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Saturday, September 20th, 2008

From Leuven With Love

Dearest Friend,

This is long overdue but better late than never. Thanks for your patience and I promise this “essay” is prepared with much love, thoughts and considerations. This will be really long but as my precious friend, I am sure you will try not skip lines and that you will read every single sentence (: For the rest who did not know what is going on, I am currently in Belgium, Leuven for my exchange.

9th Sep 11pm Singapore time:
I was almost in tears at the departure hall. It was way too overwhelming for me to look back and see all my loved ones and treasured friends waving goodbye to me, and seeing my mum’s swollen eyes. (for many who do not know, I am the only child). Those Angmohs looked puzzled at my teary eyes, but I braced myself up for Europe with close to illegally huge and heavy backpack. Don’t let the pic fool you. My mum really was more devastated.

9th Sep 7am Singapore time:
An Australian sitting beside me decided to engage me in an conversation after I had almost finished watching “Don’t mess with Zohan”, “Kungfu panda” and “Speed Racer” (all not so nice movies actually). I slept only 3 hours during this 17hrs flight but it wasn’t because BA’s fault. And I should say I really enjoyed BA’s flight though the stewardess aren’t that young. Anyhow…. We spoke a bit on my feelings far away from home and worrying for my mum (as when I am reaching London). She said it must be hard on me even for 5 months but I told her the reasons why I had to do this: This is truly for my personal development on all fronts – Academics, EQ, Character and Perspective on Life.

I thought all my life I really do not have to go on exchange but in my supposedly final term in SMU, something was strikingly amiss – Student Life. This is why I deferred my graduation, and halted my career in my own company.

I must say it is really troublesome to leave London (you have to take off your shoes at the security clearance– where else do you need to do that!)

10th Sep 11.30am Belgium time:
Finally in Belgium. The custom officer was really nice. He exclaimed, “Singapore!” when he saw my passport and wished me an enjoyable stay. He told me I should grab sleep first because I asked him where is City Hall.

After the train arrived in Leuven, I thought to myself I should go get a bus because the cab is too expensive, and anyway, I do not see a cab yet. Mistakes don’t come worse than this. I was lost for the next 1 hour because the buses in the terminal can go both directions, and I was unlucky enough to take the wrong direction. And because many Belgians cannot understand English, I had the hardest time trying to find my bus with them pointing all sorts of directions. At 1pm, I finally got the right bus and upon alighting I realized that my temporary accommodation is on top of a knoll (some background music of stunned played in my ears). Nice. Try moving a total of 60kg worth of stuffs up a knoll about 1km in, and I can assure you this is the best workout I had in years.

My impression of Belgians in the first day wasn’t all that good – unfriendly, only Dutch speaking and not very good with directions. I was exhausted and I think I slept for 13 hours after that. Good way to adjust jet lag.

11th and 12th Sep

In Paters Oblaton, the monastery where I stayed for a while, the view was fantastic and there were many great friends I have made. Nima, Eniko, and Monika from Iran, Hungary and Poland respectively. We have been going out together all this time and really enjoyed each other’s company. I pray this relationship will last (:

We went hunting around for houses together initially but we often had to break up and search individually. I also met Yvan from Mauritius who is pursuing his PHD in some Bio field in the monastary. We had a long intellectual conversations about life, science and family in the kitchen at 1am, before we wrapped up this new found friendship by exchanging contacts.

I must say this got to be one of the most challenging tests I have in my life yet. I had to walk so much (close to 50-60km for 2 days) and got lost until I could feel my legs giving way, and my back in tatters. My previously dislocated toe swell to the size of a cute chestnut. I had to look out for the sign “Kamers: Te Huur” meaning in Dutch “Rooms: For Rent” but they were mostly only receptive to 12mths contracts, while I am staying only for 5.

And being really ignorant, I wore berms and slippers on the 12th because the weather wasn’t at all cold before that. It rained. And I experienced what many have been warning beforehand to me – coldness. I had never felt so frozen in my life before and I really detested my existence at that time. It did not help that it was really difficult to find a place and competing with maybe 100 other international students. I actually thought I found a nice place at an attic in Dekenstraat where it was quite near to school earlier but there was a Portugese student who didn’t bother to ask the rest and declared she wanted the room to the landlord like we were all invisible. “I really liked this room. Can you give it to me?”. Well, you certainly think the world revolves around you, Mdm.

By 6pm on the 12th Sep, Friday, I was really disheartened and emotional. I really do not want to pay 300euros for a crappy place with smelly basins and beside the toilet (and screwing up my exchange experience) while others are paying 200 for nice big rooms. At this moment of time, I have not really got to know anyone (who would have the mood to?), so there was no venue for me to vent my frustrations on anything everything else. I went into Macdonalds to tap on the wireless and surfed around aimlessly.

