December 20, 2015
Alright, the first term is officially done! No more classes until February 8, 2016. But that means the study period has started as well. I began already yesterday but to be honest, I haven't done very much... Today, I am really going to start, with Accounting. My planning says that I have to be done with chapter 1 and 2, that's doable I guess. I actually am counting down the days until the end of the exams, 31 days left to be precise. After the exams, I am going to sleep for days! And after that, I might go to the coast with my sister and we are also going to go skiing, I am really looking forward to that! It is with the student Association HILOK and we are going to Orelle, in France. But that's still far away, first I have to study and, hopefully, pass all the exams (or at least as much as possible).
Yesterday, I went to the Christmas fair in Ronse. My sister dances in a company, the Dance Lab Company and they performed there. It was beautiful! After her dance performance, we had a drink with our family and some friend who also came. We had a lot of fun at the cosy Christmas fair! We also went to dinner at an Italian restaurant.
Tonight, I am going to the Christmas fair in Ghent, Also with my sister and her boyfriend. We are planning not to stay very long because we all have to study...
Of course Christmas is coming soon and New Years Eve too. We don't do family visits on Christmas day so I can study on that day. We only go to family on Christmas eve. On New Years Eve, some friends will come to have dinner and after dinner, we are going to party in Oudenaarde. I did plan on studying the day after but only in the afternoon because I think I am going to sleep a bit longer and than have breakfast and than I have to open my presents. We always do that on New Year and not on Christmas Day.
So this is it for my blog, I hope you liked it!
December 13, 2015
Alright, this is blog 5 already, almost done!
One more week, 5 days to be precise, to go and then it is time to study, a lot... I am actually really stressing out. I am not sure if I am going to get ready in time. I just want to pass all of the exams but I have to stay realistic so I won't mind if I would have one re-examination. But first, I have to finish my portfolio of TMD, which is still a lot of work, unfortunately... My portfolio of ICT is already done so that is one less thing to worry about.
Remember I talked about learning to drive? Well, I did all the hours of driving lessons and I have an appointment on Tuesday December 15, third time good time, I hope! I just need to stay calm because that is my biggest issue... Maybe I should take a pill to remain calm (not a bad idea actually!).
I went to work today, which was really exhausting because I slept very bad and I woke up with a bad cold... After work, I slept for 2 hours and after that I went back to the bakery but not to work. There was a tasting with products that they are going to sell at the end of the year. There were a lot of things to taste, from appetizer to dessert.
On friday, I went to Antwerp with Salomé. We went shopping first, of course, and then in the evening, we had dinner at Wagamama, a thai restaurant. When we were finished, we went to the Opera because a friend of us figured in an opera, called "La Bohème". It was a really nice play!
This was the second last blog post, see you guys later!
December 7, 2015
Here I am again, after 2 weeks, which were again very busy...
Let's talk about school first. I feel like I am drowning in school work but that is kind of my own fault because I suffer from procrastination. I still have to make a portfolio for TMD, the one for ICT too but I have already started on that one and then of course all the tasks for International Business English. I just don't know where to begin... The good thing is that I already have made an exam schedule starting from 19 December. I am not sure if I am going to pass all the exams (I am just stressing out) but I will do my best!
Of course I have other things to do than working for school such as my weekend job. I love doing it but it is time-consuming. I have to wake up, on Saturday or Sunday, at 5 a.m. to start at 6 a.m. and I have to work until 1 p.m. After I am done working, I am exhausted so I sleep for an hour, maybe 2... And recently I go babysitting, occasionally. It all takes time but I need money so I have to work as much as possible...
Another thing that takes time is learning to drive... I did my driving test already 2 times. On 19 October and today, 7 December, and unfortunately, I failed again, which is very frustrating... Because I failed already 2 times, I have to take 6 hours of driving lessons. The first 2 lessons are already today, this evening at 6 p.m.
Putting up christmas trees also take a lot of time. That is what I did yesterday. And yes, I said christmas trees, plural, because we have 2 of them. We love christmas so yes, we don't think 1 is enough.
So this was my 4th blog post, 2 more to go!
See you next time!
November 23, 2015
Hello everyone! Here I am again, with a lot of things to tell you because it has been, again, a busy 3 weeks...
Let's start with my birthday! On 12 November, I became 19 years old. It was an amazing day! I had to go to school of course but after class, I went to Mayana, the chocolate bar. Then I went to the IBM event, which was at Kantienberg. I couldn't stay long because I had to go to a friend to change clothes because I had reservations at 8 p.m. at Pané & Vino, an Italian restaurant in Ghent. I had a lot of fun at the restaurant (with 5 of my friends). The food was great and we talked and laughed a lot! After dinner, I went out to Overpoort to end my birthday. On friday evening, my family came over, for my birthday of course. We ate waffles and chocolate cake.
There are of course other things I did. I had dinner with friends on 7 November in Oudenaarde, again at an Italian restaurant. After that we went to a bar to grab a drink but I couldn't stay long because I had to work the day after but it was a great evening though! I met the same friends last weekend. This time we didn't go out but we went at a friends place. We ate spaghetti and watched a movie, it was again a lot of fun! A thing that wasn't fun at all was that I became sick last thursday... I didn't go to school on friday because I felt really bad. Saturday, it was even worse but on sunday, it was a little bit better and today, it is almost over.
On sunday (yesterday), I went to a play of one of my friends. By that I mean she did not play in it but she directed it. It was the first play that she directed and in my opinion, she did a great job! It was called 'Lolita' and the story was about a man and a girl who were respectively 38 and 14 and who were in a relationship.
