Belgium...help me!! Lost in love...

Hi Charlotte & welcome to Expat.com!

Hope that other members will share their experience with you soon.

Have you tried to browse through the various thread of the forum? This may probably help you.

Wish you well,
Harmonie.

Where are you moving to in Belgium?

Unless your in one of the international areas honestly you will have hard time finding work I did cleaning agaentcies take english speaking people on

To be honest I am not gonna sugar coat this for you one bit. I was fed loads of bull sh*t about how everyone speaks english and they are loads of jobs in Flanders but there isnt. Also im not fully sure but as Lauven still gets a lot of french students and French people living there a lot of places may want u to be tri lingual but you probs wont know untill you get there.

Language courses. I take mine with CVO its 60 euros a level and 20 euros for books and papers. They do them in 3 intensity levels. 2 mornings a week 3 mornings and 5. However I would not advise taking the 5 morning a week. I have had friends who have taken this one and all they do is learn to pass the levels and when it comes to the real world very little has sunk in.

Running a car in Belgium is about doubble what it costs to run one in the uk. Be warned I did import my car and I am running my car here but its costing me about twice the price.

If you going to run a mobile phone go back to pay as you go. You dont get free contract phones in Belgium like in uk however the pay and go offers are pretty good but have some hidden catches. Like to get free txts you have to top but once to get them and then within 31 days to get them for the next month and so on.

Renting. This can be a hard one to. I have a friend who works in a post office and her bf has another good job something with internet and they were refused rental on 15 houses before they finally got one. You sometimes are asked to prove you can pay to rent the place. (Me and my bf got my bfs parents to sign to say they can grantee the rent and had to show pay slips etc.

Jobs. Like i said previously this is a tricky one. They are a very very very limited number of English speaking jobs. Try the irsh bars but I know currently business is slow for them so they maybe wont be taking people on. Cleaning agencies will take you more so if you have a car and they will probs ask you to show what you can do. Also maybe try subway in Lauven there was a girl in there working who could speak barely any Dutch. Also you said you would like to be in media (this useally is in English) however without the quilfications they may not take you on some  companies take on staff from time to time as a trainee as I was told recnetly but not often. Good news is Lauven is the best university in the country (and rated quite high for europe) so once you learn the language etc you could study here its very very very cheap compared to uk

I have now been here for 15 months and basically moved here same way you did no language skills but I can in as a Au Pair which gave me a roof over my head and some money so i could kick start the dutch learning. But its not easy but it is doable. The more im in Flanders the less i want to go bk to the uk.

I also forgot to mention to be able to stay in Belgium you have to have a job. Or for living togeather you bf has to prove he can take care of u another reason why i became a au pair

Could you not live in Leuven where at least you'll find a sizeable international population? Belgians are quite family oriented and don't as a general rule like to be more than 200 metres away from their parents' houses. Ok so a bit of an over-exaggeration, but it can be very hard to adjust both to small town living like Baal and also the "family" thing, at least in Leuven that would give you a chance to build up relationships with people outside the family, plus many people in Leuven speak English and no Dutch. Apart from the university there, there are many international employees there, but you'd have to have the specific skills for these jobs.

I'm guessing you'll be coming here seeking to apply as co-habitees which gives you the right to EU treaty rights to work here, only if you stay with your partner. Expect to have to provide tedious and plentiful proofs of relationship, if you find the bureaucracy quite easy, then you can be pleased you've had it easy!

Prices in Lauven its self for a place is very pricey however

Sounds good its not impossable but its not easy although I am kinda glad i got my bf a bit further from his family i dont like the idea of it being on my door step