Rome. Day One.

Despite having our flight canceled and rescheduled, we (my friends Aaron, Evan, and I) managed to successfully arrive in Rome around early Thursday night, and found our hostel without too much trouble. We had a delicious dinner at a nearby restaurant full of overly friendly waiters, and then called it a night.

We began our exploration of the city on Friday morning. Meeting up with another group of students from my program, we headed immediately to the Colosseum. Though the pictures that I took hardly do this imperial building justice, words cannot begin to describe anything we saw in this city, so the pictures will have to do.

I will say one more thing before I start with the pictures. To me, Rome is more than just a city. It represents my youth; the countless hours spent discovering this ancient civilization. After nurturing my infatuation for over a decade, it’s difficult to describe exactly how it felt to stand in the center of the Eternal City. It was an unforgettable experience.

I also took over 500 pictures on this trip, and since I don't have remotely enough patience to upload all of them, this will be a somewhat abridged version.

 One of the many public fountains scattered throughout Rome. Until you've had the unique pleasure of walking through the city in the middle of July, you'll never fully appreciate these.

I miss my dog.

Colosseum.

For some reason, these pictures uploaded all out of order, but I'm too lazy to delete them and try again. This is the courtyard of our hostel.

Inside the walls of the Colosseum.

Awe-inspiring. I could have stared at this for hours.

There was a very cool exhibit inside the Colosseum, and this was a quote I found. Nero was accused of starting a huge fire in AD64 in order to make room for a massive palace, complete with a private lake, in the center of the city. After Nero's death, his palace was mostly torn down. The lake was filled in, and the Colosseum built in it's place.

Nero

When my mom and my stepdad abandoned me several years ago to take a trip to Italy, they showed me this picture when they came back. It seemed appropriate that I return the favor.

Wow, look how cool this picture is!

Trajan's Column, built to commemorate the Emperor's victories over the Dacians (modern day Romania and Moldova).

Trajan's Column part II

The gargantuan monument to the first king of a unified Italy, Victor Emmanuel II, which we stumbled upon while walking to dinner.

The Palazzo Venezia, which was the former embassy of the Venetian city-state to Rome.

Another view of the monument to Victor Emmanuel II. Just incredible.

Ruins of a Roman temple.

The ruins were swarming with cats.

Romulus and Remus.

The Campo di Fiori, where we had a delicious pasta dinner.

Live entertainment!

Come on.

Serge would be proud.

That's about it for day one. Stay tuned for day two!

-cdk

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.

The Hague, Amsterdam, and Bruges

Alright, so I’ve got some catching up to do. Things are becoming busier and busier here, so I’ll probably be updating this less often. I know you’ll all be crushed.

Classes have officially started, which was somewhat of a rude awakening. We suddenly remembered that we weren’t just here on vacation for a month; we actually had to do work. A typical day of classes consists of three lectures: one from 10-12, one from 1-2:30, and another from 2:30-4:30. The first lecture is given by our program leader and professor from MSU (Professor Zierler), and his class focuses on the relationship between the US and Europe, as well as stuff like the ICC (International Criminal Court). Our second lecture is taught by Dr. Jamie Shea, who is a Deputy Assistant Secretary General of NATO, and he talks about NATO (surprisingly) and the relationships among the member countries. Dr. Shea’s lectures are great; he cracks jokes all the time, and the first hand experience that he has had with NATO makes him an invaluable instructor. Here’s a youtube video of him speaking on the role of NATO in today’s world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbNPjZNE0BU&feature=related

Our third class is taught by Professor Nathalie Brack, who is a professor from our host university, ULB. Her class focuses mainly on various topics related to the European Union. Our classes have been very interesting so far, though I have to admit that it’s difficult to find the willpower to sit down and do my class reading when there is so much to see and do in this city.  

On Tuesday, instead of the normal schedule of classes, we visited NATO headquarters in Brussels. There, we were given ‘briefings’ by a NATO political officer, Ted Seay, and a defense policy advisor, Major Price. The briefings were surprisingly candid, and there was much mention of Secretary Gates’ speech in June, where he criticized the unbalanced nature of member states’ commitment to the alliance. The speech apparently struck quite a chord with many in NATO, as it was referenced several times during our briefings. Watch the speech here:

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Gatesont

On Thursday, we left for an overnight visit to The Hague, to visit the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as well as the International Criminal Court (ICC). Our train left at 6:23am, and amazingly nearly everyone made it to the train station without incident (except for my friend Aaron -the same person who had an allergic reaction and went to the hospital on our first day- who forgot his passport and had to take a later train). Upon arrival in The Hague, we dropped off our bags at our hostel, Stayokay, and then traveled to ICTY. At the ICTY, we had a series of presentations, and then had the opportunity to sit in on the ongoing trial of Radovan Karadzic, a Serbian politician accused of war crimes and genocide committed during the Bosnian War of the 1990s. Here is his Wikipedia article, in case you’re interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radovan_Karad%C5%BEi%C4%87

We sat just feet away from him, separated from the actual courtroom only by a two-way glass wall. It was a truly amazing experience.

We visited the ICC on Friday morning, where we were given several interesting presentations on the court and how it functions. We also had a chance to sit in on an ICC case, this one against some military leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but the actual accused persons weren’t present, which made things less interesting. But we did witness some amusing arguments between the lawyers of the defense and prosecution.

