"Why Are We at the Beach In February?"

You are thinking one of two things-  either "Belgium has beaches?" or "Why would you go in February?"  Beglium actually does has beaches, and with some history too - apparently where the British and French soldiers retreated when Germany invaded during WWII.  We spent some time touring the beach town, having lunch on the water, and then taking pictures with some of the statues:

This was the first week of my internship. I am working for a German think tank, and I love the work so far. The only catch is my computer and keyboard are both in German. I have learned that "Drucken" means "Print."

I’m going to be analyzing the budget policies of the European Union in areas like technology, innovation, and competition policy (thrilling, I know!).  It seems like a really good place to work – right next to the European Commission and the Council, and everyone in the office has been great so far. 

The blog posts should really be picking up and getting better given our schedule for the rest of the semester.  Here are my travel weekends for my time in Europe:

• Bruges
• Leuven, Antwerp, and Gent
• The Hague, Amsterdam (and maybe Leiden)
• Luxembourg and parts of western Germany
• Berlin
• Oslo, Norway - 5 day trip
• The Balkans - 10 day trip
• Rome
• Paris
• Barcelona
• Madrid

More Tidbits

In 1968, the UK applied to join the European Union, but France's DeGaulle said over my dead body.  DeGaulle died in 1970, and the UK joined the Union shortly after.

15% of the European Parliament’s budget is dedicated solely to the transportation costs of moving from Brussels to Strasbourg, France once a month because France won’t allow Brussels to host all meetings.

There is actually a member of the Parliament who is a Swedish Ghost Pirate.  (He is a member of the Swedish Pirate Party and is one of the 18 “ghost” members who cannot legally be seated.)

My internship primarily functions in German.  This means that on a semi-regular basis I encounter French, Dutch, English, and German.  Since coming to Brussels I have also heard Italian, Spanish, Czech, and Russian.

Because Brussels is officially bilingual with French and Dutch, all official signs have to be in French and Dutch.  This at least gives me two chances to figure out what they say.

Belgium has the lowest per-capita number of McDonald’s in the developed world.  It is also the only country in the world where McDonalds is not the #1 burger chain (this honor is taken by Quick Burger). 

My tour book attributes the McDonald’s fact to the healthy sandwich shop alternatives, but with all of the kebab, fries, chocolate, and waffle stands I seriously doubt you, tour book.

In an attempt to draw in business, the bars around the famous fries (“frites”) place downtown may be the only bars that have the signs “Frites Accepted Here.”

Downtown there is either graffiti or artwork of two parachuting laundry machines and a fox about 100 feet up the side of a building: