3/31/08

So this was a short week due to the fact that I extended my spring break until Tuesday. Wednesday was picking up the pieces at work again, and Thursday was the last day of classes for me. The whole weekend was spent writing my Economics paper that is due next Friday so I could spend the week studying for the final exam which is next Thursday. I went out Thursday night and hung out with my friend Bart who is a local bartender. Overall it was a pretty boring week, but this is the last three weeks of my college career and I want to finish it with good grades. One strange thing has been the realignment of friendships since the return of the break. Many people who never got along are hanging out a lot more than they used to and old friends are not getting along anymore. I guess that's what happens when everyone accepts people for who they are and gets to know each other better.

Spring Break Week

Wow. What a week. Well it was more like 10 days but, who’s counting? My break started with my girlfriend arriving in Brussels on Saturday afternoon. After meeting at the airport I showed her around Leuven on the way back to the room. Since she was exhausted from her travels we took a nap upon arriving at the institute. We then went to the local Irish pub so I could introduce her to the staff at the school and watch a six nations rugby match. Afterwards we went over to one of the Flemish pubs so she could get a taste of Belgian culture. We ended up meeting some very interesting locals and had a good laugh or two over a few beers. We then went back and rested for a while before diner. We went out to one of the nicer local brasseries to get some quality Belgian mussels. That night we went out for a little while but not too late as Janine was tired from her travels.

The next day we slept in and then ventured over to Brussels so she could see some of the city before we departed for Paris. We walked around Brussels for a while but it was raining very hard and we both ended up drenched to the bone.

Our limited time in Paris of only one full day severely restricted our ability to see much of the wonderful city. We really spent the whole time walking around, snapping pictures, and seeing as many sights as we could cram in one day. We saw the outside of the Louvre and Notre Dame. We walked through the gardens and went to the Palaise de Invalides. Afterwards we went to the top of the Eiffel so we could see as much of the city as possible. It was a real shame that we didn’t get to see the top two things on my list, the Musse D’Orsay and Sacre Couer. They will have to wait for another time. That night we ate a restaurant that I spent quite some time picking out. It was by far and wide the absolute best meal I’ve ever had. I can’t begin to describe the quality of the food we ate.

Between getting caught in the rain in Brussels and the walking around in the wind and cold in Paris, I became very ill the next morning. This was a giant nussance as we had to travel to Amsterdam that day. It was a miserable day, but we were going to see a music festival of American bands playing there. Some friends from the States had traveled to see this event so I got to see a few people whom I hadn’t in a while.

Amsterdam was nice. It was my second time there in only a few short months and I don’t care much for the city. It is ridiculously touristy and aside from the well known trappings there isn’t much to do there. In addition the nightlife is almost nonexistent. The clubs and bars close when most European establishments open. In addition I still felt terrible so we spent a lot of time resting in the hotel which was fine by me because my girlfriend is much more beautiful than the city of Amsterdam.

After a few days in Amsterdam we flew to Copenhagen. We were there for 5 days so we decided that forking over a few extra dollars for an apartment instead of a hotel would be worth it. We ended up saving money in the long run as we cooked dinner two of the nights and ate all of our lunches and breakfasts in the apartment. It was well worth it. The place was centrally located and perfectly tailored to our needs. We spent time visiting Janine’s family in and around the city. She was born and raised there before moving to the States in middle school. It was nice to have a pseudo local to show me how Danes do Denmark. We saw her grandfather, aunt, cousins, and uncle who all had delicious food for us. Danish open-faced sandwiches may be the best tasting thing on bread ever made. We spent a while walking around Christainia which is basically an extreme version of a hippy commune. We went to the Geology museum, she showed me a great view of the city from the top of the “Round Tower,” and we walked around the trendy shopping and bar districts at night.

Strasbourg week

Strasbourg: This week I went to Strasbourg with my MEP. It was very interesting. First of all it was my first experience traveling by myself in a foreign country. Since my French is pretty rusty it provided me with some difficulties. Since the trip was primarily business, I wasn’t afforded the opportunity to explore much of the city. The parliament complex was quite beautiful though. I got to take some great pictures both in and around the buildings. The workload was very light as my MEP indicated that the trip was primarily a chance to see the plenary sessions themselves.

Other than that I spent most of the week preparing for spring break and the arrival of my girlfriend. I have a lot of traveling on my plate over the next week so I have been frantically trying to get ready and avoid neglecting my studies at the same time. Speaking of, we received our midterm grades for all of our classes. They were a bit disappointing. I spent less than my usual preparation time so the grades received were expected.

3-10

Blog: This week was fairly light. Our economics class was cancelled so we had only two. History was business as usual. We discussed constitutional development in the EU. The class has shifted from covering expansion to deepening the understanding of the mechanisms. The second half of our culture section is based solely on art. This week we made up the first lesson and discussed medieval manuscripts. We talked about the process of making them along with the context of their content, which was almost entirely religious. It was a rather dry class.

This weekend I stayed local. I went with my friend Ariel to Brussels on Saturday. We walked around, saw a few cathedrals, and went to the Palaise Justice which is pretty impressive. After some sightseeing we went to the Irish pub Celtica and watched some of the 6 nations rugby match between Scotland and England. Afterwards we met up with a friend and went to A la Mort Subite. It is a very historic Bruxelleois brew pub that specializes in Lambics, a type of sour wheat beer native to Belgium. The name of the place translates to Sudden Death, which came from a popular card game played there. We also ate Pain noir avec fromage blanche, a very traditional Belgian accompaniment to a Lambic. Afterwards we went to the fish market and got a tasty prix fixe. Sunday proved to be really fun as well. A friend and I were feeling a little stir crazy so we went to a pub to watch the France versus Italy rugby match. Afterwards we went to the pub in town with a pool table. We ended up striking up a conversation with the bartender and we had a lot in common and had quite a laugh. He ended up showing us around after his shift was over. It was really nice to get a taste of how Leuven locals do.

Beer Fest and school

This week was fairly uneventful. I've been trying to save money and energy for upcoming spring break. We took our last midterm on Monday. It didn't go so well but I brought it upon myself with the hectic weekend in Barcelona and returning only a couple of hours before the exam. Work went well and I decided on a topic for my research paper. I am doing a comparative study of the EU 15 and the EU 12 on how they are satisfying Kyoto protocol. Economics class was very memorable as the staunch republican of the group started parroting conservative politicians on how our economy is not going into a recession. It was fun systematically destroying his views. He really knows nothing about the economy and was quoting other people who know nothing about the economy. I got to use a lot of what I've learned in my two co-ops in financial services to show him the light. Our professor was also pretty shocked at his beliefs.

This weekend I took it easy so to speak. By American standards I stayed out pretty late but was very reserved by European nightlife standards. However Saturday was a blast. We went to a beer festival in a town outside Antwerp. I got to taste quite a few beers that I had never had before, and got to see how different beer festivals are in Belgium compared to the US. It was full of really small breweries which was nice as I got to compare notes with a few Brothers Seamus.