Universiteit Gent (RUG)

You get bored by the Overpoort street (student clubs) try the Vooruit, the Video, Pink flamingo, Dambert,Manteka,etc.

The student residences seem to be ok, but not great. If you know you'll be coming here to study, you better look early for a nice room

Since Dutch is not one of the "big"languages, people are used to talk English or Dutch with foreigners. So there is never a problem if you have questions. But people like it when you try to talk Dutch even if English would be easier. If you kmow German, Dutch is not too hard, and after all, Dutch is an important language in the international scene of architecture. There is no Flemish language, it is just an accent (like British and American English) and it sound nicer than the Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. There is a university language center. You get one course for free, if you want to do more, it is really expensive. There is only evening courses for the first two levels. If you want to go on, you ight run into difficulties with the schedule of your lessons

if You are below 25, you get many things cheaper. Get a "Go Pass" for traveling by train!! Pizzas are expensive, too. Beer is ok.

Its a nice place. I like the people and their mentality as well as the food including the French Fries (Belgian invention)and really good food. The city is small enough to find one's way arroung and large enough to have fun. The Erasmus-office team is really good as well as the Erasmus student network (ESN). For travelling: Brussels, Antwerp and the cost are close. But also Rotterdam, Paris and Cologne and London are not too far. The weekends may be boring at fist, because everybody goes to his/her parents'place. The students are mostly pretty young (18-23)and student life sometimes seems weird or very teenage-like. The courses are very school-like which is good for Erasmus-students because it is easier to find one's way around but it does not always seem to be real academic (whatever my notion of that means) because students get told what to do and do not need to take too much respansability. But there is also students who really get involved a lot.