News never stops

I think now is a good time to reflect on the amazing news stories I have covered in the past month and a half...

2nd EU Summit: This was the second summit I have worked at since being here. This one was two days instead of one and definitely a much bigger deal. Of course all of the European heads of government were there, from French PM Nikolas Sarkozy to English PM Gordon Brown. The day started out with me and the free-lance camerman Heve. I walked in the office and my boss told me Herve and I had a couple of preview assignments before the Summit. First was the Robin Hood Story. Of course, I had no idea what she meant but I soon found out. We went to Place Luxembourg, which is an area full of bars and restaurants near the EU which is always full of officials and bureacrats. On the middle of the grassy square stood a group of actors literally playing tug of war dressed as bankers and peasants. It was a literal "Robin Hood" demonstration in protest of the delayed EU implementation of a business tax that would give money to poverty programs. It was quite hilarious to say the least.

The summit went really well my reporting skills and confidence had improved vastly. I doorstepped all of the major arrivals and this time I had no problem screaming out questions to Nikolas Sarkozy...even though I knew he wouldn't answer. Here's a video I found of myself doorstepping. Unfortunately for me, Papandreou was on the WRONG side!

Greek PM Papandreou: Eurozone, not Greece, needs help
Uploaded by EUXTV. - Up-to-the minute news videos.

Overall the summit was great experience. I love politics and international affairs. I love seeing journalists from China to Egypt all in the same room. But most importantly, I love picking up the Financial Times, WSJ or NYT and reading about events that I helped cover for Reuters!


Bombspotting Campaign The Saturday before Spring Break I volunteered to cover a story about a nuclear weapons protest just outside of Brussels. According to anti-nuclear weapons activists, the United States and other countries have nuclear weapons in a military base in Belgium. That specific Saturday was a world-wide protest day so obviously Reuters covered it. I saw some file video of previous protests and it looked like your average demo, lots of police/soldiers arresting mean with beards and dreadlocks.

So the cameraman and I get there and decide we have to march with the protestors as they try and infiltrate this military base. I walked approximately 6 km through forest and farms, in the pouring rain. Of course as soon as we get there the protesters are arrested on the spot. We even saw some reporters get arrested for videotaping it! I was in fear for my safety and did not want to spend my Spring Break in a Belgian jail cell.

Of course I complained to myself the whole march but you know what? It makes me a better reporter. What 21 year old can say to a future employer that they have risked their safety marching through a Belgian forest with 25 marijuana smoking anti-nuclear weapon activists? Talk about some great B-roll.

The story got 16 hits and even was picked up by media in IRAN. Ironic? I think so. All in all a good story.


Volcanic Ash: This is probably the biggest story I've covered here. And will probably be the biggest story I cover at least untill I graduate. So we're sitting at the office and all of the sudden we hear this nonsense about a volcano in Iceland spewing ash all over Europe. I head out with the camera man to go to the Brussels airport where every flight is about to be cancelled. We do some vox pops (quick interviews with people in the airport) and even got to go up in the old control tower! That was literally terrifying. I am not a fan of heights.

Throughout that week I interviewed a representative from the Association of European Airlines about 3 times. The amount of money lost thanks to the volcano is astronomical. Thank God it's over so I don't have to worry about being stuck over here, or taking a train to Spain and flying home!

Spring Break...I know, I know it's late.

Yes you are reading correctly. It is the final week of my program and I am just now updating about my Spring Break trip! I cannot believe how fast these past four months have flown by. I have done a horrible job at keeping up with this blog, so I’m going to start off by discussing my wonderful week in Spain.

On Easter Sunday my roommate Carley and I went to Palma Mallorca, Spain with our two other friends on this program Erin and Molly. We arrived late in the afternoon and were immediately in awe of the beautiful island. For those of you who don’t know, Mallorca is a small island off the eastern coast of Spain. It is full of mountains and breathtaking views. We arrived and easily found our hostel, which for 15 euro a night, wasn’t bad at all! We had private rooms and even our own balcony.

We immediately set out to explore. We walked down the strip and noticed a lot signs in……..German? Apparently, Mallorca is very heavily concentrated with Dutch and Germans. It’s a very popular vacation spot. We found this odd and somewhat amusing that we were in Spain seeing schnitzel restaurants. We found a TexMex place (also weird) and immediately tried the delicious Sangria. We ended up meeting a group of Swiss guys who were hilarious and we later learned they went to the same restaurant everyday that week!

The first day we spent on the beach and it felt amazing. It was so peaceful and relaxing. We had a nice little girls dinner at a new restaurant on the strip. We ended up going there two nights in a row just because we had so much fun talking to the friendly Dutch staff!

