24-year-old American moved to Belgium and lives $ 1,132 per month

Colby Gray 24-year-old in a village and conservative society in San Luispo, California, California. The University of California was not until the first time he went to the University of Santa Cruz for the first time until he went away for the first time.

It was the beginning of a new life for gray – he still did not know it.

“There were many people in my city. You didn’t really travel too much and did not go to school too far,” he said. “I was one of the more advanced and then I was one of those who left the country first when he was abroad.”

Gray, he lived on campus at the beginning of his first year, but the Covid-19 pandemia completely broke his time there. The second semester was forced to move home in the gray year. During this time, he studied studying in San Luis Obispo, gray abroad.

He studied in Copenhagen for six months. If he had been that time, Santa did not want to return to Cruz.

“(Denmark) has really managed the pandemic and has a very high vaccine rate,” he says. “I fell in love with it and decided I wanted to do more.”

Gray finally completed a semester at sea before leaving home.

“When Santa returned to Cruz, it was a real reverse cultural shock for me,” he says. “There was no apartment there. The city is not really built for students.”

Back to Santa Cruz, he lived in a two-room apartment in a three-room apartment of a gray three-room apartment and worked as a study studying abroad. According to the documents reviewed by CNBC, the gray rent was $ 1,340 per month.

“I was paying more money to live abroad in Santa Cruz. I said to myself, I couldn’t do it,” says he says. “I knew I would apply for a master’s degree in Belgium after working.”

The gray says that the main motivation to want to leave the United States is that there is no resonance there and hate the driver.

“It was one of what I liked to live in Europe, I never felt like a car needed to live,” he says.

He was dissatisfied with the quality of the education he received, primarily due to the value of gray and the tip. For the 2024-2025 academic year average price $ 44,160 for state students living on campus. Grey’s classes were canceled for a year and a half semesters and still had to pay for the whole thing.

“It did not seem like I received a ton of federal and public finance,” he says gray. “I had to have a better system and a better way to study. I realized that I would get only one visa through my study abroad and read as an international student as an international student.”

“I wanted to continue my education, but I wanted to use the residence as a way.”

For gray, master’s degree and programs in England, the University of Cambridge, Oxford University and Edinburgh University in Scotland, but could not justify the costs.

Lean, Belgium, seemed to be the perfect choice. Leuven can be achieved for a 15-minute walking concept, a city planning concept, built to be “a 15-minute city”, the most needed, healthy health and more. The concept is available in other Belgian cities such as Brussels and Mechelen and is available in large cities in Paris, France, Barcelona, ​​Spain and Melbourne, Australia.

In Leuven, cars are banned in the city center and it is easy – and recommended – a walk around.

“I fell in love with this and I loved the Belgian center, so I could travel,” he says, “he said. There are four different countries within a three-hour train trip and it was very unique. “

In Belgium, Ku Leuven University presents a program for students looking for a search permit. This allows students or researchers to stay within a year and work within a year when they receive a master’s degree from a university in the country. This is a year of program and the cost of education is 3,800 euros per year or $ 4,310 per year.

“As a student, the living has no better value. There is nothing better than being in Europe. There is no reason to go to the debt here, so it makes sense in my life,” he says.

Gray Belgium came with two checked bags and a shovel bag and go to a four-room house with three others. In a month, 500 euros or $ 567 paid: “It was fantastic. I mean I would pay a third of the price to get my room.”

Road immediately to build a life in Leuven.

“When he first came here, it was awesome. I found out that I was not my friends here and I was entirely myself.” “I think it was the first time I felt like this in my life. Become a friend and worked here really hard to make a community here.”

Gray graduated from last summer and transferred a 10-minute bike trip outside the city. It pays 420 euros per month, including utilities. Its current apartments also provide some toiletries and some dishes.

Boz’nın additional monthly expenses, 236 euros in groceries, 154 euros, health insurance and medical visits, 48 ​​euros, 20 euros, 20 euros, 20 euros and 20 euros are 20 euros and 20 euros in 10 euros. The total monthly cost of gray, including rent, is a month or $ 1,132.

Gray Belgium has been almost two years and the work he can find there says he loves the balance of life.

“The community feels very strong here and there is a really great balance between my work life and home life,” he says. “It’s a slow tempo here and really beautiful.”

For the first time in 2021, since the first visit to Europe and was relocated in 2023, the gray went to 20 different countries. His family and friends also visited.

In 2024, the Blay family came to Belgium and made a trip to Tuscany. For the first time in December, he returned to the United States.

The search permit was seven months left and he thinks about the next steps that may include a second master’s degree and cadet In Brussels or in Portugal.

Something gray is sure that he is still not ready to return to America.

“I live in the United States that I do not enter a workforce, buy a house, and I think I slowed a little slower and smell a little more.”

From the euromon, the Euras for US dollars was made using 8 euros from 1 euros to $ 1.13 to $ 1.13. All amounts are rounded to the nearest dollar.

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