Belgium

18/5/2013 0 Comments

Belgium

Following the consideration of Japan and South Korea, is Belgium. On the tourist website, Visit Belgium, they share this slogan proudly, "A food lover's dream. A beer lover's heaven". Guess what? I love food and beer! I suppose it should be the perfect place to live!

If you're wondering about the strange gap between photos...never you mind!

    We're back at the table! Let's see what we have this time.

    Compared to Japan and South Korea, it appears that Belgium has specific hiring seasons in the fall and winter. Another interesting note are the shorter hours. It appears that part time work is most common.

    Time to look at the monthly salary! It ranges from €600 ($792) to €1,800 ($2,374). Nowhere near the wages in Japan or South Korea but appropriate to the relevant economy.

    Despite the notes on this table, the representative for the TESL../TESOL course mentioned that the vast majority of places all over the world include airfare. Yet she also mentioned that accommodations are not typical, especially in a country like Belgium.

    Belgium is such a fascinating place. I peeked through the tourism website and found out that it's home to a 2000 year old town named Tournai. There's also a Romanesque, Gothic cathedral built during the 12th and 13th centuries. I absolutely love history and architecture. It thrills me! To only imagine all the lives that passed through those cathedral doors.

323 sq ft. Apartment for €250/month ($328)

    So what are apartments like in Belgium? I found a website called Immoweb and they claim to be "Belgium's leading property website". Seems legit.

    Searching through the places available to rent was really fascinating. Almost all the ads do not have an English translation so that makes it a little difficult. Another strange thing was something called a "kot". I understood apartment, duplex, condo etc. but I had never heard of a "kot" before. From what I can gather, it means "student room".

    The cheapest listing was €25/month ($33 CAD). I honestly don't know how that's possible so I'm guessing it's actually just a room in this house yet even that doesn't suffice. I have a feeling it's just to lure people into calling.

430 sq ft. Apartment for €400 ($525)

While glancing through listings, I came across what can only be described as a pink monstrosity for €350 ($460). I stared at it for a second and thought, "Who in their right mind would rent this hideous piece of [insert expletive]?"

After looking through pages and pages, I was really impressed by the number of relatively inexpensive listings. Not to mention the interesting street views (note beer ad seen through window on left).

Belgium is perfectly located, it's true. It would be easy enough to take the train to France or Germany. After giving it a closer look, I'd have to say I'm enchanted. I would seriously consider living there. It's small, beautiful and they have many assets. For instance, they host international events like the fantasy film festival. Appropriate for such a fairy-tale like place.