It has been just great!

All right guys, I know my time here in Gent has been very short but still I can confirm with no doubts that this city is just so beautiful and an awesome place to live. I won't be long with my posting this time cause not much time has past since the last one, but I'll put the pressure on visual then.

Couple comments though. The erasmus party was great. Met lot of new people form all over the Europe. Literally there's a street by my university (Artevelde University College or in Dutch - Arteveldehogeschool) where are all the bars, clubs and fast food places for students, to enjoy the night life. And this street literally doesn't sleep! Always something going on there. Then yesterday we went to a VERY cool bar. Now this one was in the the old town, not on the sleepless street. It's actually indescribable how nice it was there. It's called Hot Club de Gent. To get there you have to take a very narrow path/street (check the picture) and you end up in a small patio. Inside the place it was bursting of chill and old environment. Who ever comes and visits me I'll definitely take him/her there. And that wasn't all. There was a live band playing jazz music and I have a video of them as well. So I hope I delivered the feeling with the pictures and video of that place. But keep in mind, to fulfill the feeling you have to have a beer which tasted just SO GOOD. Seriously it was the best beer I have ever had! Maybe I am bit overwhelming with the whole situation, but you always have a chance to come and disapprove my feelings there.

Today me and Riina went to movies to see "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Ticket was 9.30 and it was worth of it, liked the movie very much. But didn't wanna talk about the movie, more about a very weird situation that happened there during the movie. Well, about half of a move had been watched when suddenly lights went on and film stopped. And it was time for PAUSE! :D. Yes, it was written on the screen that it's a 10min break and go refresh yourself, which I actually did :).

One last thing, we also went up to a tower/church , it's the building right next door to me :). Had a great view of the whole city durin the night.

Allright, enough talk and more proof. Enjoy!

Click here to watch the video.

Home sweet home

Yes, I am not back to Estonia. But I'm finally in my permanent home for the next 5 and a half months. Arriving here was really easy thanks to the fact that I visited Gent last Saturday. It's amazing how easy it is with the public transport here. To take the right tram from the train station to the city centre is piece of cake and the trams come in every 5 minutes. I was already very anxious and nervous if I would like the place and the people who are there right now. In Leuven everything was perfect, I had my nice private room, which was cosy, I kept it clean and my way. One thing I new already, I definitely like te location.

I'm at the door, I ring the bell and Juan comes to greet me. We go in, I meet Alicia and her mother who's visiting her. They are all very nice and friendly. Alicia and Juan give me a tour in the appartement. There's actually one guy more, Jose, but he wasn't there at that time. The appartement is very homey and nothing really special besides it's literally in the middle of Gent and has quite a lot room: two bedrooms (1 is very big), living room and a kitchen. I had a little chat with them but not long cause Juan and Alicia have to study for their exam tomorrow. So I leave them and meet up with Riina who arrived here one day earlier than me.

We had late lunch together and after that headed to the city. We were very lucky, cause it was the opening day of Gent Light Festival. That means every evening from 6 p.m. till 12 a.m. until Sunday the city is full of art, related to light: bulbs, electricity, wires and of course music. Fortunately it happend to be that just as we finished our late lunch we went for a walk and noticed people gathering in a square. We saw some important people on the stage that gave their speech and it wasn't like gutting the ribbon to celebrate the opening. It was riding an exercice bike to "make" the electricity so that the miljons of small bulbs that have been used would lit up. I have a video to prove that as well.

Watch the video!

When I got back in the appartement the environment was very relaxed and chill. Everybody did their own stuff. Alicia and Juan studied, Alicia's mom was on the computer and I joined them. After an hour or so we had a nice Spanish dinner that Alicia and her mom made. It was tortilla with a chicken fillet sauce and some local cheese. It was very delicious and I was happy cause it had been more than 2 weeks since I had nice homey food.

Hope you enjoyed the video. Today I go out to a real Erasmus party! Bye!

Second trip -> Gent

I was very anxious about the trip. Gent will be my home town for next 5 and a half months and this is the first time I visit it. Will I like it, I better right!

