Julia Pendl

My arrival

My journey began at the start of September 2015 together with my friend who accompanied me for a few days: we took the plane from Vienna to Brussels-Zaventem, Belgium’s largest airport and then continued on by bus to the Erasmushogeschool Brussel (EhB), Campus Jette. The student hall of residence is also based here. We hired a car as soon as we arrived and began to explore the area.

To take care of the formalities, I met Tom Peeters on the first day, my Erasmus coordinator at the Erasmushogeschool. He showed me around the nearby area and took me on a tour of the hospital where I would complete my internship.

The accommodation

The easiest and cheapest option for me was to rent a room in the student hall of residence on-site. The residence is located right alongside the UZ Brussel – hospital of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel – where I completed my internship. It was very practical to only have a five minute walk to work.

The price for the furnished single room was 300 euros per month. The furnishings consisted of a desk, chair, bed, shelf, wardrobe, fridge and wash basin. There was one ‘kitchen’ per floor with cooking facilities such as a microwave and stove. There were also two WCs and showers per floor. The communal areas were shared with around 30 to 40 others. A cleaner came a few times each week to clean the communal areas which quickly became dirty with so many people there. You cannot expect high standards at this hall of residence. But despite that, I would still rent a room there again. There were around 20 to 25 Erasmus students at the hall: we cooked together and ate dinner together in the kitchen in the evening. We drank, played, chatted and laughed together.

The Orientation Day

There was an Orientation Day for all foreign students in mid-September. We were given a tour of Brussels, had a snack and attended some interesting info events.

My internship at UZ Brussel

I worked hard from Monday to Friday. My internship was at UZ Brussel – Centrum voor Medische Genetica, Department of Embryology and Genetics, Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). Two PhD students and 10 biomedical scientists worked in the lab. The working hours were flexible – I could start and finish when I wanted but I had to do my 8 hours and 6 minutes each day.

My lab supervisor, Pieter Verdyck, always had a sympathetic ear for me and my questions. Since this is a Flemish hospital, Flemish was primarily spoken between my colleagues, which was a bit of a shame since I can’t speak any Flemish. So I communicated with them in English. The lab regularly offers internships, including to foreign students, so everyone spoke very good English and was always very helpful.

At the start of my internship, I had to complete a training sheet: I had to be able to follow the theory of the most important methods once and then apply them three times under supervision. After that, I was able to work independently. During the periods when I had no work because there were no samples or primers available, I developed a new PCR protocol. This was not really part of my Bachelor’s project and so I was able to acquire additional practical knowledge.

I particularly enjoyed my day at the IVF clinic organised by my supervisor. I was shown all of the facilities and everything was well explained. I was even present at a few embryo biopsies.

The cost

In financial terms, the money side of things was fine. Primarily because I received support from my parents. I do not receive a student grant and so I had around 200 euros of child benefit and 282 euros from Erasmus each month. 80% of the Erasmus funding was paid out before my stay and 20% was paid afterwards. The rent was 300 euros and my food costs were 100 to 150 euros. And then there were the costs of the various excursions, going out and things you have to treat yourself to from time to time – especially in Belgium, the land of chocolate, waffles, beer and fries!

Excursions

There was also the Erasmus Student Network – ESN – Brussels which organised events like pub crawls, games evenings and excursions for Erasmus students. We took a trip to Bruges with this organisation. We organised the other trips ourselves because we didn’t really like the Erasmus Student Network. Our short day trips to other towns were called off due to the Brussels Lockdown. We did these trips later instead. They took me to Gent, Antwerp, Namur, Tournai and Oostende as well as twice to the Netherlands, to Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

All in all, my semester in Brussels was a fantastic experience and real enrichment for my future personal and professional life.