Strange things happen in Belgium

Well I'm finally home (in Paris that is) after a grueling six weeks of traveling (with no internet!), researching, and hobnobbing with bigwigs at the European Union institutions, and I must say it is delightful to be back on my little apartment in the Marais. Except for the climb up five flights of stairs with a lot of luggage and crap. But anyway, everything but my back muscles have forgotten that part and they will eventually also forget.

If you didn't know, I was lucky enough to go to a conference on the European Union sponsored by the Belgian FB commission, and it was an amazing trip! There were a few people from each of the countries that has a FB commission in Europe (35 of us total), including recent college grads, PhD students, professors, and journalists. I'm not much of a person for groupiness, but I jumped in with unusual enthusiasm, into what we later dubbed "EU Summer Camp." It felt like summer camp because we spent 10 intense days together, many of which were filled with long hours of briefings from EU officials (and American 'diplomats', but I will get to that part later). Fortunately there was much alcohol, waffles, and steak frites involved in this summer camp. My roommate Robin is an amazing photojournalist who became a super friend within a matter of minutes (we both picked Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot as our wedding dance song - who else in the world would do that? Of course we never danced at our wedding so it's up to Robin to make it happen). I hung out with the journalists, who are all in Germany this year, quite a lot because they were super awesome. I also made many new Facebook friends, which is always awkward.

Anyway. This post will be enormously long if I go into all the details of the trip, but I will list a few of the highlights:

Tour and briefing of the European Commission - they make decisions, I think. Still not quite clear on their function.

A glimpse of Luxembourg (we were only there for about 24 hours, most of which was spent indoors in a weird suburban office park). I won't go into detail here because the case we watched at the European Court of Justice was so boring even the judges were falling asleep, and oddly enough the briefing at the European Court of Auditors turned out to be the most exciting part of the day!

Getting yelled at and called "anti-American" by the American Special Envoy (used to be Ambassador, but was of course a recess appointment who was never confirmed so lots his ambassadorial title) to the European Union - more on this in a later post.

Briefings and lunch in the NATO cafeteria (with wine!)

Very strange meeting at the SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers of Europe) headquarters

The best part about the trip was just hanging out with everyone, drinking beautiful Belgian beers and eating way too many plates of "frites" and Belgian waffles (so much better in Belgium!). I also had a jolly time finding weird things in various places - many strange slogans and inefficient security measures, just to name a few.

The EESC (European Economic and Social Commission):


Who knew Europe needed a bridge to reach "organised civil society"?

This is the level of security outside the European Commission. Unfortunately anyone decently skilled in long jump will be able to breach this barrier - I wonder if they are training the terrorists for this?


This is the air freshener in the bathroom of the College of Europe. Better tingling through technology!


Some piccies of Bruges. I will try to borrow a picture from Robin of chocolate breasts in a shop window.






Finally a table tent that I stole from the cafeteria of the Shape headquarters, which looked from the outside, and the inside, just like East High School and apparently functions in much the same way. Who knew that the Allied Powers of Europe enjoyed musical theater so much? Although we did hear in one briefing there that one of the best tactics to establish friendlier relations between the US and Europe is to engage in collective humiliation. Ah diplomacy! (PS - sorry it's sideways - I can't figure out how to make it normal).


I'll post some pictures of Brussels as well in the next post when I also comment on my "anti-Americanness".

I swear I have a good excuse...

Dear loyal readers,

I apologize for my long hiatus from the blog. There are many reasons for this, the main one being that I have been traveling a lot and am currently residing in a town with little in the way of free and open access to internet. Sometimes I get online at the archives, but then people are watching over my shoulder, checking that I am in fact looking up other archives and not just using their resources to amuse myself and others. I especially apologize to CBAM for not posting the photos of my trip to England before I left for this lovely little town.

So yes. At the moment I am currently in leg two of the five countries in four weeks tour! I spent several interesting days in Brighton England visiting friends, and then an amazing weekend in London with CBAM where I was the world's most boring houseguest and just wanted to drink tea and watch British television (there's something good on every time you turn it on! - Sharpe, Pride and Prejudice, Jeeves and Wooster, just to name a few). We did go out and see a few sights, as will be evidenced by a few photos. Unfortunately I wouldn't let CBAM take lots of embarrassing pictures of me with street performers or Big Ben, so in the end the best you get is Paddington Bear and Westminster Abbey.

So here are the photos of Ye Jolly Olde Angleterre:

The beach at Brighton:


Does anyone else think this warning is oddly hilarious and incomprehensible?


Westminster Abbey:


Paddington Bear


The frieze on the top of Africa House - interesting interpretations welcome! CBAM had some good ones!


England was quite an interesting adventure, especially the Eurostar train. The new and improved Eurostar now goes between Paris and London in two hours and fifteen minutes, which is pretty amazing, considering that where I'm from, that's how long it takes to drive to the airport! I was a little shocked by the customs situation on the French side. I had a 7:30 am train so was a little late getting to the train station on my way to England and only just managed to check in on time. Then I went through French customs, where they actually stamped my passport (that hadn't happened the last several times I entered various countries), and then through British customs, where when I got to the front of the line, I got yelled at for not filling out a "landing card," and more specifically for not having the exact address of where I was staying in England. Now in my frequent train travels on Thalys, the TGV through Belgium and the Netherlands, nobody looks at your passport or even your train ticket for that matter. Stupid me, assuming that since Britain is technically part of the European Union there would be no problem, came to realize that the British REALLY aren't that keen on immigrants. After arguing with the nice English-speaking man at customs about the fact that it was actually 6:30 in the morning in England and I couldn't just call up my friends to find out their address, AND showing him my return ticket, he finally let me through and I was the last person through the security checkpoint and running for the train. Fortunately I made it since my ticket was non refundable or exchangeable. But the other direction was much nicer and I got back late at night to Paris, only to realize that I had three days to get ready for my various trips to Aix-en-Provence, Luxembourg, and Belgium. And I still had to see several movies and eat cheese. It was quite a hectic time for me.

Anyway now I am back in Aix-en-Provence, where I have been working away in the colonial archives and trying to find things to do with the rest of my time since I don't have much internet access. Today the weather was beautiful and sunny so I went into town to take some pictures of the market and the city so you can see the colors of Provence. The leaves aren't quite out on the trees yet (fortunately for my allergies) so I didn't get any good pics of the Cours Mirabeau, but perhaps when I get back from Belgium in two weeks things will be blooming.

So this is the fountain in the center of town.


Aix is a town full of fountains and lots of tourists follow the trail to find all of them, or the bricks in the sidewalk to walk in the footsteps of Cezanne, who is famous for his paintings of Provence. These pictures are of the tiny side streets and the market. This really is one of the most amazing markets I have ever seen. Everything is so colorful and bright and makes you want to eat only vegetables for the rest of your life! Along with the cheese and bread and olive oil and honey and spices, etc. etc. I actually found some unbelievably delicious Fuji apples, which was exciting since France lacks tasty apples! If only I had some popcorn and cheddar cheese to eat them with. I am also including a picture of one of the spice booths, which are my favorite parts of the market. The aroma is just so magnificent, and they have spice blends for every imaginable taste and dish!
And finally some brightly colored paella, which you can buy on streetcorners everywhere.












I hope you enjoy the pics! I'll hopefully be able to post lots more soon. I'm leaving on Wednesday for Luxembourg and Belgium and I'll be gone for about 10 days touring the various headquarters of the European Union, NATO, and the SHAPE (some sort of "Supreme Headquarters" of something)!