Brussels: Day 2

When my alarm went off at 6:30 I wasn't terribly happy.  A few hours more sleep would have been lovely.  But my annoyance didn't last long.  There were too many exciting things to look forward to stay tired for long!  So I climbed out of bed with a smile, belying my usual non-morning personality.  I managed to make myself look fairly presentable by the time 7:00 arrived and it was time to head down to breakfast.  Pretty much everyone was feeling groggy, but breakfast was still delicious!  I love breakfast.  There was bread with lots of different things to put on it, and also yogurt and fruit and granolas.  Oh, and the best part was the hot chocolate machine!  There were three different types of hot chocolate to choose from!  I ended up having two cups because it was so delicious.  Although my stomach didn't really appreciate that very much.  Next time I better stick with just one. 

After breakfast we all headed off to the metro station.  I still love metros, rather to the amusement of the rest of the group who had grown up riding them regularly.  I was talking to some guys from Germany, and just to be funny they started talking with a strong German accent on purpose.  It was so cool because it's just like the German accent in Hogan's Heroes!  I love accents, and there are so many new ones to be heard in Europe!  (Though when I speak Dutch I'm the one with the unique accent).

Our first destination of the day was the European Commission.  I had no idea that Belgium is in fact the centre of European politics.  It's such a small, seemingly insignificant, country, but it has both the European Commission and the European Parliament Headquarters!  When I think about it a little more though, it makes sense.  If the European political centre were in Britain, France, or one of
the other more 'important' countries, they could become conceited about it.  But Belgium doesn't really have much of anything significant to boast about, so it's the perfect place for the European Political Centre (and it's also quite central geographically).

Anyways, the first thing we got to do was have an official picture.  We also all got a copy to take home with us. 

After the picture we got to go through security.  I thought it was kind of neat!  I've always found going through security quite fascinating.  Then we got to sit in a room and listen to two different people talk about the European Commission and what it's all about.  I diligently took notes of course.  And we all got free stuff!  A bag, pen, notebook, and book on politics. 

I was fascinated to learn about how challenging it can be to govern the European Union.  Although democratic process prevents situations such as what's happening in Ukraine and Russia, it also makes taking any sort of political action an exceedingly slow and tedious process.  Thus it's very difficult for the European Union to decide now what exactly to do to help Ukraine.  All they've really been able to do so far is declare over and over that they are very concerned about the situation.  Ukrainians are getting extremely frustrated, and losing hope that the EU will help them.  Really, there's not much the EU can do besides start economic sanctions against Russia. 

There are also 24 different languages in the European Union, and important documents must be translate into all of them.  In order to work in the European Parliament, even if it's just an office job or internship, you have to be able to speak at least three languages, two of which must be French, German, or English, which are the three most important languages in the European Commission. 

 



Then we got a bit of a tour of the building.  This is where short speeches for the press will be done after negotiations, meetings, and discussions.  Obama also spoke here this week.  Last week he was in the Hague (a city in the Netherlands) for the Nuclear Summit, and this week he is in Belgium.  All the Europeans seem to think it's such a big deal.  With the amount of money they spent on security, it must be.  Over 24 million euros were spent!  Plus they shut down the entire city.  No one was allowed in or out of the Hague while he was there. 

 

This is the press conference room.  Every day the European Commission explains what they did that day, and their new plans for the future, and answers any questions the journalists have.  That would have been very neat to watch, but unfortunately we were there on the one day that there was no press conference.  The reason for the lack of a press conference: all the journalists were in the Hague taking pictures of Obama.  Well, almost all.  One journalists showed up and was extremely surprised to see that there was only a group of students in the room.  When he found out that all the other journalists were in the Hague he got very frustrated.  Journalists can't afford to miss a good story.

After the press conference room we headed to the film studio.  This is where important interviews take place (such as with Obama, as was pointed out yet again).  The European Commission also provides these facilities free to TV stations, as well as good editing software.  Not all TV companies choose to use it though, because they can get more unique footage on their own.  Also, organizations such as BBC have their own facilities in Belgium.