The next couple of days we explored the city because it was a little cloudy. We took a loooong bus into Palma and walked around. We found a cute little restaurant and had some delicious tapas. We also climbed a mountain to see Castle Belver!! This was my first castle and the view was absolutely breathtaking. We walked up about a million steps but it was definitely worth it.

Our last day we spent on the beach even though it was about 65 degrees and cloudy. We were determined to enjoy the weather and scenery as much as we could before heading back to gray Brussels.

On Thursday we flew out to BARCELONNNAA to meet up with our friends Bonnie, Paul, Michael and Ry. They had been there for a couple days already and I have to admit I’m pretty jealous I didn’t get more time in Barca. It is definitely my second favorite city in Europe (besides London) We got to our hotel and were definitely pleased. For the first time this whole semester we were in a nice hotel room with our own bathroom. It actually looked like a place I would stay with my family! Props to Molly for finding the wonderful Hotel Guillermo Tell. That night we explored the Barcelona nightlife and it definitely lived up to its reputation!

On Friday we woke up early and headed to the famous Park Guell. Park Guell was designed by the renowned Catalan architecht Antonio Gaudi. Words really can’t describe this place. It seemed like a giant playground. It led up to the top of a mountain with views overlooking the entire city of Barcelona. It was simply beautiful. After that we hit the Barceloneta beach which was easily the coolest beach I’ve been to in my life. White sand and clear blue water, with an amazing W hotel jetted out in the water. It was pretty surreal.

The next day I met up with my friends Hillary and Emily who were visiting from London. We hit the beach again, obviously, and just sat and caught up. It was so refreshing to see them and it really made me realize how much I miss the people from home. All it takes is one familiar face to make you feel homesick.


By the end of spring break I was really dreading going back to Brussels. I remember sitting in the Barcelona airport with tons of other American kids, wishing I had a one-way ticket from Barca to Chicago.

These last few weeks have been a complete whirlwind at work, so I think I’ll need to do a separate blogpost about all of the crazy stories we’ve covered!

March Madness

Betsy and I out in Brussels and at the Grand Place

Hello everyone!

I'm trying to go into chronological order with this thing so I'll start where we last left off..

Three weekends ago my very best friend at Miz

zou came to visit me! Betsy and Abbie are two of my sorority sisters and they are studying in Pamplona, Spain. They came in on Friday and stayed till Sunday. It was SO amazing to see familiar faces and I can honestly say I realized how thankful I am for this experience. I had so much fun showing them around the city, eating frites and waffles, and taking them out with my new friends on this program. We even were able to catch the Mu/Ku game on TV at the only American bar in Brussels! It felt like I was back at home, laying in bed eating sweet treats and cracking jokes with Betsy :) I miss Clarkson/Rm205 a lot..and it was good to get a little bit of that over here in Europe.

The weekend after that we went to LONDONTOWN. This weekend was probably my overall favorite!!! Our teacher, Gareth, scheduled class for us on Friday instead of our usual one in Brussels. I arrived in Thursday night and was immediately greeted at the train station by my amazing friends who let me stay with them. We went out that night to a cool little club and it was so nice to hear AMERICAN music for once. Even though I'm becoming quite the little hipster and discovering some fresh new European tunes. Anywaaays. Friday we visited the House of Lords/Commons, Westminster, Buckingham Palace, and the Economist Headquarters.

The Economist was a great experience. I really like what they stand for and their philosophy. We talked to the Washington DC Editor and he basically told us their mission. I like the idea of journalism that is more than just the facts, but also commentary. That's what the Economist is and I have come to like this publication very much. It's full of great editorials that are pretty moderate, politically speaking, so they tend to show both sides of the argument.

After that we went to a debate between a member of a UK political party that is anti-EU and one that is pro-EU. Gareth moderated the debate and it got pretty heated. I don't think the pro-EU guy was a very eloquent speaker but I agreed with most of what he said. On the other hand I can understand why Brits specifically might not like the EU, honestly the pros are outweighed by the cons. Britain pays more into the EU then it gets back and that is frustrating for many Brits. But, the UKIP (UK Independence Party) guy completely lost all credibility from me when he basically said some pretty bigoted comments against Muslims.

Here is a link to a video of a recent incident involving the UKIP in the EU parliament:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bypLwI5AQvY

The next day us girls woke up bright and early to go to Portabello market, in the Notting Hill area. It was so cool! We walked around and looked at antiques, clothes, jewelry, and every kind of food imaginable. From fur coats to fresh paella this market had everything. We ate a hot dog from a stand and gelato...breakfast of champions.