Okay, maybe something about school...
We have had a trial exam for Accounting and Business Economics. I only did the one for Accounting because I didn't have time enough to study for Business Economics. The trial exam of Accounting was difficult... Maybe I didn't study enough for it but it were also not the kind of questions I was expecting.
We also had the third class of Talent already. I was the chairperson and the topic was 'student of today'. It was about distractions, learning environment and so on. It wasn't really good actually. We got some bad feedback unfortunately but it was, in my opinion, a hard topic to talk and teach about.
This it it for now, see you soon!
November 3, 2015
So here I am again, after almost a month... It has been so busy the last 3-4 week that I totally forgot to write my second blog post!
First of all, I am enjoying the student life to the fullest! As I said in the previous post, I am not the biggest party girl but, as I predicted, that has changed. Since I am a student in Ghent, I went out 4-5 times, which is a lot for me actually and I don't live in a dorm so I always have to find a place to stay but that hasn't been a problem so far. Of course I went out in Overpoort but I also went to the opening party of VEK, which was great! I am not a member of VEK, if you were wondering, but I know people who are so that's why I went.
This weekend, on Halloween, I also went out but this time not in Ghent but in Oudenaarde, that's where I live. If you went with some friends who dressed up, you got a free bottle of cava so my friends and I dressed up as the Black/White Swan. The downside of the Halloween party was that I had to wake up at 5 AM the next day to go to work. (I work at a bakery in Oudenaarde) So I went to work after just 3 hours of sleep, which was awfull...
I also often went to dinner with some friends. 3 weeks ago I went to a pizzeria with a friend, 2 weeks ago I went to Elli's with my mom and last thursday I want to Pampa's Rodizio with some other friends. I love to meet up with friends (or my mom) in Ghent and go out on a dinner but unfortunately, my wallet isn't so happy with that...
Alright, enough about the partying and eating, let's talk about school.
I knew that university college was going to be a lot of work, because I have a lot of friends in the second year and a sister who is in the third year so they all told me how difficult it was going to be and how much time I would have to put in it and they were right. We have a lot of task for International Business English (this is one of them actually). I have already forgotten to upload a task for IBE once... (I am so sorry Mrs. Van den Bergh, I really did make it...) We also had to do our first group presentation for IBE last week. I was in a group of 4 and in my opinion, we did it pretty well! I was stressing out to do the presentation because I hate standing in front of a group but I think I did it quit good (hopefully...)
I already had 2 classes of Talent also. The first time was about self-reflection and I then was just a participant. The second time was about planning and then I was the secretary. The session about planning was really interesting for me because I am terrible at planning! I do make a planning for exams but I am bad at following it...
There is also another thing I would like to tell you about myself, something I forgot to mention in my first blog post. I have had a lot of hobbies when I was younger, dancing, tennis, swimming... But I got bored with all of them but there is one hobby I am still doing which is theatre. I started doing it when I was 7-8 years old I think so in other words, this is the 11th year of theatre. The first 10 years, I did it in the urban academy in Oudenaarde but this year, we started to do something on ourselves. By "we" I mean my 3 friends and I. We all started at the same time with theatre. (Almost) every friday evening, we come together but at the moment, we still don't have much... We are still not sure which piece we are going to work with but I am sure we will figure it out soon! The intention is to be ready in 2 years from now so we can rent a place to perform our piece.
Alright, this was my second blog post and I'll see you again in a week or two (if I don't forget it again...) Bye!
I am a 19 years old IBM student at Artevelde University College. This blog will be about how I experience the first months of the student life in Ghent.
October 5, 2015
Let's start at the beginning, why IBM? Well, I knew very quickly that I wanted to do something with business management but I've doubted for a long time if I would do it in Dutch or that I would do the international program. After a lot of doubting I thought "Why would I do it in Dutch? That's not a challenge!" So I did the language screening (to check if I had the B2 level in English) and I enrolled at Artevelde University College at the beginning of July.
After a 3-month vacation, the student life began. In the week before the lessons actually began, there was an introduction day. To be honest, I was very nervous because I didn't know anyone. I arrived way too early (because I hate being late) and I just sat nervously on the stairs at the aula, waiting for other students to arrive.
When I went home after the introduction day, the only thing I could think of was "Wow, that was an awful lot of information!" but I was still motivated to start the next week.
The first week was still a bit of exciting because it was the actual start. Some lessons didn't really begin, others did and some were already kind of difficult and of course, some are more interesting than others but I am still sure I made the right decision by choosing IBM.
And of course, the student life isn't only about studying. There are a lot of activities in Ghent, such as the Student Kick-off and the Student Street Soccer and of course there are also the parties in Overpoort. Normally, I am not the type of girl who attends parties every week, not even every month but I guess that is about to change now I am a student in lovely Ghent.
So this is my first post as a blogger, the next one will be next week or maybe the week after that. See you guys soon!
Alright, the first term is officially done! No more classes until February 8, 2016. But that means the study period has started as well. I began already yesterday but to be honest, I haven't done very much... Today, I am really going to start, with Accounting. My planning says that I have to be done with chapter 1 and 2, that's doable I guess. I actually am counting down the days until the end of the exams, 31 days left to be precise. After the exams, I am going to sleep for days! And after that, I might go to the coast with my sister and we are also going to go skiing, I am really looking forward to that! It is with the student Association HILOK and we are going to Orelle, in France. But that's still far away, first I have to study and, hopefully, pass all the exams (or at least as much as possible). 
