Amsterdam

So this past weekend myself the girls and the boys went to Amsterdam. We took the bus there which was really cheap and easy---The Netherlands are only about 3 hrs from Belgium so it really wasnt bad at all. We got there Thursday night (no classes on Fridays) and went to our hostel....well that was an experience. I really didn't think the hostel was that bad, despite some people complaining, but the bathrooms were definitley gross. Other than that, it was cheap--and you get what you pay for lol.

Friday we did ALOT. We got up early and went to the Anne Frank house---the original house that they had the "Secret Annex" in. I expected alot more---i thought there would be the original furniture in it because it is depicted that way on all their brochures etc. But even without all that it was still very surreal and haunting...especially Anne's bedroom where there are still pictures and clippings glued all over the wall (picture on the left is the outside of the house).

Next we went to the "Heineken Experience." Since Heineken is brewed in the Netherlands they have this huge tour museum that is SO cool. It is a whole bunch of weird stuff, shows you how they brew the beer, there are these movie showings where you sit or stand and it is baisically like a ride, plus free beer lol. You can see a picture---me, Tayler and Max at this site:
http://heinekenfm.bitmove.tv/bitmove/cgi/receive.jsp?uid=090BB042D7E6C7E59105CD4D60F6D403



Saturday was equally exhausting...because we had walked for literally MILES on Friday i was really tired. We all had lunch together and then the girls and I went to the Van Gogh Museum which was awesome. It is the largest single collection of his work. I was surprised that some of the more famous pieces werent there (i.e., starry night, the screamer) but it was actually more interesting without them, becasue i saw some pieces that i never would have attributed to him otherwise.

Anyways, although the city and the canals were beautiful, come Sunday we were all sick of walking, exhausted and tired of dodging the millions of bikes that are all over the city...so we got a bus home earlier than we had planned, but everyone was so glad. Especially me, who now has a bad cold...not sure if i got it from exhaustion, the hostel, or the 2 million dirty hippies....could be all of the above.

No internship this coming week---EP is in Strausbourg. So i will just be relaxing, spending some alone time, and catching up on school work! This coming weekend i am going to Paris!!!! So excited!!!

Love you all!

Weekend in Brussels / Internship

Okay....so since i have not posted in a while I am going to do this in two parts!

The week was crazy. It was full of interviews for internships. When i first recieved the list of places i would be interviewing, I was really excited. However after going to the interviews i realized that NONE of these were what i wanted. First of all, really none of the options were ANYTHING like what I had indicated i wanted, what my resume showed i could do, or what my academic skills were geared towards. They were totally unfit for me not to mention, 4 out of 5 had NOTHING to do with the EU! I didnt come to Europe to do something i could do back home. Needless to say, as my family will surely understand, I had quite a tantrum about this....but I took it to the top. First I had quite a row with the internship coordinator and after her absolute incompetence was proven i went to our director (and professor) Jerry and complained to him about all the interviews. It may sound as though i was being too picky but remember---i get GRADED for this---so if i cant give a company what they are looking for, then they cant give me the grade I am looking for! However, in the end (and i would like to believe my complaining had something to do with it) I got the ONE internship out of the list that i did like. Surprisingly it was at first glance the one i thought i would hate. But i am very happy now. (See below for more!----i am attempted chronology here lol)


So last weekend (the 14-16) i stayed in Brussels because i wanted some time to actually enjoy the city, rather than just have it as home base on my never ending Eurotrip. SO, I accomplished NOTHING on Friday and Saturday i slept almost all day. BUT Sunday I went to the famous antiques market at the Grand Sablon with my host mother. It was awesome! I wish i could have brought mom and nanny there. There was alot of silver, but also some really original looking things. VERY expensive, obviously everything was for serious buyers but it was still cool to see and it was nice to do something with my host mother. Later, I went around the city with one of the girls which was really nice. We had lunch at the Grand Place, and then went to the Royal Park (across from the official Grand Palace) to do our reading for class which was very nice and relaxing. We tried to go to one of the large art museums, but it only had a few exhibits open on Sunday---none of which were very interesting.

This past week i started my internship with the EU REPORTER. They are an online news source and a monthly print journal about all the goings-on of the EU. If you want to check it out their website is www.eureporter.co.uk . My boss, Cillian (pronounced with a hard K sound) is Irish and is REALLY nice. He is really accessible, honest and extremely helpful in explaining to me parts of the EU that i dont understand. They dont have an official office, but we work out of the EU Parliament Building in the Press Room. It is so cool! First of all, EU institutions are so much more laid back than the U.S. Congress. When i interned on The Hill, i never saw a congressman walking through the regular hallways, but at the parliament they are everywhere! There is a bar/cafe on every floor and you can just approach them! Every day so far Cillian and I have met up with HIS boss (the publisher) Chris, to chat. Baisically we sit around sipping coffee in a parliament cafe for the first two hours chatting politics and discussing new story ideas. It is so relaxed and really nice. Chris is a 60 something English man who is absolutely off his rocker. But i love him, and he is really interested in my ideas and stuff for the paper which is really cool. He is going to be giving me alot of projects directly, which is something he has never done for an intern before, so i am really flattered that he wants to be involved in my learning experience there. I must present myself well, because on my second day Chris wanted me to go BY MYSELF to talk to a parliamentarian and forcefull convince him to write an opinion for the journal! I didnt get the chance to because the Member was in a meeting, but what a compliment!

SO. Now see above for all the new developments....

What A Week...

