Heerlen is a small town where I am living now for more than two months. It is not far from Brussels, one hour and a half by car only, however cultures are very different between the two countries.
For example, the way of living is very different and even after so much time spent in this coutry, I am still not used to this. I am sure you are already familiar with a few differences between the Netherdlands and Belgium.
While, here in Belgium, every morning we have to cope with traffic jam, over there, they have to deal with the "bicycles" traffic jam. This is very impressive at first.
At 5 p.m., while here we come back from school or work or sometimes not even have finished our daily occupation, there, it is already time to eat. Unfortunately, I didn't share this tradition because I am not hungry at 5 o'clock. I managed to eat with my flamates a few times, but 4 hours later I was hungry again! So I gave up trying and now keep eating at the Belgian rhythm.
Speaking about that, their meals are also different. They often intermingle sweet and salty. For example, pancakes with cheese and sugar on top it. Yuk!
There are also differences in education and school.
The school seems really perfect on the outside. The rooms are well maintained, the materials is up-to-date (a blackboard directly connected to a computer, which is very useful).
But the relationship between the teacher and the pupil is very different from the one we have in Brussels. Pupils shake hands with teachers and talk aloud inside of the classroom. It is hard to have their attention for more than 10 minutes. There is no respect at all.
Teachers do not collaborate. They never work together nor help each other during a test or an examination. My master always told me not to share my works with the other teachers. This is completely from our mentality and I do not feel comfortable with it.
Good luck for everybody!
See you soon, really soon now! ;)
Sandy,
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