Hi, my name is Cristina Masson, and I'm a current junior concentrating in Finance and Management. I'm spending this semester abroad in Leuven, Belgium. All I can say is: study abroad if you can! It's so worth it!
Ok, so this is my first blog post, but I've already been in Belgium for a few weeks. Where to even start!?! I love it here. I'm in Leuven, which is a small city about 20 minutes from Brussels. We're located in the northern, Flemish region of the country, which means the official language here is Dutch (in the South- Wallonia- they speak French). I took an intensive Dutch language course for 10 days, but I'm still no where near where I want to be with the language. My goal is to come back to Penn conversational in Dutch. It's actually pretty difficult to learn- it's a mix between French, English, and German, and there are only a handful of countries around the world who speak it. Great...I'm learning a new language that no one uses, haha.
A brief synopsis of the greatest differences I've noticed between the U.S. and Belgium: 1. No one here uses mirrors. I don't know if you're a girl like me, but I definitely don't mind a full-length mirror on a Friday night. But everyone here is always dressed to the T, but they don't seem to care to look at themselves. I stayed with my "Belgian Buddy" for 4 days near the border of Holland, and I noticed quickly that she didn't have one mirror in her entire house! I don't know, that thought blew my mind when I reflected (no pun intended) on my own house, my dorm room, even the bathrooms at Penn. 2. Milk is not refrigerated and there is no such thing as "skim". My first trip to the grocery store was a surprising one when I bought whole milk that had never been refrigerated and would supposedly last for 4 more months. I drank it and it tasted fine (and by fine I mean fantastic- it's whole milk!), and I never got sick. Then why in the States have we not discovered how to not waste energy and food like that? 3. The education system here is virtually free for all students. Talking with the Belgian kids on my hall, I learned that they pay 500 Euros/year to attend one of the best schools in the world! And not just selected students- all 40,000 students are subsidized. Granted, their government is more socialist than ours, but that system encourages so many more kids to stay in school, make something of themselves, and be productive members of society. It seems so easy, but I know it's not.
I have so much more to tell, but I'll save that for another post. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about studying abroad in general, or specifically in Belgium. Bedankt voor leest mijn post. Goedemiddag en tot ziens!
Cristina
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