Sorry to everyone (or anyone) who has actually been reading this---i know it has been forever since i last left any news! This was a verrrrryyyy long week. One which included alot of fun. Our classes technically started last week, but we didnt really get into anything interesting until today (Monday). Since it is still the beginning of the program it is really intense days. Today we started school at 10 and didnt end until 7. Luckily we get lots of breaks---and i find the classes to be REALLY interesting so there is no problem keeping my focus.

During the week I visited the Royal Palace---although the king doesnt actually live there it is more his office. It was really neat and I am glad i did it because it is only open until next week. It was really beautiful---especially the ballroom, i could just imagine myself there 150 years ago! On Saturday I went to the Belgian Military Museaum which was HUGE and sooo cool. Unfortunatley nothing was in English so i dont understand alot of what i saw lol, but it was still really neat and i have lots of pictures. (See below)


On Sunday we all took a trip to Brugge----a city in Flanders (north Belgium) which dates back to the 13th century. In those days it was a bustling metropolis and was the most important seaport in Northern Europe. After their economy died, the city remained pretty preserved since there was no money to put into improving it. So there were alot of interesting things to see. It was a very religious place---there were many statues and small icons in different spots as well as many churches. One of which---Onze-Liev-Vrouw---had one of the only Micheangelo's outside of Italy, a statue of the Madonna and Child. The statue of course was beautiful but the rest of the church was amazing as well. There were also many "godhauses" that were one of the first forms of social housing. The rich would build these houses for the poor and in exchange the poor had to pray for them every day so that the rich would have a better chance of getting into heaven. They are mostly from the 15th and 16th century and are so cool looking! People actually still live in them today. The rest of the city was quaint, lots of old buildings, chocolatiers and restaraunts serving mussels (one of Belgium's specialties). It was a very exhausting day, but very worthwhile. It is also the capital of Belgian lace production---i was very tempted to buy some, but unfortunately most of what they sell are cheap China re-pros that arent worth the money. (see below pictures of Brugge)


I have been able to do alot of stuff with some of the people on the trip as well. One of the girls has a little apartment at her homestay so we have cooked dinner there a few times, and we usually go out a few times a week to restaraunts or pubs etc. It is hard to believe though that it has only been 11 days since i arrived! I already feel like it has been a month! Ughhh !! Not that i want to wish my time here away, but it is often very frustrating and exhausting here! Luckily now that it is Monday my host mother cooks for me again! The way the program works is that we get 7 breakfasts and 3 dinners per week. I take my dinners Mon-Wed and Marie-Claude is an AWESOME cook. Sometimes she just makes basics....tonight we had chicken, mashed potatoes and a tomato salad---sometimes she makes me interesting Belgian food---last week we had what is called "Oiseaux sans têtes" (or bird without head), however it is actually a large ball of sausage wrapped in veal. We had that with hot endive and cream salad and fingerling potatoes. Yum! So on the days i get to eat at home i eat very well. On the other days my friends and I either go out for dinner, or just drink a heavy Belgian beer to fill up lol.


I am still having alot of fun, but i do really miss home!!! I really miss all my family and friends, i miss driving and having a big bed. I miss winnie and our new kitchen, and i miss stupid stuff like Mac and Cheese and peanut butter (which is odd because i HATE peanut butter lol).

Keep sending me emails if you can! I LOVE THEM!!! :)

Love
Cristen

Serious Annoyance.

This has officially been an annoying and frustrating week so far.

First of all....where did fall go?? Is there no such thing in Belgium because it is COLD! There is alot of clerical work to be done, and yesterday i figured i would try to accomplish some of it. WRONG. I ended up waiting in line 3 hours for a metro pass. It was either suck it up and wait or pay 2 euro every time i ride. Annoying.
It is just very hard to get around this city. It takes alot of effort. And i am tired.

Nothing else exciting has happened. I intended on doing touristy stuff this week, but considering the amount of errands i have to do i dont see that happening. My family is turning out to be a little bit strange. This morning i woke up at 7 a.m. to them eating breakfast while listening to 'The Nutcracker'.....yeahhhh ALSO annoying.......and they tend to stomp around alot. But otherwise things are fine here.

We started going to the campus everyday which is alot bigger than AU and has a serious lack of people who speak English. Wow do i sound like an awful American. Apparently my frustration has rubbed off on this entry....so maybe i will write again in a better mood :)

La Famille Dupont

Yesterday after our orientation meeting we all took a group tour of the Grand Place (baisically the center of the city) with our professor, Jerry. It was SO interesting. It was the home of all the medieval guilds and it was really cool to hear the interpretation of all the really intricate statues and carvings on the buildings. We also saw the "Manneken Pis" or "little boy pissing" It is apparently the most famous statue in Brussels---god knows why.



In the afternoon we met our host family. I am staying with Franz and Marie Claude Dupont. They are apparently the "oldest" family in the program---meaning they have hosted students the longest. They have three children, all of which are grown and moved out. So it is just the three of us, which i am used to anyways! They live inside of Brussels, near downtown. Most of the other students live near eachother, but i am in sort of a random spot. They have a beautiful three story town home. Franz is an architect and Marie Claude is a liasion between BE and the US for a chemical company. I have my own room, with internet all the time so please email/im/skype me or whatever.

Today i got to sleep in YAY! And in the evening i went with my family to Marie Claude's annual family tennis tournament. It was strange at first since i couldnt understand anyone, but i met and Austrailian exchange student there on a rotary program who was really cool. She has been here 7 months already and is slightly younger than me. But it really inspired me to learn french because she came with no experience and is nearly fluent. I had a delicious mousse de chocolat and raw beef (not together and surprisingly tasty)

Tomorrow is my first day of class and my first exploration of PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION (dum dum dum....) ahh! I am scared but from where i am it seems pretty easy.