South of the River Liffey

Last week was pretty slow around Leuven. My one class on Monday was canceled, so I just had Law on Thursday. I really like the law class even though most don't. He's not that energetic of a teacher, but he loves what he's doing and is in the middle of it all, so it's interesting. Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't have to go into work because of an Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) party meeting in Barcelona that the assistants and my MEP were at. I've been researching "environmental refugees" from home though.

The weekend was fantastic though. Six of us (Seda, Caitlin, Jen, Allison, Bridget, and I) went to Dublin, Ireland for Friday to Monday. Getting to the airport in Charleroi (where Ryan Air flies out of) was an expensive adventure. Our flight was at 9:30am, so we left around 6 to give ourselves lots of time. Except for the fact that every train we were trying to catch was late. So we got to Brussels-Midi and had to take a cab to Charleroi, which is about a 40 minute car ride. 100 euros later, we got to the airport with time to spare. After buying a train ticket we didn't use and paying for a cab, it would have been the same price to take the more expensive flight from Brussels. But alas, you live and learn. Once we got to Dublin everything got better. We took a bus in from the airport and found our hostel, The Four Courts. It was really nice and in a great location (near the Temple Bar area and Christ's Church). We got rid of our stuff, got a hop-on/hop-off bus tour ticket, and went riding around the city to get our bearings. The bus was nice because it takes you by all the sights and lets you see everything without a ton of walking. We got of the bus near Trinity College and went to see the Book of Kells. Jen, Bridget, Allison, and I were waiting to meet up with Seda and Caitlin when they announced the museum was closing soon and we could go in for free if we wanted. So although it was a little bit rushed, we were able to see the manuscript and also Long Hall with 100,000 of Trinity's oldest books. We explored Trinity a little bit and watched some boys play rugby ;), then went and found dinner. Food is so expensive there....but that seems to be the trend in all of Europe. That night was the Ireland/France game for the World Rugby Cup, so we found a pub and a pint and unfortunately watched Ireland get crushed. We went out for a bit after the game, but called it a pretty early night since we had been up since 5:30 am.

Saturday, we got up and went out to the National Museum of Modern Art on the old Royal Hospital Grounds. I'm not much for art, but some of the exhibits were pretty cool. One was a lot of multimedia things which was neat. After that, we went to the Guinness Storehouse for a tour. Although it doesn't go through the actual brewery it was interesting. They had sections on what beer is made of and how it's made. The upper floors had exhibits on Guinness advertising through the years, which was neat to look at commercials from the 60s and 70s. The top floor of the building is glass enclosed and that's where you get your "complimentary pint" and an amazing view. You could see all the way out to the ocean and all of the city. The weather while we were there was pretty good, so the view was even better. After that, we went to find some food and walk around. Caitlin and Seda had been staying with Caitlin's family, so we met up with some of the boys and they took us out for the night. What a good time. We were out way too late, but it was well worth it. It was cool to be outside of the touristy areas as well.

Sunday, we rolled out of bed and went shopping for the afternoon. Grafton Street has more people and stores that I have ever seen before. After that we took a nap, found some dinner, went out to the Temple Bar area for just a little bit and called it an early night. We got up the next morning at 3:15 am to get to the airport for our 6:30am flight. Once back in Charleroi, we had to take a bus, a train, another train, and then walk 20 minutes to get home. Guess that teaches us to try to do something cheaply.

We got back just in time for class on Monday, and I haven't had to work yesterday or today. I went in yesterday to pick up my security pass, and decided to take the "tourist" tour of Parliament. Waste of time....but it was free, so oh well.

I think thats it for the last week. See you all later.

Too old or too young...

