Barcelona!

Hello Everyone, I´m writing this post from my hostel in Barcelona! This has got to be my favorite city so far, the culture, the language (I´m definitely learning spanish next), the weather, and the atmosphere all make it an amazing place. I´ve walked everywhere in the past 2 days, save the Olympic Stadium which I sadly didn´t see. Barcelona is a city wrapped by mountains and the Mediterrain Sea that truly feels like a small country in its own right. The views from Gaudi Park looking down on the city are stunning (pictures to be added later) and equally so are the looks back up from La Rambla del Mar. I was fortunate enough to see La Sagrada Familia which is a Gaudi Style (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaudi) Church, still under construction. Throughout my stay in Barça I was able to stop next to French tours and listen in to some cool facts for free. Because of the proximity to France, there are many French tourists who come to Barcelona for the weekend and see the sights. And although French could be found in places throughout the city, Catalonian is the primary language here, not Spanish. Catalalonia is a derivation of the Spanish language and is quite different than the official language of España. But I did have the chance to practice my very rudimentary Spanish skills, talking with some girls I met at the hostel. They laughed a lot at me, but with my Spanish and their small bit of English we could make each other understood...it was an interesting experience. One of the coolest events I got to do here in Barça was attend a Barcelona FC match. The stadium was HUGE, and the atmosphere nothing short of electric. People of all nationalities were there to see Barça play and thousands of their devout fans showed up as well. The game started out slow, with no scoring in the first 25 minutes, but by half time it was three to nill, and the end of the game 6-1. Quite an impressive showing from the Camp Nou natives if I do say so myself. It was an eerily incredible experience to be at the stadium, attending a game, where the world´s elite play the world´s most global sport! And the stadium itself earns every right to hold the world´s best team. The views from the stadium of downtown Barcelona and the surrounding mounatins are astounding. With all things said, necessito aprender l´español proximo, and then move to Barcelona for a little. Viva Messi haha! Ciao

European Cultural Notes

1. When people jog here (and they rarely do) they often wear backpacks or kahki shorts. 2. I've yet to meet a well educated European who doesn't speak 2 languages, and mostly its 3 or more. 3. Gas is over $6.50 a gallon here, and its down since the summer high of about $8, so stop complaining. 4. Milk here is "demi-creme" in french, yes, half cream, is what I pour into my bowl of Special K every morning. Its sweet, but surprisingly good. 5. For the most part I get looked at strangely when I say "Bonjour" to someone passing on the street. Belgians are more reserved and not as outgoing as the typical American. 6. The average Belgian has 30 vacation days per year, no I didn't mistype that i meant thirty, three-oh. Thats the state average, meaning some employees have more... 7. A two hour drive is exorbitantly long for a Belgian, you can basically drive across their nation in that time! So in effect, most Belgians are astounded at the sheer size of the United States...maybe something we don't think about enough. 8. There are little to no electricity cables in Belgium, they are all underground, which really makes for a nicer environment in the suburban areas. 9. In European English, you dont make decisions, you take them. For example, if I was the leader of a group and I had to decide what to do next, it'd be decision-taking time...no joke. 10. I just found out yesterday that rabbit is a common meat consumed in Belgium, just like cow or chicken, it is consumed in various dishes including stews or pastas.

