The Truth About Louvain-la-Neuve

Define: Louvain-la-Neuve - biggest producer in the world of alcoholic people and random bizarre stories

Among the exchange students, the popular opinion (and sarcastic response) is that nothing about Belgium is ridiculous. The Belgians streamline their lifestyle with only the highest quality common sense available to allow for simplicity and ease!
So gathered throughout the months, here is a few excerpts about the lovely place I called home for the semester, minus the profanity:

(On a rainy day, middle of May, 55 degrees F)
I don't think that the sun knows that Belgium exists. or maybe the sun has just given up on La Belgique. I have.
--- I gave up when my plane landed....
--- Dear Belgium, I hate your weather.
--- p.s. Belgium... you're kind of a sucky place to spend 5 months.
--- in February, I saw the sun probably 2 days, was horrible
--- Just got back from Marseille (31 degrees C) and I'm sort of depressed...
--- Stop whining, who needs sun when we can do indoor drinking!
--- 31? Where the heck was that when I was in Nice? Even then, 20 degrees is incomparably superior to ...... this.

Like the Belgian customs department and postal service, the French train service website SNCF is a useless piece of crud. Why do Europeans have such an affinity with incompetency and unnecessary complications?

Belgians may perish today.

Common facebook status updates:
__________ is going to the grocery store because she only has a jar of pickles, half a piece of feta cheese and a bottle of vodka in her refrigerator.
__________ lost his phone, vomited on his bedroom floor, and has the Armageddon of hangovers...what a beautiful day.
--> Response: Damned Casa! Dude yesterday each of us lost something yesterday: you the phone, Matthieu the hat, banner and gun, Francesco the hat and something else too... Daniel the train...
__________ thinks that Belgian Labor Day is lame because everything closes like it's a Sunday.
__________ wants to kill some Belgians!!!!
__________ is taking a deep breath, a deep drink and a deep sleep.
__________ thought that April showers brought May FLOWERS and not more rain...
__________ says no to Belgium Labor Day! Don't people here understand there is no such thing as a real work holiday, especially when I have no clean clothes and no food?


The University said, before exams: "Wishing you a fruitful study period during exams." What does that mean???

You know you have experienced Louvain-la-Neuve when:
1. You can eat, drink, pee and spew on the same square meter.
2. You became so brave that you sacrificed a pair of shoes, a sweater and jeans for exclusively going to cercles.
3. Some microorganisms live on your cercle shoes (which became as hard as a stone)
4. The month before exams in June is the only time you actually read a book, honestly.
5. You go to IAG to stream videos so you have something to do on a Friday or Saturday night when the student town becomes nonexistent.
6. You would rather go get a waffle or fries than cook food.
7. Scouts outnumber the students on the weekend.
8. You have drank one too many beers down by the lake.
9. Peeing in public is no longer indecent, but merely done out of essential need.
10. The sun is a blessing, even in May.

As an exchange student in Louvain-la-Neuve, everyone knows:
- We fought our way through confusing queues and inept administrators at Le Secretariat.
- We're still not residents of Louvain-la-Neuve, thanks to crazy hours and crazier people at the Commune.
- We fended off suffocation, heat exhaustion, and smoke inhalation in the upstairs lounge at Becketts.
- We waded through unholy horrors and rain showers of beer in Grand (and Petit) Casa.
- We escaped untimely deaths by hundreds of scouts in Grand Place on Saturdays and Sundays.
- We live. with people. who don't believe. in Internet.

I survived my Erasmus semester at Louvain-la-Neuve!!