Canada

Well, it has been a pretty epic day. In my mind I have met the criteria for ‘epic’ and I’m still not quite home yet.

Today marked the beginning of my trek back across the ocean to Canada. I suppose it’s a bit of a misnomer to refer to it as a trek (as most of my time was spent sitting on an airplane) but I actually did find myself doing an abnormal amount of walking.

The day began without a hitch. Valentina, Monica and I were up bright and early at 5:30am. This cautious approach paid off in the end as we were forced to play a complicated game of suitcase tetris with our Belgian cab driver before going to the train station! We had ordered a van to take us to the station because we figured that the three of us would have fairly significant amounts of baggage. When our driver showed up in a Mercedes we were slightly concerned. In the end, with the help of our affable Belgian driver, we successfully crammed everything, including outselves, into the taxi. On the way to the station our driver told us great stories and largely distracted us from his blatant disregard for traffic signs! At 6am it didn’t much matter what he did, but we still found it entertaining. After getting dropped off at the train station we purchased tickets and made it to the airport in perfectly short order.

Even the airport began as a positive experience. KLM didn’t charge Valentina for her extra suitcase and Monica and I fell within the Air Canada luggage limits. From here things started to trundle downhill. At the end of our check-in Monica and I were told that our flight had been pushed back by an hour. This didn’t really bother us because we were for the most part still wide awake!

We boarded our flight from Brussels to Montreal and flew into the wild blue yonder. Now, perhaps I’m slightly exaggerating the downward slope of the day because the flight from Brussels to Montreal was great. No turbulence, decent food and a couple of good movies. I watched the Hurt Locker for the first time and definitely enjoyed it. I am going reserve final judgement on it until I see it on a proper screen.

Now, everyone knows that Montreal is where the party’s at. Today was no exception. Our flight from Brussels was late getting in so Monica and I thought that we were going to miss our connecting flight to Toronto! In fact, we had so much time it was painful, but we didn’t know it then.

After racing out of the plane, we made our way quickly through preliminary customs and border security. From there we collected our luggage and passed easily through the final customs check and checked our bags once more. Quickly we found our security entrance and scampered into a line. Unfortunately for us we got stuck in the super slow lane! The Canadians took forever checking my bags, even making me remove the nike+ chip in my shoe! Apparently it looks pretty diabolical to have a chip in your shoe! Who knew? Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:30, we made it through customs by about 2:25 and booked it to our gate. When we arrived we discovered that our rush had definitely been unwarranted as our flight was delay until 3:30. So we waited at the gate, watching our departure time get closer and closer. But, as seemed to be the growing trend, Air Canada once again changed the time and gate number for the flight. In doing so, Air Canada disrupted a lot of people’s plans so they offered to re-book missed flights. Monica is currently in the air as we speak and headed to Windsor. I helped carry her luggage a little bit today so when I went to bring her stuff up to the top floor to re-book her connection to Windsor I kind of zoned out a bit and ended up outside security…again…

This time through I was a pro and blasted right on to the other side. We actually did board our plane as planned at 7pm, but ended up sitting on the tarmac for about an hour and fifteen minutes before taking off. Our delay was a result of the system of thunderstorms that moved through Toronto this evening.

I am now currently sitting in Terminal 1 of Pearson Airport waiting to take the 11:30pm Robert Q shuttle back to London. I have now been awake for a full 24 hours and am in dire need of sleep. I have dosed off in the middle of more than one sentance of this blog posting and should probably stop typing in case I accidentally write something really stupid!

The Last Day

Well, today was the last day in Leuven. I’m going to miss being able to wake up on a Saturday morning to go cruise the market for fresh baked goods and fruit like I did this morning. I had fantastic apple cake, strawberries and cherries all for under 5 euro. We did a brief program evaluation with Dr. Brooks around 10:30 and then began the packing process. I’m pretty sure that I have just about jammed every last corner of my suitcase full of stuff and I think that I’ve got everything ready to go!

After everyone did their packing and some last minute shopping we all headed out for one final dinner together. Looking back on the trip I can see that I have made some great friendships. I can’t say enough about the people in this group. It takes a special group of people to be able to get along and become friends in such a short period of time. It is quite obvious that this group had what it took to get along and to really help each other out for the past two weeks. Parting is somewhat bittersweet for all of us because we know that the bond of this trip may not be enough to keep us in contact in our regular lives. However, we all know that we will forever have these two weeks in Belgium to remember. I can’t say that I’m surprised at how attached I have become to this group of people, but I will say that the depth of my appreciation for everyone here is far higher than I ever would have expected.

I am looking forward to traveling part of the way home tomorrow with Valentina and Monica. I hope Toronto is still standing when I get back. I’m sure that there are localized pockets of excitement, but I would hazard a guess that the media is stoking the fire right now.

Anyway, off to bed for me, I’m up and on the road in 6 hours! See you soon!

Antwerp

Today was the last officially scheduled day of our trip to Belgium. Tomorrow we do a program evaluation and debriefing, but have a free day otherwise. I think I am going to need it if I want to be packed and ready to go by Sunday morning!

