College

[Bengal65]

Colleges and universitys suck here because we don't have campuses and other cool shit like that. It's just like going to a regular school.
You don't have that kind of brotherhood going here and parties and banging at every possible moment because of that.

Endrik, you have been watching too much television

[danastas]

The school where I was at had coed floors, coed bathrooms.

It was very very hard to deal with.

[ApeDosMil]

Well hopefully it turns out. I still feel awkward around here. From the looks of it, most of the people on my floor will fail haha, I can't be so sure though.

What kind of problems did you have danastas? Do you mean because you wanted to do the ladies , or because they get annoying after a while :P

[Endrik]

And I don't know what Endrik is talking about: I think he gets more tail than any other JCF'er. Jeez, if he went to a US school, he would probably die from being oversexed.

but I want eve more
I don't want to put too much effort into it, it takes a lot of my time away.
I would love to study in US, not only because of the wild life (wich sucks here or is extinct) but there are a lot more options to get the right education, and the programs in US are way better.

Endrk, you have been watching too much television

no I haven't, I just happen to have many friends who study somewhere else

[GodOfRhythm]

Actually, no offense, but US College life is NOTHING compared to Belgian and surrounding countries' college life.

Two of my uncles and a couple of my professors went to US universities, from LA in the 80's to NY and Houston. They all said the same thing: it was pretty boring all year round, with the occasional party and this & that.

Down here it's: drinking, drinking, drinking, fucking, fucking, drinking, studying, drinking, fucking, studying, sleeping, drinking, fucking, drinking and a bit of studying again: repeat the next week. And I don't mean drinking alone in your room either.

First of all, we don't have 'dorms' or 'campusses' around here. All students here have their own little 12m² room ('appartment') they rent. You have these dodgy landlords that own like 70% of all the houses in the city center, and they basically convert it into like 20 rooms/appartments and some nasty bathrooms and kitchens. So you all have your own room, but still the communal hang-out/chill-out areas and most people hang out on each other's room, doing blow, fucking, listening to music, jamming, that sorta stuff.

So basically we're real-time inhabitants of the city, that alone gives you a lot more freedom. Now apart from the multitude of crazy-ass parties you have at your own house ('kot' as we call it in Dutch) you have the CITY life!

This city eats, sleeps and fucking breathes STUDENTS. The historic city center is filled with conservatories, aula's, laboratories, faculties and whatnot. This is a small city center too, you can walk through the entire Leuven center in about 10 to 15 minutes. But still there's like 20.000 students here.

Now what does that give you? That gives you HUNDREDS of bars (highest ratio/concentration of bars in the world) + 'the longest bar of the world' (= the old historic town square, FILLED with bars and café's). Now you've got a lot of cool clubs/disco's in there.

BUT you also have the Studentcafe's ('facultybars'), we Law students, have the 'House Of Rights', the economists have a bar called 'Ekonomika', etc etc, for each different course/faculty. Now at these bars you can get jagermeisters for $0.50 and big-ass glasses of good ol' Belgian beer for $1 + they stay open through the night.

Now we also have 'student-societies', our Law society is called 'The Royal Flemmish Law Society', the economists have 'Ekonomika', the engineers have a society called 'VTK', etc etc. They help you out on books and whatnot, BUT they throw KILLER KILLER KILLER parties!

For instance, the first week of college, in about a month, will be insane. The streets will be filled with outdoor bars, you'll have a gigantic fucking stage in the townsquare, where top-dj's from across the world will play music. You'll have thousands of drunk students roaming the streets, partying.

Now in this week all the studentbars open as well, so that means: FREE KEGS and a lot of 'em! More partying etc etc.

Now this really doesn't simmer down at all. Those Student-Societies throw gigantic raves and parties practically every friggin' night in one of the many big dancetemples/clubs/disco's or arena's in the city center, with big name acts, good music, cheap booze and hundreds if not thousands of drunk students waiting to party and get laid.

20.000 students! 54% of them are female and, honest to god, I've only seen about 30 women whose ass I wouldn't tap and dig in for seconds, an hour later! In short: shitload of hot, intelligent, horny college chicks. And we ALL have our own rooms/appartments, so if you wanna do naughty stuff, who the hell is gonna stop you?

But there is ONE thing that is unbeaten, I don't even know if you guys in the US know this 'ritual'.

Once you've joined a student-society, a couple of times per semester they'll throw what's called a 'CANTUS' (latin for 'song). When you join the society you get a book ('codex') with shitloads of old sailor and student songs, dating from as far back as the Middle Ages. So at these Cantusses a couple of hundred of you all come in, sit around one of the many big-ass tables. And your Praeses (leader of the student society) will sit in front, and speak through a PA. He'll tell you when to sing a song, what song to sing, etc. There's a lot of cool rules, rituals, codes etc that you have to know or you get punished!

Now after EACH song he says: 'Prosit Senior, Prosit Corona, AD FUNDUM', which means 'CHUG, ALL-IN-ONE' and you drink your beer!

Did I tell you there's an army of people running around, making sure you have like 5 glasses of beer in front of you at all time, and it's like this for every single person there (male, female, doesn't matter). Hundreds of people getting drunk as FUCK while laughing your ass off, getting punished, throwing beer, singing, jumping on tables. Then when it's a break, cool music is played and the place explodes in a massive party. Then round two, another break and party, then round three. Now by this time you will not be able to walk anymore! Anyways this takes about 4 to 5 hours of relentless chugging and drinking.

After that the drunk masses flood the street and go to all the bars/cafes/bars and clubs to party some more 'till daylight!

