Hello my faithful readers:
This week I have been focused on passing the pre-coursework my program has assigned us; all should be completed prior to the first day of classes on September 1. The school also ambitiously assigned us several books to read prior to our arrival here in Leuven. Out of the 3 classes we are to take online I have completed one and classes begin less than a week from now. I see a future with lots of nights spent here in the school (where I currently am) in my little study cubby.
I'll admit that in undergrad, (and even high school) I was never much of a disciplined studier. Nothing seems to motivate me more than an impending deadline and usually it is less than 24 hours away. With the workload that we're going to cover in this 1 year MBA program I will have to change some of my bad habits. I'll have to figure out more efficient ways to manage my time and spend less time surfing the web, checking my facebook page or just tweeting about how much studying I'm NOT doing.
Today was a poor study day for me, but I feel like it was time (mostly) well spent with getting other important tasks completed. I picked up my disbursement three checks from the International Office here at the school and learned that the student loan process for US based loans is very different here in Belgium than it is in the US. The biggest difference is that I got the first half of my loans (1/2 tuition + 1/2 living expenses) and I am responsible for making the payment to the school for my tuition. I took the checks to my bank and I was hoping that I could use a portion of my living fees expenses to pay the deposit on my studio. No such luck, apparently because of issues with check cashing fraud no Belgian banks allow you to cash checks. Ever! I deposited all of the money into my ING account, although the lovely woman couldn't give me a specific timetable of when I would have access to the money. One other (important) lesson learned at the bank today is that you should be very specific with them about the currency of the checks you're depositing. You should also keep in mind that here in Europe- the comma in currency is used in the same way as the decimal point is used in the US. I was glad that they checked with me because I would have been quite upset if they had assumed I was depositing checks for small dollar amounts(e.g. $5). That would have been a really bad exchange rate!
After doing the banking thing, I bought a few things that I needed in my room and went back to my kamer to grab a bite to eat and take a nap. That evening I needed to pay the deposit + 1st months rent to my landlord so I had to call and make special arrangements with my US based bank. I also set up my renters insurance since the same company has my current US renters insurance and luckily my rate is a little lower here in Leuven than it was in NYC, which is great considering Leuven is one of the safest cities in the world. I went to a couple of ATM machines here to withdraw the money and stopped by to pay the deposit to my new landlord. I also realized later that the exchange rates seem to be a whole lot better if you're withdrawing directly from the ATM machines.
Although I didn't get my intended studying completed, I learned that there are many differences in the ways that Americans and Belgians get things done. I think overall I'm going to learn more patience and become a lot more laid back after my experiences here. Plus I'll need to carry lots of cash around because lots of places don't seem to accept debit/atm cards here! That's enough of my rambling for tonight - I'll try to squeeze in at least one more blog this week, but for the rest of this week I'm all about getting my Statistics and Accounting courses completed!
Mwuah,
Georgia Peach
No comments:
Post a Comment