Antwerp Central Station

On the docket for today was a trip to Antwerp. We had all been in Antwerp for about two hours earlier this week during our ill-fated trip to Den Hague. However, all we had see was the inside of the train station. Now, to be honest, I think most of us would have still been pretty awestruck by Antwerp if all we had seen was the inside of the train station. It is, without a doubt, the most incredible train station that I have ever been in. I have uploaded a number of pictures that show off various parts of it, but you definitely need to be there to truly experience it. You know that you are in for a great city when the train station sets such a high standard! It might be helpful if London figured out that first impressions matter…

Antwerp City Hall

As soon as we stepped outside of the train station we knew that we were really going to like Antwerp. All cities give you a ‘feel’ as soon as you get into them and Antwerp’s was great. The city was full of extraordinary architecture and was a little bit more relaxed feeling than Brussels. It also struck the balance between tourist town and functioning city. Things were spread out enough not to feel stressed, but close enough that they didn’t sprawl. Our first task was to pay a visit to Antwerp City Hall. Now, I know that most people’s conception of a City Hall is something like the painfully nondescript building that houses London’s city hall, so for a moment suspend your city hall biases. The Antwerp City Hall is unbelievable. I’ve been in some impressive buildings this week, but without a doubt this was my favourite. We were given an enthusiastic tour by a friendly older lady who had lived in Antwerp her entire life. Her passion for her city was infectious and we left feeling quite a bit a part of the city. The Hall gave off the same welcoming feeling that we felt from the entire city.

Following our trip to City Hall we had about an hour and half for lunch that I used to walk around the city and do a little bit of shopping. Antwerp is quite famous for its diamonds so it was quite hard to miss the hundreds of jewelery stores around the city. My mother will be impressed to know that I took a look at some Lladro figurines in one of the stores and finally understood why she finds them so breathtaking!

Lion at the Antwerp Zoo

At 1:15 we met Dr. Brooks back by Central Station and proceeded to do something that demonstrates clearly that no one really ever grows up. We went to the zoo! Dr. Brooks took a group of 12 of us ‘children’ into the Antwerp Zoo for a look around. Dr. Brooks apprently has a way with people and managed to negotiate an arbitrary group rate for us despite the fact that we were all over the cut off age of 18 years old. We all sort of expected this to just be an in and out kind of thing, but 2.5 hours, 100 pictures and hundreds of animals later we thought otherwise. The Antwerp Zoo was infectiously exciting and we had a fantastic time. Dr. Brooks must have looked like some sort of elementary school teacher herding around a group of rather over sized children. We fit right in with the crowds of real elementary school children! I can’t quite say enough about Dr. Brooks. He has been an absolutely incredible leader of our group; showing extreme patience and genuine interest in our experience.

It's a Giraffe!

To top it all off, he’s bought us all ice cream twice! How can you beat that? Anyway, I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a zoo quite as much as I did today and even managed to get my camera batteries to last through the majority of our tour at dangerously low levels.

We finished at the zoo and headed back to the train station where we expected to catch a quick ‘direct’ train to Leuven that would get us back in about 40 minutes. But, as has become a recurring them over the course of the trip, the train system conspired against us. Our train from Antwerp to Leuven traveled very slowly until it finally broke down at Mechelen station, forcing us to switch trains. The train switch ended up being quite complicated and had us running from platform to platform and train to train before they finally decided on one to take us to Leuven! Ultimately we managed to get back to Leuven, although it was much later than we expected.

Birthday Flamingos?

I am currently planning to go for a run and to then head out with the group for a night in the Leuven square.

I should also mention a rather important event that is taking place today back home. Today is my mom’s birthday! She would probably be mortified if she knew that I was going to mention it on the blog, but I’m going to do it anyway. We’re a bit of a failure at our house this June 25th. Neither my dad nor I are home, so my sister is really the only one who is home. As I understand it, my mom and sister will be enjoying some shopping during the day before being treated to dinner by my grandparents. I also hear that Lyndsay has baked a rather spectacular cake to be eaten! So, if you see my mom, say happy birthday to her and don’t tell her that you found out from me!

On a far less positive note, it’s looking like I am going to be taking a 6am train to Brussels airport on Sunday. There are three of us that are flying out at around the same time and we’ve decided that we aren’t going to mess with the train gods. We had originally been planning to take the 7am train, as we don’t leave until 10:45ish, but we don’t want to risk it. Tomorrow will be a long day of packing followed by early to bed and an even earlier wake up call (probably around 5am…*sigh*). On the positive side, I am quite happy that I’ll be travelling to the airport with Monica and Valentina. It’s nice to have people to get lost with! Monica is actually taking the same flight back as I am.

Anyway, I’m off to run!

The Last Day in Brussels

Look at this! I am definitely back on track now! Consecutive posts, I think that I’m back into the rhythm just in time for the trip to come to a close. I don’t want to be too preemptive in saying that because there are still two full days left here in Belgium, however things really do feel like they are winding down. Today was our last official day in Brussels and I definitely feel like we made the most of it. We entered the city like every other day-by train- and succeeded, like every other day, in making the morning commute a little bit louder for the poor Belgian people in our car. I find myself shaking my head at just how loud and exuberant we are. I’m pretty sure that everyone thinks that we are Americans! The Belgians can get as excited as anyone, but they don’t typically do it on the train or on the metro. I’m sure that they have just about had enough of Justin Beiber’s ‘Baby’ being sung throughout the train system!

