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