Maybe its God or Lady Luck smiling at me. After leaving Mac immediately, I saw Milana, a Bulgarian student on the streets while I was about to go back to Monastary. She told me she had a room for 210Euros somewhere, and that I should go Ridderstraat for an appointment for room viewing at 7pm in place of her since she was giving it up (Milana I really owe you one!). And though I was late for ½ hour, the landlord hadn’t arrived but I had competition from some Turkish student.

And what I am going to share with you is some important life lessons: Do not do what you do not want others to do onto you. And it paid off. I liked the room at Ridderstraat but so did the Turks. I could either declare that I wanted it like the Portugese girl, or I could discuss with the Turks. And of course, you know how I chose to react. It paid off because the Turks were impressed with what they called “a sense of justice”, and they weren’t very sure anyway - more importantly, I did not have to lose my integrity and yet won the room (as seen in below’s pic). I was exhilarated because I was already running fever and could not have the stamina for 1 more day of search. Riddersstraat isnt exactly near my school but for 235euros, I have a room that is about 15m2. And talking about the Turks (in the pic below), they got a really nice place too when I last saw them (:

13th to 20th Sep (time to finally enjoy Leuven):
This entire week was mostly settling in, registering for school, residence permit, a bit of sightseeing, some cooking and making more friends. I think I now know at least people from 20 countries, but up to 15th, I thought I was the only Singaporean around. I couldn’t hide my joy when I saw Thea (in pic with Martina, a Polish), my fellow Singaporean student from NUS (and I met Beekee later that day as well).

And there is Gu Jie (my fellow SMU buddy on the right, and Mia, a Chinese Masters student on the left). Both are really nice girls!

So far, most of the community have good impressions of us Singaporeans. We can speak fluent English and Mandarin as well, therefore we can easily befriend people from both Europe and Asia (esp China, Taiwan and Hongkong). I am really glad to be fluent in them because it landed me many friends. But, I had to work hard to clear a stereotype that me as a Chinese eat dogs (and that Singapore is not in China). Quite a few people guessed I am from Japan / Korea too, even the Chinese here, strangely.. hmm.

Food: Did you know the Belgian are the ones who invented “French Fries”? Do not even use the word French because you may get chased out from the shop. Not that Belgian fries taste any better, but for 1.50 Euro, you can get a very big packet of them. And yes, the pastries here are AMAZING. Once, I bought 3 different kind of breads from a bakery hoping to finish them as breakfast for next 3 days, but I end up finishing them all at 1 go. Food here can go as much as 5 Euros for a Kebab, but the servings are very very huge. You wouldn’t be able to sleep until 3am if you eat it at 7pm. I also like Pita a lot.

I tried cooking my own food with some success. The Angmohs liked my bak kut teh and stir fried cabbage, as well as onion omelette. I’m proud of myself.

Culture: Nobody could understand why we Singaporeans have to distinguish our races in our I.Cs. It really isn’t so easy to explain to Europeans about that, and why we use chopsticks and why we must eat rice with spoons and chopsticks, while they use forks. I was introduced to the concept of cheek kissing and I must say it felt really nice (:

Belgians speak German, French and Dutch. I hope to be able to converse a little by the end of these 5 months in the latter 2 languages. Actually, I’ve grown to learn Belgians are really friendly and courteous. They say thanks, bye and have a good day after every transactions I made, and the drivers generally give way to us even if the traffic light says that they should not. Once in a bus, I only asked someone for directions and the entire bus passengers came to me. Btw, jaywalking here and walking on the roads here will cost me 150 Euros without warning. Dun pray pray.

Night Life: Clubbing here isn’t so fun, compared to Zouk. The smoke, and music. BUT, there is no cover charge and beer here are so cheap and so good here… it’s the same price as soft drinks over here. I have tried about 10 Belgish beers so far. No complaints about them except Kriek which is too sweet for me.

The dog breeds here are also all so pretty, and quite exotically strange looking at the same time. They all have different curls, colors from what we see in Singapore – must be the climate. I also really love the weather now with the right cloths and shoes. I tried playing football today and I felt I could run a marathon. I have also tried my hands on ping pong with the Chinese players. Oh Boy… they are so good and I think after 5 months of playing with them, I may have a good chance of breaking into the national team being the only real Singaporean. By this week, I am already almost settled in my new room which I loved so much (cleaned it up and mob the entire place with a cloth, and rearranged the entire room’s furniture), got my residence permit and done with Chinese groceries. I will get a bicycle 2 weeks from now for 15 euros, and go set up a bank account on Monday. I have upload all pictures on Facebook which you can see but I will do so on a public website soon.

Leuven is an university town where you can see condom dispensing machine everywhere. Studying masters or PHDs here are really affordable – masters for 500 euros a year anyone? As a Catholic town and university, it is no surprise that this place has really gorgeous churches here. So far I must say, though I have not fully settled and am really tired, I really liked Leuven and what I have learnt so far about different cultures and living on your own.

I’m glad I choose this place, and I’ve no regrets I had given up graduation last term for this (:

Regards,
Keith