Tuesday September 6, my whole program got to go to the USA vs. Belgium soccer game at the Brussels soccer arena. It was so cool! Probably about 20,000 people there, not near what the stadium could actually hold, but still really exciting. Me and all my friends decked out in as much red, white and blue was we could find and we ended up doing face paint as well. Getting to the game made me feel like I was going to a Cards/Cubs game in downtown Chicago. The rivalry was really fun and, it was funny to see the Belgians get so excited about their team. We walked into the stadium, found the one section of USA fans…and felt at home. For the first time in a couple of weeks, I heard a lot of American English from other study abroad students, American toursits, and other USA natives that happened to be in Belgium. One of the funniest events of the night happened just after we got to the stadium when a couple of Belgians (who were somehow cheering for the US) approached me and some of my friends in line for frites and said…”ARE YOU REAL AMERICANS??...LIKE FROM THE REAL STATES!!???” I about screamed…We all squealed, YES!! For the first time here, I felt so flattered to be a REAL American, from the REAL states. And then the Belgian guy had to ruin it for himself…his next comment was, “Oh, so we should kiss now!” Good job buddy…
We shooed him away pretty fast after that. The game was a lot of fun; I have never sung the Star Spangled Banner so loudly and proudly in my entire life. When it got to “land of the free and home of the brave”, most of us were tearing up. You never know how proud you are of your country until your in a completely new environment and culture. I will always be so proud of my country and the freedom and values it was based on.
As the game went on, I realized why I and everyone else in America really isn’t into soccer…it was stupid boring. Why watch guys run up and down a field when in America you can watch men pounding the flesh out of each other? The Belgians scored a goal, so we got a lot of cheers shouted at us after that point. At that point, the American cheerleader came out me and I helped the USA section respond with…”Who cares, your the size of Maryland clap clap clapclapclap!” And…”But we have the superbowl clap clap clapclapclap!” All in all, we had a great time; it was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity to be in a foreign country and be able to support your home nation at a large sporting event.
On Wednesday I received news that I was picked for an internship that I had applied for earlier this summer. I interviewed with this company and was picked to work for them for the remainder of the semester. I will be working with ICODA European Affairs which is a lobbying firm in the heart of the Parliamentary district here in Brussels. ICODA gets hired by companies throughout Europe to act kind of as the “middle man” between them and the EU. ICODA hears what their clients want to happen in the European Union, and then they try and push for that agenda with different people in the EU’s parliament, commission and council. They also do a lot of work with clarifying legislation that has been passed so their clients can understand what does and doesn’t apply to each of them specifically.
My building is in a roundabout that is the home to the EU’s Parliament, COmission and several other lobbying firms that work with the EU. ICODA is located on the sixth floor of one of these beautiful buildings; so basically outside my window each morning I can see the headquarters of the European Union staring right back at me. Pretty freakin cool. I will be the assistant to Ms. Lieve Lowet, who is one of the partners of that firm. She has her law degree and Ph.D in Political Affairs. She is one of the toughest, hardworking women I have ever met, but she has also been really kind to me and is doing her best to teach me all about the EU. I am really excited about working with her. It is really funny to hear her on the phone with clients because she will switch in and out of three or four differnet languages while talking to the same person!
I have worked two days for her so far…each of them 9AM-6PM. On my first day I spent the majority of it looking at a piece of legislation that was passed two years ago and also looking at some of the changes that had been made to that same piece of legislation earlier this summer. I basically had to merge the two documents and make sure that the whole piece of legislation had all the new changes so Lieve can email it as a whole to her clients. I did this deciphering for the piece of legislation in English for my first 1.5 hours of work, and then she asked me to do the same thing in French.
Let me just point out that my French skills….are quite minimum, and I basically laughed at her when she asked me to do this. After seeing that my laughter wasn’t that funny to her…I smiled and buckled down for about 3 hours to try and find the miniscule changes to a 200 page document in a language that I don’t speak fluently, or well for that matter. No big deal. I did my best…who knows how good it is going to be, someday in the future people may be very wrongly interpreting a piece of legislation in French. I guess the world goes on….
I’ve met four really nice young professionals that work at ICODA and they have invited me to eat lunch with them each day I’ve worked. They are all from the Netherlands and have been really kind to me. I really enjoy getting out of my bubble and talking to them, trying to learn more about their culture and lives. It was funny because yesterday when I joined them for lunch, they were all speaking Dutch, and as soon as I sat down, all three of them switched to English immediately, like it was no big deal. I was flattered that they did that for me, but also just in awe of their intelligence. I really would love to someday do that with French, I just know it will take a lot of work.
Saturday my whole group went to Gent, Belgium which is about 45 minutes away from Brussels. But it could have been a lifetime away for how different it was. This small city had a CASTLE. A REAL LIVE CASTLE. Everyone of us girls was so excited to “take European pictures” in the castle. It’s funny, I love visiting all these neat places, but all of us girls agree that we love getting our picture taken by all the pretty places just as much J The castle was awesome, complete with a guillotine and torture room. It’s funny, no where did we get to see the “king’s quarters” or something fun like that…but every freakin place we go to…oh here’s the dungeon, here’s the torture devices. Perfect, just what I wanted to see.
Gent was beautiful and so much fun…we went on a canal ride, got to see some beautiful cathedral’s and enjoyed native “gent” snacks which included a specific type of ham, and mustard. The day we went to gent I also ate some frites, which I have decided have become a part of my diet here in Belgium. If I don’t eat my daily dose of frites with mayo..my body starts craving them constantly. I could be addicted to heroine, but seems like its just frites for now which I’m fine with.
Lastly, this past week me, Maddie, Chrissy and Ellen (two of the girls I first met on the plane to Brussels) have all moved into a huge apartment together. When I say huge…I mean its literally a house, with an upstairs and and a downstairs, a large kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom, two bedrooms, a sun room and a garden. The entire city of Brussels may come over later. Our first apartments were just temporary until our leases started on September 1. Which meant that we didn’t actually get to move in until September 12 because that’s what the Belgians do. Moving in was a pain, because one of my suitcases broke after the first trip from STL to Brussels, so I had to tape that suitcase together in order to get it over here. But now, everything is unpacked and slowly getting moved in…including two couches, a TV and DVD player, a dining room table, chairs, armoires, etc. I feel like I just won the lottery or something.
God has been so good to me here, and I know that a lot of it is because of all of Your prayers back home…so whoever you are, thank you…a million times over. I am learning so much, but also being reminded that I am in daily need of a savior, because I still do (no matter the county) make countless mistakes. I have been having some awesome conversations with some of my roommates here, who have told me more and more about their walk with God…so cool to have that common bond! I know that He is here with me, but I also know that I see my need for Him more and more here. I pray that as you read this you realize your need for Him more today. I know at home it is so easy for me to get complacent with my walk, to not challenge it or push it. I pray that today you see the lostness of our world and how big our God is…to create such a crazy world, but love each of us so individually. So indicvidullay that no matter where we are at he can still speak to us in that still small voice I have come to cherish. I pray that I know him more each day because I know I can’t do this whole thing on my own.
Love you all,
Praying for you…
Bailey Jo
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| Found out that these are actually US Diplomats that work at the embassy!! |
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| pictures from Gent :) We tried to act like Europeans all day... |
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