Consecutive surprising days 1~3日目 (from the day I arrived at Ghent to Welcome days)

Dag!

This is greeting in Dutch. I learned from the book which I bought in Japan.( However I haven't read yet. Just 1st chapter for now  hahaha)

Let get started!

Today' s blog is about what I saw and experienced since I arrived here.

Sep.18th

It's was totally busy then. The day started with 12 hours flight from Thailand to Brussels airport. After arriving here, I had to move to Ghent university.

However, I had no internet!!! That's why I started to walk around center of city in order to find SIM card shop. Pulling 24kg suitcase on the bumpy roads which were made of brick, I and my friends got pretty exhausted. 

After managing to get SIM card, we went to registration office to get student card and to dormitory to let me get the access to my room. 

First day was so busy  that I slept like a log for many hours.

By the way, I got first foreign friend.

Sep. 19th

Today was also hectic.

What I did today were mainly two things.

・Swap shop

It was like a enviromentally friendly event which every student living in dorm could participate in and get a lot of second-hand furniture such as s pot, a blanket, dishes and a glass which suits for a specific beer in Belgium. 

This was organized and run by a certain students association. As they said, it's a waste of money to buy new things even though we can use scond-hand goods which the past students left for us.

I think that It is a great idea to open such a sustainable event for international students which actually don't have enough money to freely use  for free of charge.

・City tour by boat 

After going back to drom from swap shop , we walked around Ghent city with Japanese friends and a student who came from Korean. 

 We joined the boat tour and went to some famous antiquities through the river for about 2 hours. 

What's special about it was that... 

Ghent city has the very historic atmosphere everywhere!!!

While you can enjoy walking all the time in Ghent, Himeji has a few places to visit( castle, garden and Syosya-zan).

Sep 20th

Today was an orientation day for international students and I went to UFO building as one of them.

There were more than 1000 students from all over the world! I felt lonely because Japanese are minority for the first time in my life.

Majority was European students which came to Ghent as Erasmus program.

I heard that they can study at any European university unless the univerisity belongs to Erasmus partnership. In additon to that, they are mostly master or degree students so I wouldn't take same class with thiers. (In fact, due to my low TOEFL score, I couldn't get allowed to take master class. I should've studied more when I was freshman.)

Since three days passed since I arrived here,  I were gradually  getting used to this life and environment. However, the only thing I can't get used to is the students who live in the same floor. 

I have my own separate room and bathroom except kitchen.

So, I have to use the kitchen with the other students who came from a various different country.  This is very tough for me because I have never cooked by myself since I was born. 

Although I can buy some foods and eat them,  I thought it's not worth studying abroad.

 So, I and the other Japanese friend just went to kitchen.

What's great was some foreign students talked to us!!!

What a relief!!! It became easier for me to go to kitchen room since then.

3 hours later, I participate in the welcome party near my dorm.

I could drink Belgic beer and talk with a lot of international students.

This was the very INTERNATIONAL.

Thanks to courage form the alcohol, I tried to talk with as many people as possible.(maybe, 30 or something.)

I was happy to know there were many students who knows something with regard to Japanese.

To update every day became difficult for me. So, I'll slow doen the frequency I post the blog. （too early lol)