I spent the next hour and a half figuring out that it's not that difficult to ride a bike!! I practiced balancing, not freaking out when any other person is close to me and I even went through a quite narrow gate! All by myself!!!

Here is a photo of me and my pal Lauren (the bike). As you can tell, I was very excited. In the app, each bike has a name that is labelled on the bike so you make sure you pick up the right one. So I'm not crazy and I didn't name the bike, it was the app, I swear.

After my biking excursion, I headed back to my apartment, hung out and made a super yummy pasta.

Friday, September 15th: Shop hopping!

I had yet another day with no school commitments! This evening I planned a virtual date night/movie night with James but that wasn't until later in the day so I took off into the city centre to do some window shopping and exploring!

I started in the southern end of the city centre and explored some of the beautiful architecture and modern shopping streets. I walked along the canal and through the Friday market, which was just as hectic and plentiful as last week. I went to the tourist information office to see what was happening in and around the city and to figure out the sites that I have to see in my months here.

I made a "Ghent Bucket list" which consists of some cool historic sites like a tour of the Gravensteen castle (photo below) as well as the three main churches and I have set a goal for myself to find the best chocolatier in Ghent, so get ready for that!

After exploring, I headed back to my apartment to hang out over FaceTime with James. We both made popcorn and watched a movie and I found the coolest piece of European technology ever. The microwave popcorn in Europe starts as a flattened cardboard box then it pops up to make the typical movie-theatre box!! At home!! And it's all recyclable!! I forgot to take a photo but it was super cool, just trust me!!

Saturday, September 16th: More exploring!

This is getting repetitive now but I had another day with no official plans! So naturally, I made a plan to go walk all over the northern part of the city! I walked through the less touristy areas and saw the industrial port of Ghent as well as some music halls and some museums.

Also on my walk, I ran into some cool historic buildings. Mostly because it seems like you can't walk anywhere without running into some historic building, such is Europe. But this is a picture of the Rabot. This monument was built in 1489 and used to be part of the city wall. It was built after Maximillian (the same tyrant from my Brugges post) tried to take Ghent but was unsuccessful. Now it is used as an event space.

Walking along the canals in the city is so nice and it's so peaceful. I think that more cities should have canals. They just instantly add beauty and nature. Also, something I didn't expect before moving here is that ducks aren't the same in every city. The ducks here look completely different than our ducks. Just look at them. And the ducks here are resourceful! This duck made a home for itself in this boat! So smart!

In the evening, I got to chat with my friend Camille and I got my apartment tidied up! I cleaned the whole apartment, took out my garbage & recyclables and packed for my coming adventure!

The next couple of days!

Alright so this week was all about getting ready for school but that's still a little bit away so now it's time to have some fun and travel!!

My plan for the next couple of days is to head to Amsterdam with some stops on the way there and the way back. So on Sunday (tomorrow) at 7:30 AM I'm hopping on a train to Rotterdam (Amsterdam's little sister, but also a big historical place) where I will spend the morning and the afternoon. Then in the PM, I'm hopping back on a train but continuing North to Amsterdam! I'll spend Sunday night in Amsterdam and hopefully meet up with my grandparents for dinner or breakfast the next morning. Then I'll spend the day and night of Monday in Amsterdam, I'm thinking of going to the Van Gogh Museum and seeing what else looks super cool. Then on Tuesday, I'll hop on a train to The Hague (kind of an off-putting name but seems absolutely stunning). I'll spend the day exploring then head back to Ghent in the late afternoon/evening!

Then I have some school stuff to do on Wednesday & Friday but I will talk about that closer to!