#provincialantwerp

After my sixth high school, I was unleashed into the wide world of possible courses of study. My choice of study took me to Antwerp, because I wanted to study Applied Psychology at Lessius Hogeschool. What an adventure! For the first time I was going to live alone, at a room. Far away from my family for the first time. Fortunately, I wasn't all alone and a classmate went to Antwerp to do the same course of study. After a real search for a room, we end up on the third floor of an old building on St. Andrew's square. There we each had our own little room with an old gas stove, a mini kitchenette and a shared bathroom with separate toilet.

At the beginning, it was a bit of adaptation to the. Everywhere you looked there were cars, buses, cyclists, pedestrians,. The city made me restless and insecure. But soon I got to know Antwerp better and fell for her charm. I loved to wander around the streets because everything seemed so lively and this feeling was projected very strongly onto myself. The hustle and bustle for me turned into a cozy hustle. I got to know new stores, new restaurants, new people, new skills,. Super cosy, especially with a café on the ground floor of your room where there was regular live music. And on hot spring days, people came outside in the square to have a nice meal together and jam to a room in the night. delightfully!

One big adjustment I had to do was say “good day” to everyone. My bomma taught me very early, when we went cycling, that you should say “good day” to everyone. Because this is polite and so hears. So in Limburg I said “good day” to everyone and always got a “good day” back. Unfortunately, in Antwerp, this changed. First of all, it is impossible to say “good day” to everyone, there is too many people. In addition, many people always looked to the ground when they walked past you and often didn't realize you were talking to them. Unfortunately, I can count on two hands the times I got a “good day” back. And the times I responded to my “good day” it wasn't always in a positive way. For example, I was chased by a shady figure once after I had kindly said “good day” (the figure only became shady because it chased me, I don't judge). So I've slowly screwed this habit to a modest laugh when someone happened to look at me.

A habit I recorded and brought home, on the big one of my eldest brother's, is the word 'which'. Instead of saying 'what' if you don't understand someone, they say' which 'in Antwerp. By conversing more and more, I noticed to myself that I took over a lot of things on a regular basis. When I came home at the weekend and I said “which one?” to my eldest brother, he went crazy. “What what?” , “I don't understand, why do you say 'which'? '. He clearly showed that it was a word I was allowed to leave my room on my room the next weekend.

All in all I had a great time in Antwerp. Unfortunately I have not been able to complete my studies and after 2 years I decided to do a different course of study, shorter at home. But Antwerp is in my heart forever!