Culture shock?

Hello my faithful readers:

It has been exactly 1 week since I last updated my blog and to be honest I've been too busy to give serious thought about what I could share here on the blog with you all. My classes are Monday - Friday from 9 AM - 17:30 (5:30 PM). I'm in 2 lectures per day, both approximately 3 hours long if you include the breaks we get. This past week we've gone until almost 18:00 in my last class of the day. I've already completed one class (Economics) and will be starting two new classes next week. Typically we get an hour and a half lunch break which never seem long enough. Today for example most of my lunch time was spent sitting through a presentation from the government run health insurance company (more about that in another blog, once I experience the system first hand). After classes are done, I meet with my group to discuss whatever projects we have together; then I get a bite to eat or start studying for the next days classes. There have been a few days where I walked in at 9 AM didn't leave campus until almost midnight. Intense schedule huh? Most of my classmates are experiencing similar situations!

Now that doesn't mean I'm not having a good time here, but I will say that the sheer amount of reading is overwhelming. I've started to become a lot more strategic about how I spend my time so I don't burn out too quickly, but it is tough. It's also a challenge for me to make sure that I'm getting enough quality time in with my new friends (not always as easy as it might seem). Getting things done personally is almost exclusively reserved for the weekends. I went to Ikea last week and only had time/resources to purchase half of what I need here in my new studio. I'll focus on buying the rest of it this weekend if I have the time.

We watched a video yesterday in my "Managing Across Cultures" class; the film highlighted 3 distinct stages of culture shock. Stage 1 is the honeymoon phase, Stage 2 is crisis and Stage 3 is the adjustment phase. I think that I'm somewhere between the honeymoon and crisis stages. I just hope that my crisis stage will be a short one, but so far my biggest frustration is dealing with my banking situation and not knowing how to quickly get things done here without a lot of run around. All of the running around of late has me quite tired, but I hope that I'll build up some endurance to the intense schedule soon.

I'm still waiting for my student loan money to clear the bank here - I deposited over two weeks ago now, but the money still hasn't posted to my account. To add insult to injury, I'm frozen out of my banking software (why I can't just do it online like I did in America mystifies me) and when I called about it they actually told me I would have to call back because I didn't enter the right code. When I tried that (about a week ago), I couldn't get back in touch with them. I haven't had the time to attempt more direct contact with the helpdesk from the bank, but if I don't get some help by tomorrow I'm planning to shift my money to another bank when (and if) it ever appears!

As far as figuring out how to get things done- I think that will come with time for me. I just need to be patient and make an effort to simply learn more of the Dutch language (at least enough to understand all of the bills I'm starting to get in the mail). Making friends who have lived in Leuven for a while would be a good start for me.

That's about all I have to say for now. I like my classes a lot and have to say that I'm impressed by the caliber of students and professors this program has recruited. I learn something new every single day both about business and myself. I'll have a few growing pains, but for now I'm savoring the honeymoon.

Mwuah,

Georgia Peach