Lobbyists, Tintin and European Commission visits...

The drive to Brussels from Strasbourg took far longer than it should have. Our driver was a certifiable Hari Sadu. I remember how on the trip to Strasbourg he yelled at Mads because he thought Mads had dropped boiled egg on his seat, when actually it was Alex. The Rules of the Bus were as follows:
1) No Food.
2) No Drinks.
3) No using the microwave.
4) Stops at overpriced pit stops every two hours.
Oh well, you cant have everything, I suppose.. It was kinda cool the way we drove through three countries though - France, Luxembourg and Belgium.

Brussels was a lot busier than Strasbourg. A lot of other parties to visit other than just European Union buildings. Our group was divided into two groups - staying at 2 different hotels - Manhattan and Arlequin. Hotel Manhattan where I was staying was a dingy old city hotel, two-star (you will see why this is relevant soon) which was in the red-light district and across the street from a strip club, which served us a stale roll for breakfast every morning. Hotel Arlequin where the others were staying was a three star, modern swank building, with a roof top breakfast lounge to envy. I think it is needless to say that we Manhattan people were jealous.

Anyway, the first day we arrived, we had a lecture by a Danish journalist who filled us in on the basic "wassup" with the European Union and how the future of any European Constitution hinges on Ireland's ratification of the Lisbon treaty. It was interesting to watch how the American students ask questions sometimes. Felt to me like they were challenging the speaker all the time.

The next morning we did a quite a bit of sight seeing the next morning. We walked everywhere from the Royal Palace to the Cathedral to the Tintin museum. That was fun. In the evening, we met a lobbyist for the Danish Shipowners Association who had prepared a powerpoint but unfortunately the hotel didnt have a projector so we had to imagine all his slides. And after that we went to Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office which had really good cookies. But not before Ole got us lost... :) That was really exciting for the Hong Kong students and understandably so.

In the evening, we all had a dinner in a restaurant on the restaurant street. Meriam had managed to in her adorable French get us a good deal so all 44 of us filled their restaurants. I sat next to Andrew and across from Oliver and Beth. And we participated in what was the Beth Challenge - getting Beth to talk to us. And she did. We got to know about her life, her hobbies, even her love life. And I am eager to see the beach in Hong Kong because a lot seems to happen there. Hmm.. I must explore this.

The next day was a meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce. None of the speakers there were even American - one was British and the other was Italian but they did a good job teaching us about lobbying the European Parliament. That was a very good presentation, indeed. We loafed around for a bit after that. Thu, Meriam, Jessica Tou and I had the best hot chocolate ever at a place close to the Danish Embassy there. The speaker at the Danish Embassy successfully managed to put all of us to sleep with his exact literal translation of Danish proverbs into English.

On our final day, we visited the European Commission which was really cool. The chairs on which we were seated actually had microphones next to them with translation functions. We actually got to talk to some from the department of External Affairs on the EU's stand on Tibet and David and Jessica grilled him on the EU's stand on Taiwan. That was an awesome moment. The EU has no real foreign affairs policy. Its all just talk.

After that was over we had some free time to pay our homage to the chocolate shops and Belgian Waffle. But before we sank our waffles into any waffles, we went to see the Atomium and by we, I mean, Awika, JTou, Thais, Sofia and I.. Sofia was too cute because for some reason she couldnt stop smiling. The Atomium was cool, especially considering it was built in the 1950s. After that we headed to Manneken Piss, or as someone famously said, "That little piss.." because the waffle shop next to it is supposed to have the best waffles ever.. And it was true. I had one with white chocolate sauce and dark chocolate sauce. yum..

After that we went to buy chocolate from this cute chocolate shop where the Belgian lady got very excited when she found out I was from India and she told me how much she cried when she saw Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. Bollywood gets everywhere. Just outside the shop was a little bazaar of sorts and it was a charming experience buying perfume from a perfumer actually from Grasse who was selling his perfumes in big vats. And they were really good and cheap too. He really knew his stuff. I made him smell the cherry blossom one that I liked and he was able to suggest a perfume that I really loved.

Nothing much after that. Just the trip back home, which was fairly uneventful except Justin and Andrew lost money gambling on a slot machine in the middle of Germany at 2 in the morning. After getting back on the bus though, Andrew and I started what came to be known as the Kelvin Challenge - similar to the Beth Challenge. It wasn't as successful though. The rest of the night was merely a musical chairs games of seats on the bus. Eventually though we reached Copenhagen, and there were teary goodbyes and hugs like we would never see each other again. A feeling of fellowship. Perfect.