You can find it all here: 

LOGISTICS

A scheme has been sent with the most up-to-date (and final) info on Logistics.

For people that arrive early (in the morning or early afternoon): Celia an myself will probably arrive in the hotel in the company of 4 students around 15.00 Hrs. The official check-in time in hotel is at 14:00, however you can use the luggage room of the hotel anytime. You can check anyway if your room is not available before 14.00 Hrs, but normally not. The hotel reception will have received the list of “who sleeps in which room” from Varekai already the day before.

WELCOME DRINK

We will have a welcome drink at 17.30. There will be drinks, but no alcohol served. You can consider the bites we will offer as a small appetizer. The welcome drink will take between 1 hour and 1,5 hours . There will be a brief welcome speech. After that, everybody is free, but we guess that a lot of people will be tired (jetlag) and will go to bed. Of course, if you still want to eat dinner, there are a lot of possibilities around the hotel (but the dinner is at your expense and your bistro/restaurant visit will not be chaperoned).  People that cannot get at the hotel at 17.30 are invited to have a talk with us (Celia and myself) the following morning at 7.30 Hrs before Breakfast.

eSIM OR SIM CARD INSTALLATION

 We would like to urge you to install your SIM for Belgium ASAP. For students that have a mobile phone which permits eSIM, please try to have the installation done before the welcome drink. For students that cannot use eSIM and need a SIM card, please also try to have it installed before. If you have issues, Celia and myself will try to solve these issues with you just after the welcome drink. For students NOT in the possibility to buy a SIM card upfront, we will go to a telecom shop together in the afternoon of the next day (on the trajectory of our first tour).

BORDER CONTROL

 If you are asked to prove border control that you will be staying at the Chambord Hotel, please use the e-mail that I sent you.

INSURANCE SCOPE

If you want to include repatriation costs as extra insurance for your trip, you need to act swiftly. We consider chances of you getting severely hurt in Brussels are very slim, but nevertheless they exist. Up to you to decide how far you want to go with your insurance.

CODE OF CONDUCT

Most of you probably browsed through the “Code of Conduct” we referred to in the FAQ section of the Varekai website. If you did not do that yet, please go to the FAQ and visit the “Code of Conduct” document.

STUDENT CARD

Can we kindly ask you to bring your student card to Brussels ? At some venues, you can get a reduction with that card.

PAYMENT PROOF

 For 4 students, the exact amount of the Summer School fee did not end up on the Varekai account. Differences where small (in + and in -). We agreed to iron out the delta when in Brussels by paying in cash. At that moment a payment proof for the Taiwanese government can be made for these 4 students.

GROUPING OF STUDENTS

A clustering of students per room and per team (assignments need to be done per team) has been sent. I have put the 2 gentlemen together that arrive early. For the ladies : I grouped you alphabeticaly according to your Western name.

DETAILED SCHEDULE & WALKING

Please find as promised in the FAQ the detailed Schedule of the Summer School, including small adaptations.

Most of the changes are timing related (italics used).

The few content changes are underlined.

As you will notice, there are quite some fieldtrips foreseen in the schedule.

Where possible, we will take public transport.

There is however also quite some walking scheduled in – certain days close to 5 kms.

With this, we try to balance out intellectual with physical efforts (“mens sana in corpore sano”).

I hope nobody is constrained by physical problems that could hinder walking significantly.

If that is the case anyway, please let me know ASAP.

EXTRA QUESTIONS

Can you clarify that:

The hotel provides breakfast, which is included in our fee, and we will have to finish it before 9 in the morning.

 Exactly

 I notice that on September 5th we have to dress properly, but as well the long walk is included. So I was wondering if smart casual is counted as “properly”, just to make sure that we can have some shows that is convenient to walk.

 Smart Casual is fine

 On September 6th, there are three options available for the afternoon slot. Does it means that we can plan it ourselves? (Though I notice an option “personal time”)

 There is a Beer Festival (Option 1) in the afternoon in BXL at the Grand Place. It would be nice if you could join, but if you are not into beer, it might be better to do something else.

 Option 2 are possibilities aligned with the Theme of the day (Art). We can give you some advice & pointers how to get there and what to see, but you will be on your own

 If neither Option 1 nor 2 are attractive to you, you are free to make your own plans (Option 3)

Yes, indeed. There is a detailed schedule. You can find it here. There is also a 1-pager overview available here (older version)

Yes, indeed. You can find the Code of Conduct here.

Yes. You can find it here.

Yes, here it is.

The Program officially starts on Monday morning September 1st and officially ends on Saturday evening September 13th. So, in theory you could join for the first time on Monday morning 1/9 and leave the program on Saturday evening 13/9.  For practical reasons however we would like you to have your first night in our hotel on 31/8 and the last night on 13/9. If you would like to deviate from this scheme (we prefer not), please inform us of this so we can assess this.

You should share your decision with the involved parties (Taiwanese Government, TRO & Varekai) by Monday July 7th EOB Taiwanese time.

1) The Government/TRO/Varekai will check whether the 12 pre-selected candidates have confirmed. If this is not the case, one or more back-up applicants will be invited to join the Summer School.

2) Only when 12 Summer School students in total have confirmed their participation can the process start of asking for a Summer School grant by the applicants

3) Only when 12 Summer School students in total have confirmed, will the Vareakai invoices be sent out (payment deadline July 26th; some standard general conditions will be added to the invoice).

4) Only when the grants have been accorded to the applicants, is it recommended that the applicants start booking (eg. flights) and paying invoices (to Varekai eg).

 You will stay at the 3* Hotel Chambord in the center of Brussels from Sunday evening August 31st until Sunday morning September 14th.Every room has 2 single beds. Our Summer School team will consist of 8 Females and 4 Males. Students in the same room will be of the same gender.

Every morning, our classes will take place in the Chambord hotel as well.

The recommended flight is the flight from Taipeh on Saturday August 30th at 21.40 to Brussels via Turkey (with a stop in Istanbul) landing at 10.10 Hrs in Brussels Zaventem airport on Sunday August 31st.

For suggested arrival, please refer to the question above.

For departure times, we suggest the Turkish Airlines plane that will leave Brussels at 18.50 hours on August 14th and will arrive in Taipeh at 17.55 on Monday 15th

The recommended flight from Taipeh via Turkey lands at 10.10 Hrs in Brussels Zaventem airport on Sunday August 31st. Varekai staff will pick those travellers up there with a small mini-bus.

In case you will not arrive with that recommended flight, please let us know. In that case, you will be provided with guidelines on how to reach the Chambord hotel in the center of Brussels. In the late afternoon (probably around 17.30), we will have a small welcome drink. It would be nice if you could be present at that time.

If you plan to visit a neighbouring city of Brussels before the Summer School, you can make use of the Government grant linked to the standard flight recommendation as well. Our suggestion as Varekai is that all your transport costs for your deviating plan will be reimbursed as long as these costs do not exceed the costs for the recmmended flights. This however needs to be double checked with the Taiwanese government and/or TRO (Taiwanese Representative Office)

The flight we propose is indeed not the cheapest flight available, but it is a flight with an acceptable price at a decent level of comfort, a reasonable duration and max. 1 stop).