Honest Boats
3 weeks since classes started at the University. My brain is still intact but there is no definite amount of time to say how long it might remain so. I sometimes bike to my lectures (that is, if I deem the Belgian skies trustworthy) and about half-way through my ride to the city I encounter two lovely murals. They are painted on the sides of the building just at the base of the pedestrian bridge that crosses the water. It really must be one of my favorite spots in Ghent. I love how in this place nature and art seem to blend with industrialism.
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Second-hand Language
To live is to learn, to learn is to grow, and to grow is to change.
Life is comprised of change. As children we grow and change physically; add more words, both beautiful and vulgar, to our vocabularies; learn what it is to love, what it is to be hurt. We grow older and we learn what it is to care for someone else even more than we care for ourselves. In some unfortunate cases, age brings with it the learned behavior to resist change. These are processes of life and sometimes change can be a scary and overwhelming thing. Beginning a life abroad can be described almost entirely through that word ‘change’.
Read MoreMijn Belgische Verjaardag
It’s hard to fathom that I’ve been living in Belgium for a year now, but it’s true. The year has gone unbelievably quickly and yet so many important things have happened in its course. Before we moved to Belgium, I envisioned myself writing many more blog entries to help create concrete memories of all the experiences. As I discovered, life takes up way more time. I feel that this one year mark in Belgium is a sort of milestone and it’s nice to look back and see all of the accomplishments that comprise the last year.
Read MoreWhen the swear word loses its strength.
Belgians are superior language learners. A week or so ago I was amazed again by their vast language capabilities. I was waiting for the tram around 10 in the morning so that I could make my English literature class lecture when an elderly man and woman made their way to the stop. As the tram was arriving the man asked me something in Dutch that I didn’t understand.
Read More‘Of’ means ‘or’ and ‘en’ is no longer ‘in’ but ‘and’.
If the title of this post confused you, then welcome to my confusing little world. During the last half year my brain took a turn down crazy language street and I have been living in a semi-confused state pretty consistently. Most of my friends and family know that I spent a year living in Spain and also have a bachelor’s degree in Spanish. Right after completing my year in Spain, I moved to Belgium and began intensively studying Dutch. It is a requirement to pass the ITNA exam, which demonstrates that you have reached a B2 (intermediate) level in Dutch, in order to be able to study at a Flemish University. My goal was to meet this requirement and then to begin studying at Ghent University in order to attain a master’s degree.
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