Thanks guys (and girl)!

So yeah, the common feeling seems to get Ikea furniture and see what comes on my path. Makes sense and probably the best idea...still, would have been cool to splurge on stuff. Not that I care about furniture per se, but it's a nice and modern apartment so some similar furniture would be welcome. I could scour some second hand stores - J might know "den Troc" - but most of that stuff is gonna look awful in my new place. We'll see.

And no, I'm not going to live in Brussels. Brussels is an awful place to live. Everybody speaks French and is always running everywhere...I don't mind speaking French with anyone (not some crazy language nationlist maniac) but if I can choose not to live in such a place then I choose that. So I'll be living in Antwerp in the neighbourhood called 'Het Eilandje', or 'Little Island' in English. Basically it's an old stevedore's neighbourhood in between docks and locks that's being 'upgraded'. There's tons of design flats and lofts being built now, including a a few 100m away from me. So the neighbourhood is this weird mix of yuppies, stevedores and artists. And me.

For J: Home office is gewoon Binnenlandse Zaken. Dus ik ga daar voor de internationale cel werken als vertaler/revisor, eindelijk als niveau A. Totnogtoe was ik niveau B, hogeschool dus, en dat scheelt toch 400€ netto per maand. Eindelijke de universitaire toer op.

Oh and I'll be working smack dab in the middle of Brussels, 5 minutes walk from the Central train station and less than a km away from parliament and 2 kms from the royal palace. Shouldn't really lack transport connections.

Arathorn, what are you studying exactly? International Politics? EU is so hard to get in...I applied a few times and got through the first few rounds (psychological and intelligence test stuff), but then always got rebuffed because of lack of 'experience'.

@ Pev: sounds awesome!! So basically all the frustrations you had about your job might be solved in the rather near future? And DOUBLE your wages? Wow!! I'm kinda hoping John bails now.

Oh cool.

I've worked in a lower payscale as well when i started to teach. When you suddenly see your pay go up a couple of hundreds of euros (net/netto) it really puts a smile on your face.

Sounds awesome Ox, what will travelling from Antwerp to Brussells be like? Can't be too bad I guess, only takes 10 mins to get across Belgium anyway hehe.