Time Flies When Your Having Fun

I'm sorry for not posting in the last month (plus), but its all just been a whirlwind. I've been to Luxembourg, Germany, The Netherlands (3 different cities), and London and I could not be more tired and happy. I've toured places such as the European Parliament and Council, International Criminal Court, the European Investment Bank, and many more. I've talked to locals of countless European cities and villages about America and Europe and the future. I've also been fortunate enough to visit museums and monuments like Anne Frank's house, the US cemetery Henri-Chapelle, and London's National Gallery. Its literally a dream come true to be here doing all these things. So on our first long trip with the group we went to Luxembourg, Trier Germany, and Maastricht Netherlands. The city of Luxembourg is quite gorgeous, aptly build around a gorge with a river running through. One of the richer cities I have ever visited, Maseratis and Bentleys were among some of the more common cars there, and new, impressive glass office buildings dotted the landscape. Furthermore, the European Court of Justice and the European Investment Bank are located here. We went into the Court of Justice to attend a competition hearing on elevator oligopies in the EU. It was a rather bland hearing but an interesting introduction to simultaneous translation. Seeing that the EU has 23 official languages, services must be made available to accommodate this vast lingual menu. The translation building adjacent to the Court, is utterly massive, one of the largest office buildings I have ever seen, and it houses the over 450 employees of the court dedicated solely to translation. After the court, we went to the European Investment Bank and met with an external relations person there. I am very impressed with the bank and all they have to offer as an arm of the EU. I could definitely see myself working there in the future, but unfortunately EU citizenship is a requirement. After a short walking tour of the city, the group went out for a bit during the night. The best moment proved to be after we left the bar and walked over the bridge to the hotel. The old and new part of the city was lit up over the gorge and it was stunning, quite a view. Ancient castles built keeping watch over the river below reflecting the shimmering light of 16th century houses perched just above. After another week had passed, it was time to head to London. My friend Becca somehow talked me into taking the overnight bus to London from Brussels, so we left from Brussels at 11 and arrived in London at 5:45 am after a customs visit and a ferry ride over the channel. We visited Buckingham Palace in the dark and proceeded to walk to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye and Trafalgar Square all before 9:30 in the morning. We were exhausted and a bit cold, but in London all the same, and it is truly an incredible city. We met up with Kristian (a friend of mine from Boston College) and checked into our hostel and proceeded to further explore the city. The fascinating aspect of London for me was its true expansiveness...from the city has 36 (32?) burrows and boasts millions of citizens. You can't see it all in a day or a week so we did our best to do all we could. We saw the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, The London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, The Cabinet War Rooms, Trafalgar Square, drank in an English Pub, Buckingham Palace, and even experienced a bit of that English rain every body talks about. It was one of the best weekends I've spent in a long time and I'll never forget my trip to London. Finally this past weekend our program ventured to The Hague and Amsterdam, both located in the Netherlands. In the Hague we visited the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Convention for Chemical Weapons Deproliferation, and the Netherlands Defense College. The ICC was great to visit because I had written a policy paper on the US' involvement (or lack thereof) in it last year, so it was really interesting to visit and talk to people firsthand about the decisions and cases occurring there. Also it was nice to see a different country's defense college, as I am working in Belgium's, the Netherland's Defense College did seem quite a bit different, smaller, less people around, and also less tradition in general. But we received an insightful lecture from one of Jerry's colleagues and I am going to be in touch with some people there in order to better work on my internship research. After a short train ride from the Hague, we arrived in Amsterdam. Amsterdam was a very beautiful canal city, but also very dirty and filled with tourists in Europe for all the wrong reasons if I do say so myself. All the same, I had the opportunity to visit Anne Frank's house near the city center. It was an amazingly powerful experience to see the bookcase their door was hidden behind, and the living quarters her and the others shared for such a long time. There were striking quotes on the walls and in particular one photo of Otto Frank (her father) returning 5 years after he was released from Auschwitz really got to me. He is in a simple suit, looking rather complacently but still firmly at the empty, barren room surrounding him, his head surely filled with the last memories of his family as he remembers them. Again, I'm sorry for not posting in so long and I hope that you all are still checking every once in a while! I hope to post again relatively soon. Ciao, Ben