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And 'THURSDAY' is THE partynight. Every student usually goes home in the weekend, so friday is the last day you're in town for the week, so the last night is thursday night.

Millions of those big Student-Society parties everywhere, bars, clubs, everything going wild. Try coming down here that first week of October and walk across the street here at 4am. You'll feel like you're at Ozzfest or in some crowd, waiting to catch a show, it's that crowded on the streets, with partying students, going from one club to another, one party to another or just hanging out in front of a liquor/night store getting there ass hammered on Jack Daniels and Vodka before kicking it to some good music in one of the clubs.

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THAT, gentlemen, is student life!

((May I add that I indulge in all of this, to the point of having severe braindamage, having multiple STD's and being shitfaced wasted the entire week and all of that for under $20 a week! Shit, my weekly budget for EVERYTHING (food, clothes, drinks, etc etc) is $50 . So I indulge in this stuff every single night and I party as hard as a human being can, BUT I did graduate my first (and second-hardest year) in the first degree, in the top 10% of my year with 'flying colours. So we still get to studying, I mean isn't that what college is for? ))

I'll say it again:


THAT, gentlemen, is student life!

[Endrik]

say where your University exactly is


looks like I have to make a visit

[RacerX]

Well looks like here:
http://www.leuven.com/index_en.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leuven

KUL: http://www.kuleuven.be/english/

[GodOfRhythm]

That is indeed the place, Ron!

If you take a look at this picture of the library (with the big 'Ladeuze' square in front) and you see the street going straight ahead, just right of the library. If you gaze down that hole, you can basically see where my Leuven house is.




Btw, my beliefs were only enforced, by a lot of Canadian, American, even Brazilian people living in our house, all part of exchange programs and the odd out-of-country student.

One that really rang home was a Brazilian girl that told me she just loved how she could basically ride her bike her, even at night, to wherever and feel safe. She could never try that at her country.

[/pro-Belgian propaganda]

[GodOfRhythm]

Btw, Michael.

Try and get in touch with as many foreign students as you can. I mention this because of several things.

Number One is most important in your situation I think, I never had this kind of problem, because I'm pretty sociable and seem to get along with about anyone I've ever met, but here goes:

1) Foreign students are likely to not have that many friends to start with, they're a bit alienated, especially if this is there first couple of weeks/months on campus. Not only will they really appreciate the attention they get from you, but they'll probably be genuinely interested in you and what you bring to the table as well. Why? Well the reason they're studying in the US is probably not just because of the good rep that particular college might have, but because they're interested in American culture, habits, way of life, etc. Last time I checked, you were an American! Double win-win situation there!

Now it gets even sweeter:

2) You will gain immense amounts of knowledge. Not only will they share their habits/culture with you, they will also introduce you to more of their friends and chances are, if you clicked with them, you'll click with their friends too. Not to mention foreign students might be a bit on-guard or introvert at first, because they're in a strange/weird situation, but once they open up they are probably seriously cool people who at the same time are feeling the same way you are, in a way: not at ease and not too comfortable. If you now step in and try and make them more comfortable, you have effectively taken your own situation of unease and turned it around into a situation of helping others to cope with the same feeling: which will help yourself and your problem to an infinite degree.

3) Foreign students usually know HOT foreign college chicks. How can anyone say no to that?!

4) Their view on your own US habits/customs/way of life can give you interesting perspectives on your own culture, in ways you perhaps had never even looked at it before!

5) If you play your cards right and hit it off with some friends, you'll reap the rewards. There's nothing as cool as making best friends with a guy, only to find out a couple of years after college he lives in some fucking castle somewhere in Italy and has invited you to come on over and share the italian way of life, instead of the other way around, like college. (This is actually happening to me right now, with a cool french guy I met, and who's a good friend of mine, turns out his uncle owns the biggest fuckin' castle in Belgium and is an antiques dealer. Decadent parties here I come! )

6) Foreign students mean FOREIGN DRINKS! Dear god, this is probably my favorite part! We had a Hungarian fellow here in our house, and he had a drink called 'Palinka', 65% and it blew your socks off. It was basically like Absynthe, but made from apricotes and pears.

7) If you do this, chances are VERY high you will soon have a large circle of people you know or can hang out with, even if they're all foreign. BUT everyone will notice that you're social as fuck and must be fun to hang around with. You will start attracting people, literally. Which will make you feel better infinitely again. Not to mention all that stuff you learn about foreign/exotic countries makes for great conversation and cool knowledge.

8) An infinite number more of benefits that I can't even start to list or think about, or that have just escaped my mind from the time being!

[danastas]

Well, your descriptions of college life in Belgium sound like a typical American experience.

As a matter of fact, I'm wondering how in the world your uncle was bored at college in NYC. I would have thought that was impossible. I've been down to NYU for parties. Those kids have it all.

[Shotgun]

I bow before G.O.R. - my hero.

And great suggestions. In high school and college I always ran with exchange students, and man, was that a blast.

Keith

[ApeDosMil]

Thanks for immensive info lol. My college sounds like what you said. Our Campus is part of the town so its being run by college students. To the right of my dorm is the frat houses. I count myself to be more foreign than American though, my parents are Polish and I've been growing up with their influence including speaking it.

The problem with me is that I get along with a everyone I meet for the most part, except I'm not really social. I won't go up to anyone and start talking to them. I'm too shy and I can't seem to fix that. I can't really assume this place sucks even though it feels like it already. School doesn't start until Monday.

[L]

get transportation and stay polish then:

http://www.jedynka.com/jedynka/index.cfm?lang=eng

http://www.polskiinternet.com/english/amus/nightc.html