Great Expectations

Hi Everyone!

I am a foreign student living in Belgium. I study International Business Management in Artevelde University College. In this blog I'll revisit some of the highlights of the journey I embarked upon when I first decided to study in another country. I’ll give some insight and tips on:

• Living as a foreign student on your own in Belgium

• Making friends as an introvert in an unknown country, in a different language

• The limitations of being a student from a developing country

• Creativity in the “business world”

• Going to college in your 20s

That being said… here we go!

I was born and raised in Venezuela. The first time I travelled to Germany I was 18 years old (the country my grandparents were originally from before migrating to Venezuela in the 1930s). This was also the first time I had been to Europe. When I turned 21 and went back to Europe for the summer , I also visited The Netherlands and Belgium. It was then when I realized I wanted to study in another language, in another continent.

One of the things I miss the most about my country: the Caribbean

At first it seemed outrageously challenging: the possibilities for a student exchange in Venezuela are quite limited. So I figured applying for a full bachelor program in another country was the logical thing to do.

After a year of working 36 hours a week plus handling university while still trying to keep good grades back in Venezuela, I saved up enough money to come to The Netherlands - first to study Dutch for a year, and later to register at Ghent University in Belgium. I studied Linguistics and Literature there for some years.

However, I decided to switch to International Business Management in 2015. It was a decision driven mostly by a habit I have been trying to fight off my entire life: impulsiveness. Being in Belgium already for a couple of years and feeling stuck in what I had been doing so far I decided my life needed -yet another - 180 degree turn.

I heard from a friend there was this new business program in a school called "Artevelde" - I recognized the name Artevelde from that rusty statue in the “Vrijdagmarkt”  and from taking up an elective course in my first year of University here (history and culture of the Low Countries).

Jacob van Artevelde's statue at the "Friday's Market" in Ghent

If you have ever lived for a while in a foreign country, you will know how extremely satisfying it feels to recognize a tiny piece of culture or history or something (anything!). It gives you a temporary sense of victory: "yes! I get you, I am now part of your people!" - even though the feeling goes away quite rapidly when they start speaking in dialect.

My B2 level Dutch Certificate isn't of much use for understanding "West Vlaams"

After taking a look at the subjects and the focus of the bachelor programme, I did what most people do after long deliberation when it comes to the difficult task of choosing what to do with your life and said: "err... why not?". The  programme was entirely in English and I had the feeling I would be able to relate more to my classmates if other students were also expats.

And here I am now, in the beginning of my second semester, writing the first post for a blog we have to make for one of the subjects. It is a task that doesn’t really feel as such given writing is one of my hobbies. However, the title of this post was supposed to remind you of a Dickensian novel because of its content and not its length. So, with that I'll wrap up. See you again in two weeks. 

Hasta entonces!

Elvira