It all started kind of a same way as with the tip to Antwerpen. We all met at the train station of Leuven. Since here are huge sales in the stores then actually it's the same for the transportation. They want people to go shopping by using the public transport and therefore the return ticket to Gent cost us only 10 euros each (which I actually didn't have to buy, it's included in the language program). The ride was little bit more than an hour, so again a good time to chat and inquire about life somewhere else than Estonia. This time I sat together with 3 Hungarians - Gábor, Gábor and Réka. We talked about cost of living in Hungary and I found out that it's really cheap compared to Estonia. But then again salaries are seriously low as well. Since the guys are related to IT and one of them actually has finished his studies and works in Brussel, then we talked little bit about IT in Hungary. I think I was a good opponent on that subject, since I own lot of inside information in this sector thanks to my lovely (no homo) buddies in Estonia. I asked both Gábors what would be the salary for a developer/programmer if he/she has finished or half way there in IT studies and this will be his/her first job experience in the field. They told me that if you start from scratch with the background I provided then the salary would be around 400 euros. At this point I can quite surely confirm that with the situation in Estonia (lack of experienced and hardworking developers/programmers) the salaries in IT, even for rookies, are higher. Companies should import IT work outside country borders and actually I know they're doing it already. So I think it's no news for "the big sharks" in Estonia.

There are two train stations in Gent: Sint.-Pieters and Dampoort. Sint.-Pieters is kind of the main train station and location is outside city centre, around 30min walk. Dampoort on the other had is on the edge of centre. We arrived to Sint.-Pieters and had a little walk to do which I actually liked a lot because I have to take the same route when I go to Gent on Thursday.

Our first stop was........ of course a brewery - GRUUT. We paid fixed price (I again didn't have to pay anything) and got to taste 3 different beers that they are brewing there with a guy or guide explaining the whole process and why they are so special. But I won't go there cause anyone who's interested on that can find the information online. But one thing actually that I found interesting and worth of pointing out is called anamorphosis. Maybe you guys have herd about it but basically it's an ancient way of drawing but to see the image you have to use a certain device or a tool to understand what is really featured on the picture. Why I am saying it is ancient? Well because in old times erotical pictures (nowadays porn :)) were not allowed and with that technique it was made possible to draw pictures of naked women. And to come back the the brewery and drinking beer then on the beer glass is little mirror to reflect the drawing on the coaster (in estonian: õllealus/klaasialus). Check the picture and you'll know what I mean. Anyway, I now found it very cool and interesting art. :)

After the brewery we had lunch and then city tour, only that this time we didn't have a guide to take us through the city, but we also didn't get away that easy. We made group of fives and Ellen (our language teacher) gave each group a paper full of tasks to do and questions to get answers to. That meant talking with locals in local language so we could put Dutch in practice. I know you guys think that hell we were talking in Dutch when actually we could get away with English easily. But to be honest, we really did ask the questions in Dutch and by the way I got a compliment from a local of my very good Dutch. So get your dictionaries ready cause the next postings will be in Nederlands :).

Oh yeah, on more thing, actually two. I also had time to check the location of my soon to be new home in Gent and you guys will be very very jealous. But I will talk about it when I'm there :). And secondly to go back where I started with this posting, if I would like Gent then my answer is - HELL YES!!! - and the pictures are to prove that. Hope you enjoy.

First trip -> Antwerpen

8:30 in Leuven train station. 9:05 train to Antwerpen. Weather: +7, cloudy. The ride took little bit more than an hour to Antwerpen, so a good time to get to know other course mates, but I sat next to teacher and her friend which by the end game out very interesting conversation about Belgium. Did you know that prime minister of belgium is Elio Di Lupo and he's actually a son of two Italian immigrants, he doesn't speek flemish, which is actually most widely speaking language in Belgium, but he's learning it. And he is gay. He game out with that already in 2006. He openly confronted that he's gay: "Yes. So what?" were his answer to the question. I think that shows quite a lot of Belgium as a country and people who live here (I know Mart would comment it: "That everyone in Belgium is gay" :D), cause Elio Di Rupo was elected to be the prime minister. The huge problem that Belgium, and not only Belgium has/had, was with the illegal workers and unemployment. The government game out with a nice solution to that. Belgian can go online and buy certain checks. Every check is worth of 1 hour work that is 7 euros. The checks are sent to you and now all you have to do is hire a person to do what ever you need: cleaner, caretaker, plumber, painter etc. You think why would you hire someone for 7 euros, actually it is even less that that. You see, the government gives certain percent back for every check you used and the worker gets certain extra percent from every check he has earned. And finally we get a win-win situation. WIN 1 - job is done at my house and it was cheap, WIN 2 - no illegal workers, rate of unemployment goes down and people have health insurance. Of course this law only works in Belgium cause they are rich. Actually now they have another problem, the law turned out to be so popular that it has been eating a lot of money.