Anyway, after reaching the city we stepped out into an absolutely gorgeous day of sun and about 25 degrees Celsius. For the second straight year (according to Dr. Brooks) we have lucked out on the weather. Typical Belgian weather is apparently rainy, damp and relatively cool. We have had the ‘cool’ part but have had consistent sun for every day with the exception of the Battle of Waterloo adventure.

Our first meeting was at the European Parliament where we were briefed on the structure of the organization and shown around the very impressive looking building. Unfortunately, of all days, I forgot to bring the memory card for my camera today, so I will have to snag someone else’s photos to show you what I am talking about.

After the Parliament we headed off to grab lunch. I had a great chicken sandwich at a little place called the “Tasty Corner” and paid a very reasonable 3 euros for it. Cheap and good meets two very important criteria. That being said, I think that I am going to have a tough time facing anymore bread, meat, cheese or pasta when I get home. All of the carbs are starting to stack up and I’ve got to say that I may be a little bit ‘over-sandwiched’, meaning that I have eaten way too many sandwiches for my own good!

Following the meal we met Dr. Brooks and went for a brief tour of the Chocolate Museum. While at the museum we were given a demonstration of chocolate making by a very exuberant Belgian. He certainly made an impression on our group!

After consuming a little bit of chocolate, we made our way back to the European Council, the same building where we started our trip. We were briefed by a Council official on the relationship between the EU and Canada on Human Rights. I’m sure that people are rather tired of hearing me ask questions relating to First Nations in Canada by now, but I had the opportunity to ask him whether or not the EU had an opinion on Canada’s treatment of indigenous peoples within its borders. I am very careful not to use phrases like ‘our First Nations people’ or ‘Canada’s First Nations people’ because that suggests some sort of ownership. In fact we are two very distinct people that happen to co-inhabit a continent. Anyway, the response I got was very interesting, mostly because this official did know a fair amount about Canada. He knew that the EU had voted for a UN resolution on indigenous rights that had been opposed by the Canadian, American, Australian and New Zealand governments. Anyone know why those governments might oppose a UN resolution on indigenous peoples? Take a read through this article, it gives a good, although perhaps a slightly biased look at the situation http://www.shunpiking.com/ol0406/0406-IP-TS-canadacondem.htm. Anyway, he actually related my question to climate change and the impact that it has on the Inuit peoples in Canada. He said that if the Canadian government really valued the human rights of the Inuit they would likely want to get serious about climate change. The concept here is that the Inuit way of life and their ability to live as they always have would be compromised by a melted icecap. I thought that this was an interesting perspective on First Nations rights and certainly presents another angle that could be used to gain concessions from future, more progressive Canadian governments. However, at the end of his answer, he said, I’m not an expert and I’m sure that you guys are doing a good job and that there is no problem with your indigenous people. This comment was completely well intentioned and meant as a bit of pro Canada commentary, but for me it just proved how well hidden our horrible treatment of First Nations people is. The rest of the world sees and respects Canada as a leader in Human Rights, yet we violate the rights of Indigenous peoples ever day by allowing them to live in poverty and without clean drinking water. It really is time for the rest of the world and the majority of Canadians to realize what a horrendous lie we are being fed and that something needs to be done to help the situation. As much as I think that the G8 and G20 protests are rather silly, I do hope that the First Nations people will be able to somehow communicate their message to the rest of the world. Someone needs to take the rose coloured glasses away. Try sending the leaders of the Western world to Kasechewan or Attawapiskat and see how they feel about Canada’s human rights record.

Anyway, needless to say, the meeting was once again interesting and it apparently ignited a little bit of passion in me. I don’t really know if I feel much better after that little rant, I think I might just be more outraged…

After saying goodbye to our last official EU meeting we headed back to Leuven where we have spent the evening. I went for another run, ate some fresh local strawberries and some fresh bread and cheese for dinner and am now getting read to go to bed. Tomorrow we visit Antwerp. For those of you familiar with diamonds, Antwerp is apparently the place where the art of diamond polishing was invented. The ‘Antwerp Cut’ is, according to their website, synonymous with quality and brilliance. I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes!

A Lot of Ground to Cover

Alright, this is going to be a little bit lengthy because I have been such a failure at blogging the last little while. I actually find myself feeling guilty during the day when I don’t blog…I suppose the main reason I feel that way is because I know that my mom and grandma are reading it and I really don’t want to disappoint them! You might think I’m kidding, but I really like the fact that they are reading so I don’t want to anger the readers . I am about to cover three days full of Belgian and Dutch excitement, so hang on, the ride is about to start!

Monday

It’s a little bit surprising how difficult it is for me to remember what happened on Wednesday. No, it isn’t because I have been drunk on Belgian beer the whole time, it’s just because we pack our days so full that Wednesday seems like forever ago! It’s a good thing that I took notes!

Our day started off with a trip back to the Canadian Mission. I don’t want to expose any national secrets here, but let’s  just say that the security at the Canadian Mission is much more ‘friendly’ than that of the American Mission. The security guard at the Canadian Mission remembered us from the day before and was rather accommodating when doing our security checks haha. As I think I mentioned before, the Canadians don’t take your electronic devices, they just kindly ask you not to use them! After clearing ‘security’ we headed upstairs for a session on Canadian media coverage of the EU. A member of the Mission’s communications staff, Susanne Connolly briefed us on the media interplay between Europe and Canada. The basic consensus was that Europe didn’t really care too much about what was happening in Canada, and when they did it was usually because of something bad like the oil sands, Czech visas or seal meat. On the flip side, the Canadian media doesn’t have a single correspondent stationed in Brussels. The fact that our major news agencies do not staff city where the European Union functions out of is just short of appalling. Some of the most interesting and groundbreaking policy work is done by the European Union. Most of this work goes unnoticed by Canadians and often leaves us behind in our understanding of the world. This point was picked up quite passionately by a Canadian journalist by the name of Leigh Phillips. Leigh is a Canadian who just happens to be working as a foreign correspondent in Brussels for an online publication called the euObserver. Leigh’s work and the work of the publication can be found at http://euobserver.com. Leigh was one of the most interesting speakers we have had over the course of our time in Belgium. His perspective as a journalist was very much aligned with my own view of the world (which may or may not be a good thing…all I know is that there would be a lot more left wing politics in Canada if more Canadians thought like us…) and he provided me with some really interesting insight in the journalism profession. I really would like to get into what Leigh spoke about, but I fear that I won’t do his opinions justice. It’s also getting kind of late here, and I still need to cover 2 more days before signing off! Yikes! Leigh spoke about everything from the EU’s perception of our current Prime Minister to the media crisis that is sweeping across the world. He gave me enough to think about for quite some time, so perhaps I will start blogging on specific discussion points from his talk when I get some free time. I also had the privilege to have lunch with Leigh, Dr. Brooks and a couple of other interested students from our class. It was really interesting to get his take on journalism and on the world.

After lunch the group met up and made the trek to the Brasserie Cantillon, an authentic Belgian Brewery. We received an extraordinarily interesting tour from an extraordinarily sarcastic tour guide and had a great time learning about the brewing process. The brewery is one of only a few operations in Belgium still to use a natural fermentation process. Essentially this means that they produce the liquid part of the beer and then expose it to the open air to allow the natural yeast in the air to induce fermentation. An interesting fact to know is that when using this method you should only brew in the winter. The winter is a fairly ‘clean’ season biologically speaking. This means that there are fewer kinds of yeast floating around in the air. The fewer kinds of yeast the more likely you are to get a good tasting, consistent and safe beer to drink. If you try to brew in warm weather you end up with many different kinds of yeast combining to create an often undrinkable product. We had an opportunity to try the beer made at the brewery at the end of the tour and found it to be unlike anything we had ever drank before. It was almost sour in taste and fell somewhere in between the taste of wine and beer. We also tried some of their naturally made ‘kriek’ (cherry) beer which was also sour, but very refreshing. The beer is sour because no additional sugar is added to the mix when the fruit is added.

That was pretty much it for Monday. As is the case every night, we had a nice dinner in Leuven and then actually retired rather early for bed as we had to be up rather early to catch the train to Den Hague and the International Criminal Court.

Tuesday

As I alluded to earlier, our day yesterday was to consist of a train ride to Den Hague, Holland where we would spend the day at the International Criminal Court and EuroJust. What transpired was a comedy of errors that ultimately led us to Amsterdam instead of Den Hague. The first thing that happened was that the train we planned to travel randomly did not come. This forced us to pick a different train that required us to make a number of connections before actually getting on one that would go directly to the Hague. So, we hopped onto the train and trundled off to our next stop. When we got to the next stop we found our connecting train, but realized that it would only take us to Antwerp which is not nearly Den Hague. We were told that we must make a connection at Antwerp and then we would be on track for Den Hague. I should mention that our professor, Dr. Brooks was with us for this whole journey, so we were in it together. So, we waited for the train to Antwerp. It was late. Finally we got on the train to Antwerp with still a decent hope of getting to Den Hague on time. However, the train Gods must have been conspiring against us…When we arrived in Antwerp we figured out which train we had to take next only to see it delayed by 12, then 28 then 42 minutes, then 1 hour then 1.5 hours before it finally showed up. At this point, even despite the late trains, we still held out hope that we would get to the ICC. Dr. Brooks had called and explained our situation and they were willing to accommodate our lateness. Things were going along swimmingly until we saw the first sign for Den Hague. We stopped at a station in the Hague and saw that we needed to get to the next one. So, we stayed on the train. This was a BIG mistake…Within seconds the train had accelerated to full speed and the next station in Den Hague was merely a blur in the window. Off we sped into the country, moving further and further from where we wanted to be! The end destination of the train was Amsterdam, which was kind of interesting to some people, but ultimately we wanted to honour our appointments in the Hague. So, when the train finally stopped another 45km later at Schipol Airport in the Netherlands we attempted to get off the train and head back to Den Hague. Again, the train Gods must have hated us, because as we tried to disembark the car doors started to shut! Dr. Brooks and Monica had left the train first and were left panicked looking on the other side of the glass. We tried to get the doors to open again, but they wouldn’t! Luckily Dr. Brooks and Monica managed to get back on the train through another car’s open door, but, that meant that we were on the train until Amsterdam. Within 20 minutes we found ourselves standing, bewildered, on the platform of the Amsterdam Central train station. We had missed all of our meetings by this point and Dr. Brooks just threw his hands in the air. The day turned into a cultural day in Amsterdam haha! We took a canal cruise of the famous city before being turned lose to do some exploring. I went off with a group of Windsor students and we trekked all the way across the city to the Van Gough Museum. I am not a huge art connoisseur, but I found that my new found mental capacity to find meanings in obscure English literature helped me to finally understand what art was all about. In the process of seeking out the museums and travelling the canals we passed through the infamous “Red Light District” and rather contrastingly, the house of Anne Frank. My overall impression of Amsterdam was that it was kind of a dirty city (both physically and metaphorically…) but contained a great deal of cultural significance. I have to say though…I have never smelled quite so much pot in my entire life. If you think it’s a stereotype of Amsterdam, trust me, it isn’t…The only place that I may have smelled more pot this year was in O’Neil Ridley Residence at Huron…Just saying…After touring Amsterdam we got back on the train (with some trepidation) and headed back to Leuven. This time we nailed the transfers and connections and made it back to Leuven with little difficulty. It was quite a day, and we didn’t get back to the Irish College until about 10:30pm after leaving it at about 7:30am. It was a great day though, and one of those stories that will be told over and over again, probably with great embellishment!

