My Diary van België / My Diary of Belgium (30/1/13 – 31/5/13): Week 13

This week it has finally hit me we have a lot of assignments which need to be completed. I will never learn always seem to leave assignments right to the last minute. Brown, R. (1996) stated, “If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.” This is exactly what I do as I work best under pressure. This week resulted in me getting up every morning and cycle the short journey to the library to complete my assignments as my laptop has broken. This was a struggle as my log in details never worked and I always had to ask a random Belgian student to sign me in the computer.

On Wednesday our tutor and lecturer Jan Schrooten collected us in his car and drove us to our placement school of St. Lodejwik Technology School. Here we ensured everything was going to plan and were giving our timetable of the next few weeks in which we are teaching. The teacher who was left in charge of us is coincidentally also called Jan and invited into the school with open arms. He helped us with any queries we had and emailed us throughout the week to ensure we understood what was asked of us and took into consideration our thoughts of everything. Although there are a few days we have to be in Gent at 8.30am meaning leaving Hasselt just after 7am, we are still very happy with our timetable and very grateful for this opportunity.

Hilmi, Adam, Stewart and I at St. Lodejwik School, Genk.

Holly and I both had work to do this week and it was 25 degrees so we decided to visit the local Japanese Gardens in Hasselt and take our work and picnic with us. It was an enjoyable day in the sun even though we were both working but we were topping up the tan at the same time which is always a bonus. Holly is staying in Hasselt one month more than us which is sad as I don’t want to leave. Although I know I will see her soon as she has already booked flights to me in Ireland for 10 days in July.

Dr. Seuss once stated, “Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.” I will try and remember these words of wisdom when I am saying my goodbyes to the close friends I have made and lived with for the past four months.

Percicles mentioned, “What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven in to the lives of others”. This particular quote sums up my thoughts on my Erasmus experience overall as a whole and I hope to keep in touch with most of the people I have met here from all over the whole. We have already planned many trips and holidays with many, so it is not goodbye forever it is just goodbye for now.