Beer, Waffles, and Chocolate - At DIS they call this Class!

I'm sure you all have been eagerly awaiting my newest blog post due to my short hiatus.

It's hard to describe the week I've just had.  A week of non-stop moving, exploring, eating, drinking, and well... I suppose I could add learning.

On Sunday my class and I departed for Brussels.  By that I mean, everyone who made the flight.  Three students missed the flight and had to get there on their own. The plane was practically empty and I had an entire row to myself to lay down and sleep.  We landed and went to lunch in the square called Grand Place.  One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! (Pictures below) Then I embarked on a 3 hour walking tour of the Art Nouveau in Brussels... though I'm still not quite sure what it is.  After that we had time on our own, and basically the entire class ended up at Delirium (a bar) for the night.  The bar was three floors and had over 200 different choices for beer.  We returned there again each and every night for the... lovely atmosphere.... the intellectual conversations... but mostly just for the delicious beer.  I highly suggest Barbar Beer... which is a unique Belgian beer, and one of my new favorites!

  

The next two days were packed with activities that enabled us to explore many aspects of the EU and other related organizations.  We went to NATO headquarters in Brussels, the Danish Representation to the EU, we visited the EU Commission, the EU Parliament (picture below) and interviewed both a permanent representative for the Netherlands as well as a lobbyist for the City of Malmo. The interviews were especially interesting because we gained personal insight into the functioning of the EU.  I also have to mention some great quotes from the guy we spoke to at NATO
- It's like on facebook, the best way to describe EU/NATO relations is simply... it's complicated
-Brazil: They are a peaceful unaligned country that just sells guns to everybody.
-We made a tiny little mistake and bombed the Chinese Embassy... oops.  But we now have googlemaps to clear that stuff up.  Unfortunately, googlemaps also can tell you where we hide our nuclear weapons....

Above is the EU Parliament plenary meeting room... and to the left are the flags outside the EU Commission.  In between our visits we had time to walk around on our own, and I got to see the Royal Palace in Brussels, the Arc of Independence, and a lot of other amazing sights. (Pictures are on my facebook page)

While the learning was a key part of the trip, understanding the culture was equally important! That's why we went to Planete Chocolate and learned how to make our own pralines.  We dined at restaurants that served mussels in Brussels, and Belgian waffles.  And we also made sure to have a beer tasting at a La Trappe, a Trappist beer Monastery....as well as our own tasting at Delirium.  

Here you can see Kathy and I making Pralines... the sign outside the Monastery, and our first of the six beers we tasted. 

We left Brussels and headed to The Hague where we went to the Danish Embassy and also the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia where we saw the Karadzic hearing.  After our short stay in The Hague we departed for an afternoon in Amsterdam.  We had a fantastic lunch, (our professor bought everyone a round of beer because he just became a grandfather) followed by a canal tour through Amsterdam and a quick trip to the Red Light District. 

Overall I had an amazing time! I only wish the trip was longer!