Orientation days

Dear Party people,

After a long and deserved holiday I'm back with the party tips for Leuven! And also general tips on how to deal with Belgians and the Belgian culture. First I want to emphasize again that this is just a blog on my personal experience and it's an expression of my personal opinion. So it might contain generalizations and each and everyone of you might have a different experience or opinion.
For this time I want to talk about orientation days. I remember my first week in Leuven like it was yesterday, it was like a crazy rollercoaster ride, going from extremely happy, to being home sick, meeting new people, feeling lonely. Orientation days got me through the rough times, during this week I met a lot of amazing people, people I'm still in contact with years later, I finally got some information on why the police officer came to my house (do not freak out about this, it's just to check if you are actually living there and whether the place is safe to live in or not), and on how to sort the garbage. Now Belgian and garbage sorting. There is a whole system, and let me tell you: follow the rules! In my second week here I got a big fine because I put something in the blue bag which wasn't plastic. It's no joke and they take it very serious. I always say: when in doubt, put it in the brown bag! Enough said about the practical information, they will tell you all about it during the orientation days and they are the experts, they know all the right regulation and everything.
Best part about the orientation days are the social activities AKA parties. For the good parties you should definitely remember the name ESN Leuven. They throw international parties, and in general have awesome activities for international students. What I love about ESN is that they are so welcoming and helpful, they are always nice and everyone is truly welcome. It only started last year and it's a real asset to the international community within Leuven. I was here before ESN and it just wasn't as great without them. Besides organizing activities they also have special deals with their membership card. For example on Saturdays there is always the International party at the Rector, and with an ESN card you get 1 euro beers. Really worth it! And I've heard rumors that this year they have more deals (at the moment I'm not in Belgium so I'm not completely updated on details).Yes you have the other student associations but they are just not the same. First of all they are not really that welcoming, mostly Belgians and not that interested in international students. Also they focus more on the younger students, not PhD or non-students, whereas in ESN you come across all kinds of people. Also they don't organize as many activities.
For the orientation days you also have LOKO international, LOKO takes care of student representation, so in case you have some kind of problem, with your landlord, or anything, they can help you out (well most of the time). During the orientation days they organize the international party which you really should not miss. It takes place at Alma 2 and last year it was really packed.
My final tip for the first lonely days in Leuven is Pangaea. The international meeting center where you can get free coffee and tea with your membership mug. You can buy a membership for 5 euros and you get an awesome mug, and every time you bring the mug you can have free coffee and tea. Also it's a great place to hang out, since it's packed with international people that are all looking to meet new people! Just check it out, and feel less lonely, we're all on the same rollercoaster ride!

Don't forget, enjoy the orientation days, party hardy now that you don't have class yet!