I suspected that my post about my final day in Brussels would be my last entry. I know it's been a month now since I left Brussels, and I apologize for just now getting around to writing about it, but it's been quite the month and it looks like my adventures are far from over. Well, to quickly summarize my last day in Brussels, Michael and I flew back from Venice early enough to do a bit of Brussels sightseeing before packing everything up and heading back to the U.S. the next day. Believe it or not, I had not yet [View Full Entry]

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We had heard that though over 20 million tourists visit Venice each year, a majority of the visitors only stay for one day. Though we thought Venice was absolutely breathtaking and incredibly relaxing, one day sounded about right to us. Beside’s St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Palace, there aren’t many must-sees in Venice besides the city itself. The canals are amazing and it’s stunning to just see Venice, but even the gondola rides run around 100 euros for 40 minutes, it’s not the easiest city to navigate around in, and it's jam packed with touris [View Full Entry]

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Oh, San Marino. Since Michael had worked a week less than I had and was spending his last two weeks doing a microstate tour, we had to go to San Marino while we were in Italy. He had already been to Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, and of course Vatican City. Not surprisingly, there’s really not a whole lot to do in San Marino. It’s a very tiny country with a population of only about 30,000. It is, though, up on a beautiful mountain and has three famous towers that you can hike to. Michael was very excited about these towers, but forgot [View Full Entry]

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My internship at the U.S. Mission to the EU was over and my Italian ‘vacation’ had started. (As if this entire trip hasn’t felt like a vacation.) It took me about 2 ½ hours to get from the airport to my hostel. As soon as I finally found it, the receptionist opened the door for me and asked if I have a hungry friend waiting there for me. I had to laugh because, yup, Michael was there, waiting for me so we could go out and grab dinner together. I was so happy that he was at the hostel as he [View Full Entry]

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I could hardly believe it. My final week at the U.S. Mission to the EU had already come. I’ve never known eleven weeks to go by so quickly. I even extended my internship an extra week and it’s already over. After spending the past week doing all the Belgian stuff I hadn’t done yet and visiting all the Belgian towns you have to visit when you go to Belgium, I was ready to focus solely on my work this final week. Even though it was my last week at the Mission, I still had soo much to do! With Joe at [View Full Entry]

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When you buy a travel guide for Brussels, it's more than likely that the towns of Ghent, Antwerp, and Bruges will also be highlighted in the same travel guide. This week, I did as the travel guides say and visited each of these cities. As this was technically supposed to be the last week of my internship, and it was the last week for a couple of the other interns, I decided to make the most of my time left in Belgium and really experience true Belgium this week. Just to quickly explain why last week did not end up being [View Full Entry]

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Belgium. The Netherlands. Luxembourg. Sometimes shortened to the term Benelux. I have now visited each of them! But, before I get into that, it was actually a surprisingly fun and exciting week. As you all know, Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day. What you might not know is this is one of my absolute favorite holidays! My obsession with the Irish is shared and celebrated on this one day each when everyone expresses their love for the Irish! So, of course, I wore green, went to an Irish pub, drank a Guinness, and danced the night away. Oh, how I love St. [View Full Entry]

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Now, I know what you're thinking. Joe Biden, tractors, and wild ponies?! Is she serious? What in the world do these three things have in common? I'm really starting to think that each week I'm here in Europe, my life just gets more and more unbelievable. I really expect to just wake up any moment and find that this is all a dream. Yet, for now, it continues. So, what is it that these three things have in common? Not much really, but each of them helped to make my story-book week/ life even more unbelievable. Joe Biden Well, apparently I [View Full Entry]

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The long awaited 'S' visit. For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about (I would have had no idea either before a few weeks ago), a visit from the 'S' is State Department talk for a visit from the Secretary of State, in our case, Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Now, let's get it out right away. For those of you who know me, you know that I recently spent approximately 15 months of my life working to defeat this woman. Every living and breathing moment of my life was dedicated to taking her down and her face [View Full Entry]

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I will soon blog much more about Secretary Clinton's visit this week as there is so much to talk about. But, I wanted to give each of you the link to the most recent blog post on the State Department's Official Blog authored by none other than your already-favorite-blogger and her roommate! http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/town_hall_leaders/ [View Full Entry]

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