A Weekend in Lille

So this past weekend a bunch of the people in the group went to Lille, France for the weekend. We took the bus for short money and got to see a bit of the Belgian countryside on our way there. It reminds me very much of pictures I have seen of European farms, with windmills slowly turning and cows grazing in the fields, but it was a blessing for me to actually be there, its much nicer in person. When we arrived we grabbed food and walked around the quartier for a bit before checking into our hostel. The hostel was unremarkable, from the outside it looked a bit like an old hospital wing or something of the likes, but it was close to downtown and near some historic attractions so we figured it would do the trick. We walked around the city and saw the Palais des Beaux Arts (a classical art museum), a lot of old, rather grand, churches, and of course a bunch of bars and restaurants. When we were walking around Lille, we saw a large group of rather drunk, college aged kids walking around in robes. For a while we were weirded out by the ceremony, but after we realized it was some sort of fraternity event we walked in for a closer look. Eventually, a part of the group settled in near a monument with a bridge and a moat around it. The older "brothers" then proceed to try to drop custards off the bridge into the mouths of the assumed pledges (regarde le photo en haut ^). The whole occasion was rather comical near the end when the pledges were completely covered in custard and the brothers and our group were getting quite a kick out of it. After walking away, even though some of us had lost our appetite at the sight of the custard, we decided to look for a restaurant to eat at. The bar that we started our night at proved to be a refreshing spot for more than one reason. First, the beer was cheap...which is always nice. Secondly, the Lille football club was playing a game that night against FC Socheux, the French club who recently transfered in American Internationale Charlie Davies! It was a very good game, and of course the bar erupted when the home team scored the game winner with 20 minutes remaining. However the most surprising event happened when I sat down and started talking to the bartender. Naturally, he almost immediately noticed my accent and after a bit called over an older man and woman. It turns out I was talking to the owner of the bar, his mother and her boyfriend. They were all very nice people, outgoing, and they loved "the chemin de vie Americaine" (the American way of life). So we chatted about culture differences and various trips they had made to the US in the past and my plans for the future in the ever-changing US-EU relationship. It was nice to meet some locals of another country outside of Belgium and really refreshing to see that America's international public opinion is being restored a bit. After a few boissons graduits, I said goodbye to my new friends and we left the bar in search of a night's adventures. After that nothing too exciting happened and we returned to the hostel at a decent hour. The next day was a bit cloudy and chilly, but we proceeded to walk around Lille and see it's centre square and monuments, mainly in honor of the World Wars and various kings of France. All in all, Lille was an excellent first trek outside of Belgium, I met some good people, saw some excellent historical buildings, and it was a good chance to hang out with the group a bit more. Tomorrow I start my internship at the Royal Military Academy of Belgium and I'm looking forward to letting, ya'll know how that goes! Ciao

Classes, Interviews, and Brugges

This past Thursday we started classes with Jerry Sheridan, our program guide, teacher, and coordinator. He's an American Internationale of sort, with his first citizenship form the US and secondarily he is Belgian. He came to Brussels 20 years ago, wanting to teach about and study farther the EU and all of its intricate and changing qualities. He speaks fluent Dutch, French, and English and is very much aware of the histories of all three cultures, all in all a fascinating man with a lot to tell us about Europe, its history, and himself over the next three months.

Our first few classes have been introductions to the European Union governing bodies and also small overviews of the differences between European and American Politics. We also had a guest speaker, Colin Nimmens, an Irish Internationale, who has studied and taught his whole life the history of Belgium, of course, among an abundance of other subjects. This man was a riot, he interrupted his someone long and tedious lectures with hilarious anecdotes or Irish comedy that had most of the class rolling with laughter. I'd venture to say he is one of the most intelligent individuals I have ever been in contact with, knowing at least 4 languages, an extremely detailed history of basically everywhere in the world, and having lived for (my guess is) upwards of 80 years. At any rate it was an honor to sit in a class with him and I learned a fairly concise background of Belgium in 3 hours.

Another teacher who will be frequenting our class over the next 3 months is Jamie Shea, THE DIRECTOR of Policy Planning at NATO. Ha this blows my mind that someone this important and connected will be working with us this semester. He was also the NATO spokesperson during the Kosovo episode of the 1990s and has been an influential NATO officer ever since. I am really looking forward to learning from him and hearing all that he has to say.