Today

Today was another eventful day, although it was far more ‘by the book’ than our trip to Den Hague/Amsterdam. We traveled by train to the medieval city of Brugge for a full ‘cultural day’. The city’s architecture is well preserved medieval in style and features endless postcard opportunities. We climbed the town’s Belfry Tower for a great view of Belgium and realized just how difficult it would have been to ‘storm’ a belfry tower! It was tiring enough to climb the 366 steep steps to the top of the tower…can you imagine doing that with armor and a sword? It would have been slow going! I guess that’s why the built towers…

After exploring Brugge for a considerable amount of time we headed back to Leuven. I immediately headed out for a run. I actually knew exactly where I was going today and didn’t even get a little bit lost! After my run I went for dinner with Melanie and Helena at a restaurant called Domus. We have gone their twice now and I have become quite partial to their spaghetti bolognaise. It’s a pretty standard kind of dish, but there’s something about the way they make it that changes it just enough to make it amazing! I also had an iced tea, thinking that it would be similar to what we have in Canada…I suppose that it was, but it was carbonated…It was kind of weird to be drinking carbonated iced tea. I can’t say that I actually enjoyed it. Also, it kind of tasted like beer which was weird…I can assure you that it wasn’t because it came in a clearly labelled, sealed can haha! Anyway, as you may or may not realize by the time of this post, it is almost 2am here in Leuven. My roommates went out to party but I stayed behind to do some catching up on life! Everything is going to start again when I get home on Monday, so I need to be ready to push ‘play’.

Anyway, hopefully there has been something interesting in this blog…My deepest apologies for the great gap between posts!

Blog Failure…

So many of you might have noticed that I haven’t posted a blog in the last two days! I can assure you that catching up is of top priority, however, I’m going to need a little more time. The absence of a posting for the last two days is pretty much directly attributable to what was supposed to be a trip to the International Criminal Court in Den Hague. Travel to Den Hague required us to get up rather early yesterday morning, so I didn’t write that night because I went to bed early. Yesterday’s activities were quite a surprise, but I won’t give away the entire story just yet, because I don’t have time right now to do it justice. We’re heading out to Brugge right now so I’m just posting a quick note. I will do my best to catch up tonight!

The Battle of Waterloo

Today was another ‘cultural’ day for the group. We woke up nice and early and headed to the site of the Battle of Waterloo to watch a reenactment. This reenactment is only done once every 3 years and drew a crowd of approximately 55,000 people. This was my first experience riding in a car in Europe. I sat in the backseat of Dr. Brooks’ friend Gret’s car (she is an absolutely marvelous woman, but for some reason she doesn’t think that we can handle the name Gret so she tells us to call her Margaret!). My first awakening was when I started to struggle to extract my seatbelt so that I could put it on. Margaret immediately said, not to worry because no one wore seatbelts in the backseat! Who knew? Anyway, the ride was fun filled to say the least! We made great time through the first part of the trip but were stopped dead before the exit to the Battle site. Here we were treated to more of Margaret’s now notoriously witty comments about Belgium, Belgians and the rest of Europe. Much like in Canada every driver thought that they were more intelligent than the people in the right lane. People were blasting past the stopped line of traffic and then expecting people to let them in as they realized that they had to get over to get to the exit. Margaret had an outraged conversation with herself every time someone tried to cut into the line of cars. Usually this conversation included a good natured assessment of whether the driver was a German, Frenchman, Belgian, Dutchman or something else! My favorite comment after a particularly aggressive driving maneuver was “Oh my God, well of course he would do that, he’s a Frenchman!” The running commentary from Margaret had us all laughing and made the time pass until we finally made it safely through the traffic.