Our class trip to The Hague officially ended after we left the ICC, but instead of heading back to Brussels, many of us decided to take the train to Amsterdam, which was only something like a 40 minute train ride (as opposed to the ride from Brussels to The Hague, which was closer to 2 hours). It was the first time I had been to Amsterdam (not counting Schipol airport), and it was a blast. The city is beautiful, and the people there were extraordinarily friendly. We spent hours exploring the city, took a canal tour, and visited the Heineken brewery. I also randomly ran into Mike Mulier, someone I went to middle and high school with, on the streets of Amsterdam. Apparently he is studying in Paris this summer (also through MSU), and he had been visiting Amsterdam the same time we were. Small world. I stayed in Amsterdam Friday night and all of Saturday, before heading back to Brussels on Saturday night.

On Sunday, I went with some friends to tour the city of Bruges, which was about an hour away from Brussels by train. On the train there we befriended a couple sitting next to us, who had brought their dog Balthazar on the train with them. They were very friendly and our conversation made the train ride fly by. When we arrived in Bruges, we discovered that it is not only a beautiful city of old building and canals, its also pretty small, which meant that we were able to see the entire city on foot (and that we didn't have to waste money on tram/bus passes). We explored the city and took a scenic bike tour of the countryside, before ending our day with a delicious fish dinner. It was a blast!


Here are some cool pictures:

A tower in Bruges

This was in Bruges, and I couldn't allow myself to walk by without taking a picture.

A golden snail. Self explanatory.

This is the city center in Bruges. Lots of cool old buildings.

According to our canal tour guide in Amsterdam, this is the largest floating chinese restaurant in Europe.

Had a great tour of the Heineken Brewery which included a 3D simulation of the entire brewing process.

I've never seen as many bikes as I saw in Amsterdam in a single day.

This was a delicious sandwich that I got in The Hague: Avocado, chicken, goat cheese, lettuce, and honey mustard on a wheat baguette. Delicious.

More bikes in Amsterdam. So many bikes.

Amsterdam train station.

The plaque outside the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).

ICTY

This is the International Criminal Court. Interesting fact: When you enter the court, you technically leave The Netherlands. Everything in that building is outside the jurisdiction of any sovereign state.

We stayed here in The Hague, and our stay was indeed okay.

The Hague train station.

A tower in Bruges. Apparently this tower was in the film In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell.

Not only have I seen more chocolate in the past ten days than I've seen in my life, but I also saw these prominently displayed in a shop in Bruges. I haven't quite decided what to think of them yet, however I have no doubt that they would be nothing but delicious.

Alright well I've got to do some reading before class tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

-cdk

Everything Is Peeing In Brussels (Day 3)

We were unsatisfied with our first tour, so today a group of us accepted an offer from Augustin (Gus) of a second, more in depth tour of Brussels. We met him at 2:30pm in front of the Palace of Justice, a massive building which, from what I understood, acts sort of like a combination of a court and jail. The Palace of Justice is located right next to the oldest area of Brussels, which, according to Gus, used to be much larger until a Belgian king demolished a bunch of old houses and buildings to make way for the Palace of Justice.

 This second tour proved to be far more interesting than the first. We spent well over four hours touring the city, and learned a ton. Gus is an extremely interesting man; he seems to know a bit about everything. He’s had all sorts of jobs, everything from being a lumberjack to working in churches as an organ repair man, and his knowledge of the city is inexhaustible. He even made a valiant attempt at explaining Belgium’s unique government situation to us, which I still don’t fully understand, but I’ll try to explain some of it. Apparently, Belgium’s government is broken down into three basic levels, the federal government, based in Brussels, then into language-based communities, and then also into regions (which are themselves divided into provinces). Its complex, but basically it means that even though Belgium hasn’t had a functioning federal government since June 2010, many of the services that the people depend on are still provided by the local community and regional governments. Or something like that.

Gus also showed us more comic book walls, a beautiful church, and the female version of Manneken Pis, a statue called Jeanneke Pis. Finally, he led us to another peeing statue, this one of a dog, leading him to exclaim: “everything is peeing in Brussels”.

More pictures:

These first two are of the Palace of Justice. Very big, lots of windows and doors.

The Atomium

Belgian waffle covered in warm chocolate. As of this picture, all I had eaten so far in Belgium were waffles and pizza. Also that is, in fact, my foot in the corner.

Some cool flame-like graffiti.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart, which is one of the only examples of a cathedral built in the Art Deco architectural style. Very cool. 

Those last three were all pictures from a beautiful church that Gus took us to.

Here you see Gus (in purple) explaining the significance of some historical bar. I've forgotten just what is significant about it, but I bet it was a pretty cool story.

More comic book art.

This is some cool graffiti we saw under a bridge.

More cool stuff painted on walls.

Manneken Pis, in a different outfit than yesterday. According to his Wikipedia page, this little guy has over 800 individual outfits.

This was just on some random wall in the city. The pigs are huge; I'm probably not even as tall as the bottom one.

We went back to the Grand Place. If I haven't mentioned this before, it is a truly stunning part of the city.



Also, here's a video Gus found which does an excellent job of explaining the complexities of Belgium government:

Thanks for following!

-cdk