Luxembourg City is so beautiful. The city is fairly small but divided by a valley that is all green. The river at the bottom is no more than a trickle anymore, but the valley was gorgeous to walk around in and enjoy the finally sunny weather. I put up some pictures of our adventure. The shopping was supposed to be good, but it wasn't anything too remarkable in my eyes. We spent the night there in a cute little hotel that was probably cheaper than a hostel would have been. It had beautiful stained glass windows and the nicest old man running the front desk. We attempted to go out for bit Friday night, but the crowds were either 40 years old or 16 (bankers or their kids). So that made for a quiet night. But all in all it was a nice trip. Definitely check out the pictures :)

So just an overall view of where I am and what I'm doing. I'm here in Leuven, Beglium for 3 months studying the European Union. The town is about 20 miles from Brussels and is the home of the Louvain Institute for Ireland in Europe, an old Irish college founded here in the early 1600s. Oh, and it's also the home of Stella Artois. :)

So I've been here for a week and a few days, and I'm finally beginning to feel at home. So here's a run down of the last week or so:

1-2 September: Our flight was two hours delayed but once we finally got into Brussels, we hopped a cab to Leuven. We got to the institute and checked in. I'm rooming with two other girls from NU. Our room is nice, but just one big room with a bathroom. See pictures :) We took a nap and then explored the town. It's incredibly old and beautiful here. The Catholic University here was founded in the 15th century and the town is older than dirt. The town hall is a beautiful Gothic building. And there's tons of bars, restaurants and shops. Oh and lots of chocolate and waffles and beer. Don't worry, I've tried all three.

3-7 September: Lectures started bright and early Monday with a brief orientation and a walking tour of Leuven. Classes themselves began Tuesday with three 2 1/2 hour classes basically back to back. Luckily we only have each class once a week so the long sessions are bearable. I'm going to be taking History and Development of the EU, European Law, and Economics of European Integration. The History class is taught by our program director here at the Institute, Law by a lawyer with his LLM from Harvard, and Economics by grad student at KU (the Catholic University) from Benin.

On Friday we had to go register our visa's with the town hall, which was an adventure. We had to be entered into the system, then to police are supposed to come to our residence to see that we are living there, and then we have to go back to the town hall again with a bunch of paperwork. What a process...and we really didn't even need the visa, it turns out. We're the only group here that has them. Thanks for the goof goes to our study abroad office at Northeastern.

Last weekend, we decided to catch up on some much needed sleep between the lingering jet lag and busy class schedule. Saturday was a good day to wander around Leuven and explore where we are a bit more. On Sunday we ventured into Brussels for the afternoon. The train ride is only 25 minutes, so it's really convenient. We didn't have anyone with us that had been there before so we wandered around using our guidebook as best we could. We had mussels in Brussels, and we saw the Cathedral of St. Michel, Le Grand Place, Manneken Pis (the little boy peeing statue), le Place Royale, le Palais Royal, le Parc de Bruxelles, le Parc du Cinquantenaire, and the EU buildings. Everything is just so old that it's hard to comprehend. The buildings in le Grand Place are so ornamented and beautiful, and Manneken Pis is way smaller than you might think. Unfortunately he wasn't dressed up that day. The EU buildings are sort of interesting because they are so new and shiny compared to the rest of the city. I in all my brilliance forgot to take a camera that day, but since I'm interning there I'll get pictures some other day :). After walking for about four hours, we dragged ourselves back to Leuven for the night.

This week I started my internship with Member of European Parliament Professor Georgs Andrejevs from Latvia. I haven't seen much of him in the two days I was in, but his assistants Gundars and Chris are fantastic. The job itself leaves quite a bit to be desired after the first two days, but hopefully it will get better. I spent about 14 hours in front of a computer researching environmental refugees. For the next two weeks I don't have to go in because there is a party meeting in Barcelona and then its plenary week in Strasbourg. But they asked me to write a summary of the evolution of the term "environmental refugees" and the sides of the debate over whether or not they exist. Luckily I can probably use this for my paper topic too so I can kill two birds with one stone. But I would like to sit in on committee meetings and things like that, so hopefully they will give me the chance to do so. I might go in sometime in the next to weeks to do that since I'm not expected to be anywhere.

Monday and today have been class days. Tomorrow we start our trips :) We are headed to Luxembourg for Friday and Saturday. I'll fill you all in on how that goes when I get the chance.

Tot ziens!