These past 2 days I have been interviewing for an internship position with various institutions in the Brussels area. Its quite amazing, the organizations that AU Brussels hooks us up with. For example yesterday I met with The Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD), who work with large companies such as Apple, GE, Deusche Bank, etc, to lobby for a more open and integrated market between the US and the EU. A few hours ago, I interviewed with the Royal Military Academy, who I am relatively sure I'm going to work for. The project entails helping the academy finalize its plans to create a European Defense University, where a universal educational system could better serve the potentially unified armies of the EU...Very exciting stuff.

And finally Brugges (this is the French spelling). Brugges was nothing short of incredible. I have never been to a place so old, and with so much history. Buildings there date back to the 1100s and beautiful red roofed houses create the boundaries of the canals lazily strolling through the town. Belltowers and church steeples dot the sky every so often when you lift your head from the aged landscape lying in front of you, as Brugges was one of the first cities to grow up, instead of out. However it still boasts the feel of a small ville, with cobblestone streets, quiet parks, and sculpture gardens. I've made up my mind that I would live in Brugges if it were a francophone city, but alas, Brugges occupies a plot of land in the north of Belgium, 12 km from the North Sea, and there is no French to be heard there, only Flammond and English. It was interesting to see a bit of the Belgian countryside, and a whole new style of Belgian life and I look forward to returning there later in the semester.

How ya'll are doing well and I'll post again soon. Ciao.

EuroLife

So its been 5 days now that I've lived with my host family? 5 or 6, but regardless, there are definite differences apparent between American and Belgian everyday life. The most obvious actually have to do with energy consumption, which is one attacking point that most Europeans have against Americans. First of all, there is a massive tax on most if not all energy goods: electric, gas, water, etc. This means that Europeans don't heat their houses as much during the winter, air conditioning is near unheard of in the northern countries, toilets use less water per flush, and showers are usually shorter. It seems as though it would be hard to get used to, but literally whole countries do it! and they save massive amounts of their money and the worlds resources per year doing so. It is quite a change, but indeed an eye opening experience (mother I know you've been trying to tell me this for years, and i gotta say you were right). However energy consumption is not the only drastic change in culture. Another main difference is meals. Its very much true, the stereotype that we give Europeans, that they sit at meals for hours on end having drinks and conversing after they are done eating. It seems strange to Americans, who are constantly rushed out of the restaurant because the manager just wants to "turn tables over", but in reality its a beautiful thing. As our instructor Jerry told us, dinner is the first part of a night's entertainment. You eat, enjoy a few of your drinks of choice, and then from there, depart au bar. It makes for more congenial and friendly atmosphere at restaurants and conversation tends to flow easier with your friends and neighbors than most people may think. And finally, there are the cars...everybody knows about them but to experience them is a whole other deal. They are tiny, like early 90's Hyundai Daewoo tiny. I can fit in the back of some, but I don't suggest anyone even slightly over 6'1" give it a try. And of course, once your squeezed into the backseat like a pack of sardines, you're in for a crazy ride. They drive crazy here. Signs and street lines dot the visage of the roads, but they seem to all be uninterpretable by me, the foreigner, and nonexistent to the resident drivers. All in all I think I'll stick with the metro. ciao

In Which I Go To Belgium

Okay, first, of all, on my fourth day here, this is my premiere opportunity to have the combination of free time and internet access, which is the reason I haven’t posted before this. With that said I will now begin the dictation of how my life has drastically changed in just over three days…

I left Wednesday evening at 9:30 at night on Swiss Air flight LX 53. International flights are awesome, truly an experience in themselves. Because I was flying into Zurich, which is in the north of Switzerland, every comment from the pilot and command from the crew was said in English, German, and French. The people were also as diverse as the languages suggested. Next to me on the right was a German-speaking Swiss family (from what I could gather) and to the left there was an American, stopping over in Zurich on his way to Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, talking to a Dutch woman who had just passed the last two weeks visiting a family friend in California. At any rate, all this was so cool and new to me there was no way I was sleeping on the overnight flight, which of course came back to haunt me later. When I arrived in Bruxelles, I met up with a friend from the program and we walked around the city together, discovering the centre de la ville at our own leisure. It was an uncharacteristically warm day, and the lack of sleep and sun had taking its toll on me, so after a few hours of ambling I decided to retire to my glorious digs at a nearby youth hostel.

