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Bonjour,
The study tour has started, and here is the rundown for the past couple of days.
A refresher for those of you who don't know or simply ignored them when I told them, the study tour is a trip to the 4 main EU cities (Brussels, Luxembourg, Strasbourg and Frankfurt Main) with seminars, discussions, lectures and high level meetings with representatives, civil servants, advisors and politicians.
Sunday:
We had our first seminar on the study tour on the top floor of the Citadines Hotel in Brussels where we stay when we are in the city. The room was hotter than Luxor in August and we had to listen to people give us a description of what we were going to do on the tour, and where we were going to go. I personally think it would have been easier to simply look at the sheet they were reading off ourselves (as we all had a copy) and leave it at that but that's just me. We got to meet everyone, had some refreshments and then proceeded to our new rooms to shower after the sweltering room. I was appointed the student coordinator for the western schools which
essentially meant that I was in charge of making sure that UBC, UVic and Cap students got from A to B without any issue. There were 10 people in my group, the largest group on the tour, and people keep joining up for whatever reason and I'm up to managing about 15 now, so over a thrid of the tour! had a room with Ryan (from U of T) and Taylor (Dalhousie) who were both pretty cool. We wandered around the city for a bit, following Xavier who kept promising that the restaurant was only "5 minutes away". 5 minutes my ass!!! 45 minutes later, we found a Moroccan pizza place on Avenue Stalingrad (I have no idea about the name selection) that was actually pretty good. Rod decided he'd be brave and try to translate french without actually knowing it. He ordered "panne" which he assumed was an error on the written chalkboard because, in his mind, they must have meant to write "penne". Well let me tell you, "panne" and "penne" are two entirely different dishes. He lucked out though, because the breaded chicked was apparently quite decent. We then wandered through the Grand Place, which is lit
up and quite beautiful at night before finding, surprise surprise, a bar. I had a Jupiler, which is the belgian equivalent of Kokanee except it actually tastes better than sasquatch water!
Monday:
Monday was the unofficial start of the study tour. The first thing that I learned was sleep was a premium and would likely be next to impossible to achieve a good night's sleep for the rest of the trip! We all got up at 6ish, suited up (credit to Barney Stinson on that one) and met in the lobby (the 40 of us) so we could take the metro to CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies), a premier thinktank on EU issues. We got three presentations there on energy, trade and the Lisbon Treaty before wandering back to the metro. En route, I passed a store selling vintage rifles and shotguns. In the middle of Brussels. With no wildlife in sight. I began to get a little worried to be perfectly honest but no matter, the metro was only steps away, underground, in the dark...
I arrived at Infocentre, which is in the heart of the EU district across the street from the European Commission. There, we listened to two presentations. The frist was on Latvia and it's position during the economic crisis and the drop in GDP, which is now at -15%! We then got a presentation from the editor in chief of EUPolitics, which is the widest circulated paper on EU subjects. Both presentations were informative. After that, some of us wandered around the park by the Cinqantenairre, before making our wat to L'Atelier restaurant where a welcome buffet would be provided for us. I saw the menu and saw "buffet froid" on it. I was not impressed. There's only so much red cabbage, salad and bread rolls a man can eat. We tried to go out to a bar afterwards, but most bars seem to allow smoking and seeing as how most of us were wearing suits, which are akin to sponges when it comes to smoke, decided to just head back to the hotel.
Tuesday:
We got up early once again after not enough sleep (a recurring theme) but we didn't have to metro this time as we were getting a ride on a private bus to the Canadian Ambassador to the EU's private residence out on the swanky part of town. Wow, swanky was an understatement. As we entered the neighbourhood, most of the houses expanded in size exponentially compared to central Brussels. They all have yards and many have swimming pools, something I am ot used to for European cities. The Ambassador's house was quite nice. We walked into the house and proceeded into the basement, which was more like a meeting room rather than a silence of the lambs basement, where we would be sequestered for the majority of the day listening to represenatives from the Canadian Mission to the EU talk about differing aspects of Canadain policy, trade, health, socail affairs, justice, etc., in relation to the EU. It was quite entertaining actually as they were mostly good speakers. I was also quite excited as I was going to be working with these people for most of the summer after the tour ends.
