Activities in Brussels

Since the stagiaires are not necessarily able to afford many activities offered in Brussels I would like to draw your attention to some reasonably priced activities and clubs.

First of all there are many activities offered by the Stage Committee, during my internship there was a theatre group, dance group, a band, language classes (trainees teach their mother tongue to other stagiaires), cheap parties every week, cheap beer every Monday, cheap trips at least once a month (to Paris, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Cologne, all the towns around Brussels - Brugges, Antwerp, Maastricht, Leuven etc), free cinema every Wednesday, pub quiz twice a month, volunteer activities, sports (football and volleyball championship). I was rather lucky to be a trainee with a great Stage Committee that organised it all for us, from what I know it's not always like that (thank you Stage Committee!!!!).

However if you're still searching for more ideas I would like to open this topic for ideas for affordable classes, courses or clubs in Brussels. My findings:

* Languages - you can learn cheaply languages at l'EPFC:
http://www.epfc.eu/index.html?page=4
85 Euros for a language class for the whole semester! That's really cheap

* Fitness:
http://www.friskis.be/ - you pay 110 Euro for a 5 month membership - no chance to find anything cheaper in Brussels!!

* Sports:
http://www.esprit-ulbsports.eu/carte-sport.php - you can buy a university sports cards and have access to tens of different sports offers, the card costs 155 Euro for the whole year. Disadvantage: it's quite far away from the Commission and many classes are only offered during the day, but if you work in Beaulieu or live somewhere close to the campus it might be a good idea.

You can also find all the sports clubs in your area on the Commune website, here the website of Ixelles:
http://www.ixelles.irisnet.be/site/fr/sports/sports/clubs.php
This is how my flatmate found a very nice Capoiera club just 2 min walking from our house.

* Music:
http://www.ecole-de-samba-de-bruxelles.be/accueil.html - you can play in a band, here to become member it's 25 Euros a year, it's also a good opportunity to practice your French and meet real Belgians!!! (not that easy as you might think)

* Dance:
I participated in a dance group which was also free, however at the moment during summer we stopped meeting, once it's reactivated i will write more on that

You forgot something... the pubs...!

See the most important pubs where you can find eurocrats & eurostagiaires:

http://www.eurodatum.com/EUNetworkingPW.html

Hey everybody! I am in for the traineeship starting October and was wondering if there are specific language classes for trainees? And, in your experience, is there enough time to study languages besides the traineeship?