A bit separated from the downtown area (about 1 km away) the hostel was rather large, four floors and numerous rooms per floor. I checked in at 8 o’clock with a multilingual receptionist who was complaining to me in French about how some Spanish-speaking Japanese woman was yelling to him about the bathroom situation in the hostel? I am not completely certain, as I was barely awake by this time. So I took my room key and found my room, where I met one of my roommates Neal. Neal was originally from New Zealand, but has since moved to Scotland and finally London, where he teaches inner-city children in middle school. (The more I meet people in Europe the more stories I hear like this, the idea of a person being not tied to one or two nations but simply being truly international”) After Neal and I had conversed for about a half hour, I tried to sleep, but the excitement and the fact that the sun doesn’t set in Belgium until about 9 pm at this time of year kept me up. I awoke early in the morning to a complimentary breakfast and my first look at Belgian rain…uhg. It only lasted for about an hour, but it’s the cold nasty rain you don’t want to recon with.

Friday was much of the same of Thursday afternoon, walking around the city with the student who had arrived, and eating a bit of local cuisine (a friend of mine tried frogs legs, like they just took the slimy skin off and cooked the legs, haha it was kind of nasty). At 5 we met up with everyone in the group and started our orientation first with a brief meeting with Professor Jerome Sheridan, our teacher and guide throughout the semester, and also with Benedict, our housing coordinator, a native Belgian who speaks francais, flammond (the French word that I much prefer to its English equivalent Flemmish) and English. After the meeting we ate dinner at La Grande Café near La Grande Place, and at night we did a bit more wondering and exploring around the city.

Saturday we arose at 9 and ate breakfast in the hotel, it was our first experience with a Belgian breakfast and there was not the waffles that we expected. Instead there was toast, bananas and cold cuts. Cold cuts are very popular in Belgium, used at breakfast lunch and dinner. After our breakfast, we took a tour of the famous “Grand Place” in downtown Brussels. The square was originally built in the early 1600s I believe, but during a siege by the French it was all destroyed in the 1690s. In 4 years following the siege, all the guilds of the time (i.e. the brewers guild, the carpenters guild, etc, there were 40 in total) rebuilt the magnificent square, with statues proclaiming the glory of their ideals and also those resenting the French and Louis XIV, “The Sun King”. There is truly an abundance of history in Brussels, as the city was founded in the 10^th century, and the people hear of whom I’ve conversed with are proud and knowledgeable of their past.

By far, the most exciting, invigorating, and amazing event that has passed since I have arrived is the situation with my homestay. It literally couldn’t be better. My host mother is of 59 years of age. She lives with her son, Sebastian and her daughter Melanie, they are 22 and 23 respectively. She is very involved with the church and her community, and it appears as though she lives with a lot of joy in her life, as friends and family frequently stop in and out of the house to visit. The house is all francophone, in my first 36 hours there, I spoke not a word of English, but already I have seen massive improvements in my comprehension and ability to talk with a bit of fluency because of it. So, while it is draining, it is what I’ve dreamt of doing for the past 3 years and I couldn’t be happier. Sebastian takes me out with his friends at night, we went to a Spanish/Brazilian Festival downtown, and then also to an outdoor party at a communications school, both of which I have never seen the likes of in the US. They were almost hilariously European: techno music, French and Spanish everywhere, excellente biere, and eccentrics dotting the crowd. My room is very similar to mine at home, a twin bed, a desk, but it also sports a grand window that looks over the yard, so not only do I get a nice breeze if I so choose, but also I get a lot of sun, its great.

Again sorry for taking so long to post (especially to you mom and dad) but I have been very busy and wanted to take time to write an inclusive first post. I don’t believe the posts après this one will be as long, so thanks for bearing with it all the way through! I hope everyone back in the states and at their respective semesters abroad are doing excellent, et a bientot!