After that, we attended a reception with many Director Generals and policy advisors. I spoke with Ross Hornby, the Canadian Ambassador for a while, as well as Bob Haig, the former Ambassador to Hungary and Yugoslavia, and now the current Director General of Eastern Europe. It was a little overwhleming speaking with people of such stature, but they were remarkably approachable, which made it all the easier.
The food at the reception was, well, I'll put it like this: raw tuna on a small cracker and a piece of cucumber does not a dinner make! Some of us headed out for dinner to a nice Belgian restaurant after we returned from the Ambassador's house. The restaurant was great, as there was a three piece band playing, and I had a Westmalle Tripel, which at 9.5% packs a solid punch.
Wednesday:
We met with representatives of the DGs of the European Commission. The DGs (Director Generals) each head a specific aspect of EU relations and policies such as international trade, justice & social affairs and immigration. The speakers themselves weren't particularly scintillating, the chairs were uncomfortable and the air conditioning was suspiciously absent. It did not combine to be a good day! Dinner was quite the opposite. Anne decided that she knew where she was going so we decided to follow her to a destination. Unlike Xavier, Anne is capable of finding her way around a city without actually knowing where she's going! We stumbled across (or as Anne says, "found the place she was looking for") an atmospheric Belgian restaurant with traditional food and a small band playing. The menu had some interesting items as well. There was something called "jockey steak" on there. Personally, I pictured a little guy missing a leg, but that was not the case. It is essentially a grilled version of steak tartare and is actually quite tasty. We then wandered up to Hagen-Dazs on the way back to the hotel before dodging traffic (the national past time) and arriving at the Citadines.
Thursday:
This was the longest day of the tour so far! We went to the European Commission aid building and sat through several discussions on aid and EU trade with Canada. A considerable rehash of previous meetings. Sinclair was bored, wanted some tea but there was nohot water left so he took a teabag, added some carbonated water (after allowing it to explode everywhere) to it. He said his "iced tea" was actually good, but i'm highly skecptical of his claims! We then went to the European Parliament. I feel like I've been promoted (I guess it's a promotion) to what I think of as truent officer. I make sure my group is intact, delegated a temporary leader, and the slip to the back of the group to make sure we don't lose anyone and to encourage the stragglers to pick up the pace and not get lost. I'm quite effective in my new role. The Parliament itself is a series of inter-connected glass and steel buildings and reminds me much of the architectural cities within cities that Beijing has. We had lunch in the cafeteria, then got an introduction about the building as well as how Parliament functions. We then listened to a spokewoman from the Social Democrats, the second largest party in the Parliament. She did not know her ass from her elbow and was very ignoring in answering questions which is most unfortunate when you're sitting at the front of a room full of people with their hands up. We then went for a tour of the Hemicycle, which is the name of the room that the Parliamentarians meet in. A little background on the Parliamnt. There are (will be) 751 seats and the members are elected by their national ridings and then they meet with similar ideological politicians from other countries to form the parties. It's all ridiculously confusing, which is maybe why voter turn out is expected to be under 35% this year. After the Hemicycle tour, we got a talk from Timothy Beyer-Helm, who was one of the policy analysts for the Christian Democrats, the largest party in Parliament. He was the last speaker of the day, and we were all worn out so I was expecting a repeat of the Socialist presentation. I was dead wrong. Timothy was so utterly articulate and intelligent that he captured virtually everyone's attention from start to finish. The best way to describe him is to use the word inspiring.
After his presentation, we hopped on the bus that would whisk us off to Schloss Hachenberg in Germany where we would be for the next couple of days. It was going to be a nice, short, 3 hour trip. Yessir, nice and brief. Are you picking up on the sarcasm yet? It took 2 hours just to get out of Brussels!!!!!! Crazy Belgian drivers!!!! There were at least 4 accidents that I saw in the immediate vicinity of the bus. We eventually arrived at Schloss Hachenberg, at 1052 pm (but who's counting) which is the location of the German Bundebank University. Dinner was waiting for us fortunately so it was a quick meal than bed.
As an aside, Chris, it's pronounced "Lef". You were right.
More from Schloss Hachenberg shortly.
Things I've learned in Brussels:
-Kristin Kreuk is even more gorgeous in person.
-They play David Guetta in grocery stores. Andrew, come to Europe!
-The DG of trade is the spitting image of Mr. Klassen
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Katrina
non-member comment
You saw Kristin Kreuk? in belgium? I am going to take a video recording of david guetta playing in a grocery store, and dance along to it in the video!