The Battle itself was quite impressive and we had prime seats from the top of hill built to commemorate the soldiers who fought in the Battle. I won’t go into the history of the Battle (mostly because I don’t know it too well…if my grandpa’s set of World Books was here I would look it up in there, but alas it is not) but I will leave you a link here to read up on it if you should be so inclined. The weather, as you can tell by the umbrellas in the picture to the left, was quite dreadful with temperatures in the low teens and misty rain all day. It was, as my mother would say, a “bone chilling” kind of cold. We left the reenactment around 12:30pm and made a far less eventful, but still entertaining drive back to Leuven.

Upon arrival, I spent a short time analyzing my level or exhaustion! I was really tired this morning and kind of felt like I should probably take the opportunity to have a nap. However, my interest in food won out and I decided to go sample some of the baked goods at the Bakeries in Leuven. It may sound strange, but since I arrived in Belgium I have not had a single bit of chocolate and only one waffle. Let me tell you though, that one waffle (purchased from a little store in Leuven) was the most delectable treat one could ask for. I don’t think that I’ll ever be able to eat another waffle without first thinking of this experience. I’m not exactly sure what made it so good (other than the fact that I was eating a Belgian waffle in Belgium) but I think that it had something to do with the crunchy bit of caramelized sugar on the top. I’ll have to try another one and analyze it further…Anyway, despite the fact that I have not eaten Belgian chocolate yet, I decided that I would purchase a small bun-like dessert from the bakery I visited. Inside the bun (it looked more like a pizza pop or panzerotti or something like that) was a filling of fresh cherries. Cherries appear to be a regionally available food in Belgium. At first I didn’t think that I had made the right choice as this dessert was not particularly flashy looking. However, once I tasted it I knew that I had a winner. This was a dessert for someone like my dad, if my sister is reading this she will know the gleam he gets in his eye when he finds a good bun or pastry shop. A good bakery will please Bruce Fearnall any day. I’ve already sent him an email, but I suppose I should take this opportunity to say Happy Father’s Day to him!

Before I went back to the Irish College, I must admit that I stopped by a little sandwich and ice cream store that I had gotten lunch at earlier in the week. The girl that works there was really friendly to me and my friend Aaron when went in there earlier in the week. It’s not as though people here aren’t friendly, they just seem to be more reserved when dealing with us Canadians. I have a feeling that they are secretly just rolling their eyes at us and thinking that we are Americans because we’re so loud, but I suppose I’ll never know! So, this girl had been particularly nice to us, so on my way back from the bakery I may have stopped in and gotten ice cream…What can I say? I had a bit of a craving for sweet stuff, which is a little weird because usually I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. By the way, the ice cream here is way better than at home. Most of it is made right in the show and is far creamier than the stuff we find in Canada. Also, I think this is the kicker, they display it in the most tantalizing fashion. The display it in a normal ice cream case, but they put it in pans so that all you see is this big exciting looking mountain of ice cream. I’ll take a picture sometime I promise. It’s a far superior display method than the deep tubs at home (also probably easier for the workers who have to scoop the ice cream).

After consuming my sweet treats I definitely felt like a nap was in order…So, I napped from about 5:45 until 7:45 (I know, random time right? This shows you how messed up my internal clock is right now!). When I woke up I had another rather random thought…That thought was to go on a run. So, I woke myself up, and headed out. The route that I took today was absolutely stunning. I took a couple of different roads out of Leuven and ended up climbing a fairly substantial hill with farmland all around me. Belgium is quite green in fact and has lots of trees. The scenery so much interested me that I just kind of kept running…When it was all said and done I had run somewhere between 30 and 34 kilometers and for about 2.5 hours. I’m not exactly sure how that happened, but anyway, it did and I’m still alive so it’s all good!

Alright, so I think that’s enough for me for tonight. We get to sleep in a little bit tomorrow because our meetings start an hour later than usual, so I’m looking forward to a solid night’s sleep and perhaps a feeling of being rested in the morning! Wouldn’t that be nice?

Grand Béguinage

Yesterday was our first free day in Belgium. Everyone took the opportunity to sleep in, however, I think that most people woke up at a reasonable hour for fear of sleeping away an entire day. Myself, I got up around 10am and hit the road for a run. At this point in my ‘getting back in shape’ plan, I am just willing myself to run the distances that I am running. I did a good solid hour and ten minute run which was a wonderful way to start the day. I ended up, quite by accident, exploring a new part of the Leuven area called Heverlee . The problem with all of this running is that I find all sorts of interesting places when I am without my camera. I ran past a great park and by the Oud-Heverlee-Leuven Soccer Stadium. I had the urge to hop the fence and run onto the field, but I decided against it!

When I got back I went over to the market and grabbed a great sandwich for just 2.80 euros. Then I headed back to the Irish College to wait for Dr. Brooks to give us a tour of the Grand Beguinage. This town-like site was built in the early 13th century to provide living space for semi-religious unmarried or widowed females who wanted to maintain independence. This particular Beguinage is designated as a UNESCO Heritage Site. The most striking thing about this experience was realizing just how old the structures were. In Canada, our concept of ‘old’ is Quebec City. In Europe that is nothing! Even right here at the Irish College we have discovered that some of the timber beams have been carbon dated back to 1000 A.D. That is a really really long time ago!