Ok, back to Antwerpen. We had a nice and interesting city tour with a guide. City got its name from a legend. How a giant didn't let anyone pass through on the river without paying tax. One guy stepped up and managed to cut giant's hand off and threw it in the river - hand werpen, in english it's hand throwing or to throw a hand = Antwerpen. After the city tour we had free time/lunch. And I went with couple more people to have chinese food where I got myself a new nickname: Spicy Boy. Cause I like spicy food and I told nice chinese waitress in her fifties to make my food extra spicy. When she got back with our lunch, she handed the plates by saying "this is for Spicy Boy". After lunch we went to the MAS - Museum Aan de Stroom. It's a new museum, built and opened in may 2011. The idea of the MAS is to present exhibits owned by Belgians. It means that all the exhibits are bought/used/brought by Belgians in the past. They have exhibits originally from Japan in the times of samurais, or exhibits owned by the great Mayas like sculptures and statues. You might think how it's possible, well many years ago Antwerpen was the first passing point to Western Europe. And after the MAS we went back to train station to catch a train back to Leuven. Next saturday we'll visit my soon to be new hometown Gent.

Two cool things I wanted to add:

1. Antwerpen's train station works on different levels. And from the atrium you can see all those levels/floors full of trains. And in 2009 American magazine Newsweek judged Antwerpen-Centraal the world's fourth greatest train station.

2. There's a tunnel for pedestrians connecting each sides of the river and it's 527m long and 31m under the ground.

First night out

Was about time, right!? In Leuven there's a square called Oude Markt (Old Market, pic. 1). It's full of different bars and pubs. You would think they are all expensive since it's in the centre but actually they're not. It's kind of like students' Meka in Leuven. The size and shape is comparable to Tartu Town Hall Square only that there are nothing besides bars and pubs. In the evenings it's usually full of students and their one purpose is to survive from the pub crawl so it wouldn't have a great effect at school the next day. I went out together with Riina and two Norwegian girls (Kim and Helle). Kim and Helle are literally rich in Belgium. When they pay 7 euros for a beer in Norway then here it's 1.90. Only problem is that they don't like beer, YET :).

Today I went the first time to the university diner. I would give 8 points out of 10. Food is good and cheap and they also have a variety to choose from. You might think why not 10 then, well I'm sure I get tired of the food there soon, so I was thinking ahead while grading it. Oh, one thing got me really thinking. You get your food, right, and of course you have to have a drink or something on the side as well. Now comes the good part. Sodas (coca-cola, fanta, sprite etc.) cost 1.90 (0.33l), BUT, Stella Artois (local beer, 0.33l) cost 1.40. And if you think about it, is it because to limit the drinking of sweetened drinks and promote the "healthiness" of beer. Or it's just the way it is in Belgium. To be honest I DON'T CARE and I had a BEER with my beef stew and french fries (total was 6.10) :D!!

The school a.k.a language course has started

Ik heet Armo. Ik kom uit Estland. Ik ben in Elva geboren. Ik woon in Tallinn. Ik ben student public relations. In het weekend ga ik naar Antwerp.

Seems easy right, actually I had prepared for worse. But they say "it's only the beginning". Reading is easy, basically you read like Estonians do with couple of exceptions. Like G is pronounced HEI, J is JEI, U is Ü and Y is EI. Every monday we will have test and the last day of the course is an exam with two parts - writing and an interview. This saturday we will have a trip to Antwerpen and next one to Gent. There are 12 of us in the course: 3 Hungarians, 3 Estonians, 1 Finnish, 1 Italian, 1 Polish, 1 Spanish, 2 Norwegians. We'll see how it all works out and how I'm going to do in my first test.

Yesterday (Sunday) we (another Estonian, Riina) did a long walk in the city. Checked out the town hall, Old Market which is a square with bars and where all the students go in the evenings, although it was empty when we where there. Guess it was because of Sunday, I hope at least.

Oh one more thing, actually two. It's expensive here! Well you now these cheap fast noodles that in Estonia used to cost like 1.50 EEK, here you just change the currency and then you think if it's worth of it. Secondly, it's written in my mighty book of Belgium that here are over 200 different kind of beers. Lets say 200 then it's easier to keep track on it. Anyway, I have tried 2 already: Stella Artois and Jupiter. Couple more to go...

First stop Leuven

I know that you know that I planned coming to study in Europe for a while now. Well here I am in Belgium, in Leuven. No no no, Leuven is not my permanent place to stay. I am actually here only for my Dutch language course that last for 2,5 weeks. I know it sounds weird right, but it's true, cause after those 2,5 weeks i can open a new line in my CV and add an extra language to the endless list. Actually learning language is not primary in this program, at least that's what I have herd. And it's not getting wasted or breaking windows while screaming "everything is ours" either :). Actually it's ment to integrate those eastern Europe white skins in the great European culture. We'll see if it works on me, I doubt on that.

First impressions:

1. no one wears a hat, even children don't

2. everyone has a scarf, even children have

3. big sales? yes indeed!

4. didn't see any international fast food chains. is it good? probably not. What will i do during those dark nights?