Flanders National Day, the EP, and SHAPE (Brussels Week Two)

Well so much for updating this regularly. Here is what has been happening in my life:

On Monday, July 11, the Flemish in Brussels celebrated Flanders National Day, which celebrates a 14^th century military victory over the French. This is not to be confused with the Belgian National Day on the 21^st, which is like the Belgian independence day (kind of). Anyways, we headed to the Grand Place to celebrate with the Flemish, and had a grand old time.

The next day, our class headed to the European Parliament (EP) building here in Brussels for a tour and presentation. The EP is made up of 736 representatives from the member states, called members of European parliament (MEPs). In a nutshell, it votes on legislation and directives that are handed down from the European Commission. There’s a lot more to it than that, but ‘m not going to explain it, so if you want to learn more, take a class or something. It was a great visit, and we all received nifty info packets, complete with a EP dvd, which I have yet to watch.

On that Thursday (the 14^th), we went on another site visit, this one to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE). Basically this is the military HQ for NATO in Europe (there’s another one in Norfolk, VA). Ironically, unlike every other site visit we’ve had-where we’ve been required to go through a fair amount of security checks-our bus just waltzed into the SHAPE compound without so much as a second glance from the guards at the gate. We later learned that we were supposed to wait at the entrance to the base for our guide, but apparently the guards at the gate didn’t get that memo. Despite the concerning lack of security, however, our SHAPE visit was great. We were able to talk with the military arm of NATO, including the military representative of the EU to the alliance, which was great, especially because they offered a drastically different perspective than the one we received at NATO HQ.  After we got back from SHAPE, we had about an hour or so of class, and then my friends Aaron, Evan, and I left for the airport for our weekend trip to Rome.

A stage was set up in the Grand Place for a Flanders National Day performance.

Celebrating Flanders!

EP Building

Cool Euro Statue

EP building again.

These signs say 'visitors groups' in the EU's 23 official languages.

A model of the EP building.

The flags of the 27 members of the EU.

This statue is supposed to symbolize interdependence and integration. Apparently if you hit one part of the statue, the vibrations travel all throughout the rest.

This is where the 736 MEPs normally sit and vote on legislation for the EU.