After our walk I headed out to wander to city of Leuven. Yesterday was the longest day ofthe year and Leuven was alive with street vendors and entertainment. Take a look at my pictures and you will see a little bit of what I mean. I actually hit the city by myself for a couple of hours so I had the opportunity to just kind of explore and go with the flow.

The day ended off with a nice dinner at a restaurant called Domus. We packed it in relatively early for us, although not near early enough, because today was an early morning!

Worlds Collide

A round of applause please…I am now officially back on correct blogging schedule. I started writing this draft at about 4:10pm your time (on Friday) which amounts to about 25 minutes after I posted details about Thursday’s activities. I got distracted in the middle of writing this post and have ended up holding this one back until now. I guess it’s better that I don’t clutter up your lives with more news from Belgium anyway. Also, I think I stand a better chance of you reading all of these posts if I space them out a little bit!

Today was a ‘back to normal’ day for us. After the festivities of the last two days it felt good to get back into Brussels. This was also an exciting day because I broke out the portfolio that I purchased at the Belgian Parliament. A couple of us picked these great leather portfolio’s up for just 15 euros, so until I lose it I am pretty excited about this purchase. I know that you’re all thinking that I’m a huge loser right now, but come on, who wouldn’t want a portfolio from the Belgian Parliament? Forgive the giant camera flash in the middle of the picture…

Our first meeting of the day was back at the building where we met Mr. Sagaga (the journalist) earlier in the week. This time we went to the European Policy Centre to be briefed on the nature of the relationship between Turkey and the EU. The discussion began with a fairly specific look at the Turkish case and its growing importance in Middle Eastern and European politics. Turkey plays an interesting role as a bridge between the West and the Middle East. This capacity has been tested in recent months with growing tensions over the Gaza flotilla. Turkey has made great strides in recent years in terms of implementing pro-western philosophies such as democracy and rule of law. It still has far to go in other areas, but the progress it has made is fairly overwhelming. Take a moment to research Turkey and you will discover that it is not the backwards, antiquated country you may think it is. From the Turkish issue we drifted all over the map. We covered topics ranging from the perception of Canada in the EU and the Middle East to the integration of Islam into mainstream European culture. The two policy analysts, Shada Islam and Amanda Paul, that addressed our group were extremely knowledgeable, interesting and willing to speak to us. You might recognize Shada Islam because of her extensive background in journalism. We are fairly certain that she has done some freelance reporting for CTV and she has definitely been a major player in the European and Asian media for many years. It’s funny, I’ve noticed that the European analysts and officials that we have spoken to have been by far the most open and interested in our visit to Brussels. On the whole they seem absolutely thrilled that we are taking an interest in the EU and their issues and seem willing to go above and beyond to give us their time. There is also an inherent honesty and introspective criticism of Europe that I notice in these people. They are for the most part aware of their deficiencies as a society and admit them freely and readily. It is a humility that we in North America could learn much about. Even our friends at the Canadian embassy were incapable of straying from the ‘party line’. Maybe it’s just because I despise Stephen Harper, but I could definitely feel the Conservative Party cloak of secrecy being drawn around the Canadian presentation at the mission. This is probably just a trick of my imagination, but I would say that out of any of the delegations we have met with so far, the Canadian one was the most protective of its positions on certain issues. I have a sense that Canada is insecure in its existence on the world stage and feels as though everyone is looking to take shots at it. In reality I think that we are quite well respected and our civil servants need to be given the freedom to speak for themselves. Sadly, I can’t imagine that happening with our current Prime Minister…Anyway, I should stop now before I ruin any chance of a successful political career…Just know that I think the Canadians are kind of like the kid who never puts his/her hand in the cookie jar. They don’t reach for the cookies because they are afraid that someone is going to yell at them for taking one. They might even have permission built up from years of not taking cookies yet,  they still look over their shoulder to make sure that no one accuses them of doing something wrong. Maybe if we just took a cookie once and a while we would be able to confirm Canada’s value to ourselves.

Our time with Amanda and Shada had gotten all of us into a pretty enthusiastic political mindset, so I think that it took some of our group a little while to re-adjust to our next session. The next meeting was with two members of the Open Society Institute (oh, and I should also mention that the Open Society Institute is the brainchild of notable billionaire and philanthropist George Soros) who were working specifically on the case of Roma rights in the EU. The Roma are what we might typically refer to as ‘gypsies’ and are the most marginalized minority in Europe. The Roma are systematically discriminated against throughout Europe. It is an over simplification to suggest that their experience is the same as the First Nations peoples in Canada, but in a sense they have much the same experience. The Roma are often segregated into small, poverty stricken communities across Europe. Communities do not have proper sewage, water treatment or housing. There are also segregated ‘Roma only’ school across the EU where Roma students receive inconsistent levels of education. As I listened to the two speakers discuss their experiences as Roma I found two distinct experiences in my life colliding. My time up North last year suddenly became very much a part of my European experience this year. It was interesting because the Roma rights movement is relatively new and relatively underdeveloped. They are just beginning to push for some of the things that First Nations peoples in Canada have been asking for for years. If you click the following link you will be taken to a short youtube clip produced by the Romani movement that features one of our presenters, Violeta as a success story from the Roma community  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI_RWXwbFqI. This session was extremely interesting and a definite change of pace for our relatively academic group. The spectrum of reactions to this talk was wide. Some people found it to be too ‘emotional’ and not ‘academic enough’ while others found the emotion and personal nature of the talk to be inspiring. I was in the inspiring camp, but also felt a certain amount of frustration because the EU, much like our own government shows little political will to concretely help the groups like the Roma and the First Nations Peoples. On the positive side, I felt like there were a number of areas where collaboration between the Roma and First Nations could occur and that it might be a really interesting connection for the two groups. Both have difficulty consolidating their many different voices into one voice, but perhaps together they could be a strong minority force on the world stage. I think that this exposure to the Roma experience really gave us a window into a new and developing movement for rights. It will be interesting to see how the Roma movement develops and whether it follows a similar path to other minority groups around the world.