 

But it was still pretty cool to see all that fancy equipment.  The only problem was that our tour guide for this particular room was a little overenthusiastic about his work, and talked about it for almost an hour longer than the scheduled 15 minutes.  We weren't allowed to be late for the European Parliament, so that meant that our 1 hour lunch break became a 5 minute lunch break, three minutes of which were spent finding a bathroom.  At this point I was feeling rather information overloaded.  Everything was very fascinating, but I was quite in need of a break to let it all absorb and to relax a bit.  I probably also didn't help that I got so little sleep the night before.  But trek onward we did.  A brisk walk in the fresh air on the way to the European Parliament did help to wake me up a bit. 

 

At the European Parliament we had to go through security again, twice.  I was a bit less enthusiastic about it this time.  It's kind of annoying to have to take my coat off and put it back on again over and over.  And I happened to be wearing one of those coats with several buttons and a complicated belt.  So it's no small ordeal to get it on and off.  The European Parliament is quite different from the Commission.  They also have different opinions, which was kind of funny.  For instance, in the Commission they kept talking about how important it was to keep the world informed and make lots of news resources available and be extremely open to everyone. 

 

Then in the European Parliament they said that they make sure they give journalists only the most useful information, rather than bombarding the poor journalists daily with whopping amounts of virtually useless information to wade through.

Our next stop was the Parliamentarium.  This is a super cool museum with free entry.  (Though we had to go through security AGAIN).  Going through security is no longer exciting for me.  I could easily have spent an entire day there soaking up information.  Everything was so fascinating, and it was also very interactive, with headsets and games and movies, and other things. 

 

If you're ever in Brussels I highly recommend going to the Parliamentarium.  I couldn't enjoy it nearly to the fullest potential because my brain was already on information overload, and because we had to leave on time for the train ride back to Rotterdam.  History is a fascinating subject when presented in the right way.  I just don't like the way it's taught in Canada.

 

After about an hour in the Parliamentarium (not nearly long enough) we headed to the train station, only to find out that the next train for Rotterdam didn't leave for another hour and a half.  So we walked around the city centre for a while, and bought waffles and fries!  Yum yum!  I was told I couldn't go to Belgium without getting a Belgian waffle.  So I was pretty excited to try one of those.  I got one with chocolate on it of course!

 

Another interesting thing: they eat fries with little plastic forks in Belgium.  Stabbing a fry with a flimsy plastic fork takes some skill- a skill which I haven't acquired very well yet.  I think North Americans are smarter by just eating them with their hands.  Sure you get a bit greasy, but it's a lot easier!  (And for me less embarrassing).

I hope everyone reading this knows Tintin.  If you don't, you should seriously start reading Tintin comic books.  They're good!  What I didn't know though, was that Tintin is based in Brussels, and was written by a Belgian author.  Many of the streets had two different street signs on top of each other.  One is the real one, and the other is from the Tintin comic books!  There is also quite a lot of Tintin art to be seen.

 

(Sorry this picture is sideways, but that is Tintin and the Captain on the stairs).

 

And then at last it was time to go to the train.  I was extremely excited about this since I've never been a train before.  This quite amused the Europeans who have been on trains a lot.  They apoligized for finding my excitement rather funny, but it's my own fault for being so excited.  And I've never been able to do poker faces, so my eagerness was probably written all over me.

 

So here they are: pictures of my very first train ride!  There wasn't much to be seen out the window because it was dark, but it was so exciting just to be on a train.  We also had some very good discussions on the two hour ride to Rotterdam.  It's so hard to believe that less than 30 hours previously I didn't know anyone in the group.  Now we were all so close.  I love making new friends!

In Rotterdam I had the challenge of figuring out how to take the metro home from Centraal Station.  Thankfully the guys from Germany helped me to find the station and figure out which way to go.  I am very grateful for that because although I tried not to show it, I was super nervous about getting home.  I've had many a blog post about getting lost.  But it's one thing to be lost during the day with Kim.  It's another thing entirely to take the wrong metro and be lost alone at night in a part of the city I'm not familiar with.  But thankfully I managed to get off the metro at the right station and transfer to the correct metro, and it all went very smoothly, despite my rapidly beating heart.  I was so worried the whole time that I'd end up lost in the wrong place.

But at last I arrived at wonderfully familiar Hesseplaats, and to my delight Tante Joke was there waiting for me!  I though I'd have to walk home (about a kilometer or so) and when I saw her there I was so happy.  We chatted in Dutch about how the trip went, and then had some tea and delicious boterkoek, and then I went to bed and slept very well.

So that was my adventure in Belgium!  I think it's one that I will never forget.