Hello there,
I hope this message finds you in your best health. I am writing to you at the end of my journey in Belgium and Hasselt University. But hopefully this might be at the beginning of yours.
I started my exchange study in February and it will finish soon with the exams in late June. My major remains Business Economics here but I obtained the chance to take some engineering courses also such as Data Analytics, Quantitative Methods in Business Informatics and Introduction to Information Systems. It was such a harsh beginning for me to adapt to the study pace and style at a research university. There is almost no project or group assignment. Everything is very traditional, 2 hour in-class lectures and 3 hour paper-based exams. However, with the help of my new-to -be old friends and professors, it is now one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had.
During the remaining time, I challenged myself with a part-time student job at a McDonald’s franchise 24km away from home right at the border of Belgium-Netherlands. I would be lying if I said it was very enjoyable as the difference in working culture and customer service did not tolerate me. But there have been so many things I observed and so many friends I made (might not see them ever again) that gave me so many life-long lessons. Care. Communication. Sacrifice. Immigration. Loss. I am honoured to get to know them for once and forever. I might forget their names but never their stories.
That is pretty much everything about the relationship between me and Belgium. It was a weird but similar one with Finland. I think Finnish people and Belgian people can either be friends or enemies based on their strong traits in directness, nature and individualism.
I guess it is all from me. I would never think to go and write this far and personal on a ‘no-reader’ blog. But there is one thing for sure, I will leave as a person different from the one who has come. I am proud and relieved of it.
Till I see you again. Good bye Belgium.
An Nguyen
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