After returning to the Irish College I spent a little time catching up on my blog and grabbed a nice light dinner. I had some great Belgian produced cheese (although its origins are in Lille, France) called Mimolette and a baguette. Later that evening we headed for a drink in the square. It wasn’t the best night to show off the Leuven square atmosphere, so I will try to take some pictures another night.

Today is kind of a relaxing day. There is an open air market in Leuven today as well as a celebration of the longest day of the year. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it yet, but it’s light outside until about 10:45pm. Anyway, I’m going to stop writing and head out for another run. We’re going on a walk through Grand Benguinage in Leuven with Dr. Brooks this afternoon at 3pm. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and should be relatively interesting. I will remember my camera, I promise. It also occurs to me that I haven’t really given you any information on Leuven itself. Click on the wikipedia link here and do a google search of the name and I’m sure that you will come across a bit of useful information.

Just Keep Running…

Alright, so I’m still a day behind on my blogs. I really wanted to be productive yesterday, so I made sure that I did one blog and then enjoyed some good quality time in Leuven. So, what happened yesterday you ask. Well, let’s just say that for most people it was a day to just try to keep on running. Yesterday was our first fairly significant cultural day, so most people took an opportunity to prepare for this by spending Wednesday night out in the bars of Leuven. As I may or may not have mentioned, Leuven is a student town that is well known for its bar scene. To a bunch of loud obnoxious Canadian students, this is a rather exciting prospect. It was actually a really great night that saw the entire group find its way to the same bars. I continued to slowly sample to the Belgian beers available, but also performed my usual role as the team dad. I may have put my don face on for a couple of moments to make sure that everyone got home alive and well. Don’t worry, I had a great time and I wasn’t too ‘responsible’ haha, but I like to think that I helped keep things together for everyone!

Most people didn’t get back to the Irish College and back to bed until quite late in the morning, so needless to say, it was a rather early morning for some. The plan for the day didn’t help these unfortunate souls out either! The schedule was for the majority of the class to rent bicycles for a cycling tour of the region around Leuven. I haven’t been on a bike for any significant amount of time for a while, so it was actually fantastic to get on one again. The day was a great change of pace for me. I have been enjoying our days in Brussels, but I had that sort of fish bowl tourist experience feeling going on. I knew that we were only seeing a small portion of what Belgium was all about and probably weren’t seeing the way that the typical Belgian lived. The ride around Leuven gave us a great feel for the culture of the surrounding area and provided a snapshot into people’s lives. We rode into the Flanders region of Belgium and were able to see poppies growing ‘row on row’ in the fields. Poppies sort of grow in a similar abundance to dandelions in Canada. At first we thought that we were really lucky to be seeing poppies…However, after seeing them consistently for the next 3km we realized that perhaps it wasn’t as exciting as we thought! The rest of the ride took us past our professor’s old house, a number of farms, through multiple villages and finally to our halfway point at a great cafe (see picture above). We ate lunch and had a drink before heading back. I ate what Dr. Brooks described as a typical regional dish. I couldn’t hope to pronounce let alone spell the name of the dish, but it was essentially meatballs and cooked cherries. My empty bowl is in the picture to the left. Dr. Brooks is the guy in the blue shirt next to Yasmeen. I also drank an Abbey beer by the name of Tongerlo which came at the recommendation of Dr. Brooks.

On the way back we stopped at a homemade ice cream shop and were treated to ice cream by Brooksy as we affectionately refer to him as. I was recommended the ‘Speculaas’ flavour. Speculaas is a kind of Belgian cookie that based on the ice cream flavour seems to fall somewhere in the neighbourhood of gingerbread.

We returned to the College by mid-afternoon and most people went off to take a nap. I worked on my NATO blog and somehow got it into my head that I wanted to go for a run. So, later on that evening I set out to explore. I put on my running stuff and just started running. Over the course of my hour long run I made my way out of Leuven and into a neighbouring town by the name of Korbeek-Dijle (Check out the link, it’s in Dutch, but if you let google translate it, or look up the name again you will find some information. I just liked the pictures in this entry). It was a perfect evening for a run and I once again got to get an even better idea of what life in Belgium is truly like. It was a great adventure to run out of the main town square, into the suburbs and then on to the farm dotted ‘country’. The next time I run I will bring my camera and take some pictures of my own. All told I think that I ran about 10-12km which really didn’t feel like a lot because I was so preoccupied with my sightseeing.

Yesterday was a great day and a great chance to run off some of the rich Belgian food I have been eating!