HEC Liège

Not having a campus causes slight problems for students with finding accommodation as anybody who comes to a new city does not know much about the prices and conditions of hiring a room, therefore can easily find themself paying a lot for a room with poor facilities, just because there was not enough time to search for something better. University assures help in finding accommodation, but the rooms they propose happen to be in poor condition (like mine).

Most cafes are situated in a small "night-life district" called Le Carre. Before all, there is a very popular exchange students' bar "Pourquoi pas?", visited eagerly several times a week. For those who want to integrate with Belgian students too, there is "Le Soleil", always full of friendly young people. If you'd like to spend a nice evening in an original place but don't like crowds and loud music go to "Pot-au-lait" or "Tam Tam" (African cafe serving range of delicious exotic drinks). Other places worth visiting are "Murphy's", "Chez Bouldou"

belgium is a beautiful country, especially interesting because of its split nature - two parts (Wallone and Flanders) with two different languages spoken. They are also quite distinct and therefore both worth seeing. Because of its not large territory and the location of the city it doesn't take a lot of time to go to other countries like Holland, Luxemburg, Germany and France. That's why it's good to make the most of staying there and do some sightseeing.

In order to save some money on food, I advise shopping at big markets like GB or Delhaize. They offer cheap but good quality food products ("Produit Blanc", "Derby"). If you intend to travel in Belgium a lot, consider buying a go-pass - a book of ten train tickets, allowing to go to any place in Belgium for no more than 150 BEF.

Concerning my language skills I benefited greatly from my stay in Belgium. Most of my courses were in English, and this was the language I used most with other Erasmus students. But in everyday life I had to speak French, also with my room mates who hardly spoke English. That's why I gained the ease and fluency in speaking French and learnt lots of useful, everyday phrases. What's more, speaking English a lot with my friends and having courses in this language I improved it at both casual and formal level, and also enriched my vocabulary by marketing and economical terms.