Later that day we walked around the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was nice to go to a museum on my own time. As much as I love our art history trips it can get very tiring traveling in such a large group. After the V&A we went to Harrods which was just as amazing as I remember it from the ripe old age of 9 years old. If I can spend 1 million dollars at any store or place in the world I would pick Harrods easily. They have everything!That night we had a delicious sushi dinner and went out to a club for a while.

Sunday we slept in for a bit then went to afternoon tea at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens. This was probably my favorite part of the trip! It just felt so proper and classy, I could definitely do afternoon tea every week! Plus the setting was great. Right in the middle of Kensington, one of the most expensive areas of real estate in the world right next to Princess Di's old living quarters. Pretty unreal! After that we walked around and saw the sights: London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, etc. We finished the evening with fish&chips at an authentic pub on the Thames river, complete with a saxophone player. Pretty great way to end the weekend.

London was a blast and I'd really love to go back. Of all the places I've been so far in Europe, London is the one place I could see myself living. It's the perfect balance of foreign culture combined with all of the conveniences of America. Compared to Brussels it's just a completely different atmosphere. But I love the big B with all of my heart and can't believe I only have 5 weeks left here :(

Spring break is coming up very soon and I can't wait! But then we only have 3 weeks when we get back before the semester's over. I miss my family/friends/home a lot but I don't want this 4 months to end. I've had the time of my life so I'm going to live it up while I'm still here!

a MUCH needed update!

hello everyone and first of all sorry that I

haven't updated in a coon's age. I can't believe I haven't written anything on here since Paris! I don't even know if people still read this thing but I'm going to keep updating either way! So much has happened since then, so I'll try to keep this as organized and detailed as possible without rambling on forever.
I'll start with some updates about our travels

Antwerp: We travelled to Antwerp, Belgium the weekend after Paris on a school trip for our art class. To be honest, I wasn't too impressed with this city. To me it

was a smaller less cool version of Brussels with better shopping. It is known as being a cosmopolitan area and that's exactly what it is. Lots of restaurants, expensive stores and boutiques. It is supposedly a very popular place to buy diamonds but obviously I wasn't shopping for one at the moment. We really didn't see too many museums there but overall it was a decently pretty city. It doesn't even come close to Bruges or Paris though.

Amsterdam: Amsterdam was a very INTERESTING city, to say the least. We went there also on a school trip for our art class. The weekend started off bright and early Friday morning. We took a charter bus there and most of us planned on sleeping the whole way, but of course Madama Delsemme had something planned. We stopped in this neat little town in the Netherlands called Delft. It is a very historic place and we got a tour of the city from the nicest old man you'll ever meet. So you know that Pixar film short of the old man playing chess? Picture him giving a tour of an old historic town. It was so cute! We got back on the bus and arrived in Amsterdam about an hour later. We were literally dropped off in the middle of town and walked to our hostel/hotel. Our hostel was about a block away from the red light disctrict, and the boys could see women dancing from their windows! After we checked in we went to a couple of museums and walked around a little bit. For dinner we had a traditional Indonesian meal which was amazing. It was family style and so so good! I had no idea there was such an Indonesian influence in Amsterdam, who knew Indonesia was once a Dutch colony? After dinner we went to the Van Gogh Museum!!!!! It was unbelievable to actually see some of his famous paintings, which I took pictures of even though I wasn't supposed to haha. It was surreal being that close to such famous masterpieces and this semester I feel like I have really grown to appreciate art! Plus in the lobby there was a DJ and a bunch of people were lounging around sipping cocktails. It was really neat. After that we walked around some and let's just say Red Light District is as dirty as it sounds.

On Saturday we did a boat tour through the many canals of Amsterdam. It was a beautiful clear day and it was nice to finally see some sunshine! We went to a couple of museums as well and finally got some free time during the afternoon. On Saturday night we went to a concert. Our friends on this program are into an artist called Pretty Lights, and it's basically like electronica music. The guy composes and performs all of the songs on his MacBook laptop! It was an awesome experience, I haven't been to many concerts but this one was everything you imagine a techno concert in Amsterdam to be hahaha.

On Sunday we explored the Jewish neighborhood of Amsterdam. Amsterdam has a rich Jewish history, which I was unaware of. We went to the Anne Frank House which was great because I love history and I remember reading her diary as a little girl. It was actually really sad though, to think about the atrocities of the Holocaust. After that we went to a Jewish history museum. Let mw just say that we have been very fortunate to have amazing tour guides on this program and the tour guide at the Jewish museum was no exception. Her name was Mia, and she told us the story of a Jewish family that was separated and went into hiding but was reunited after the war. That story was actually of her family and it was one of the most heart warming things I've ever heard!

After a long weekend of touring and living in a filthy hostel, I was very excited to return to the big B!

Dublin: This has been without a doubt my favorite trip thus far. Carley, Dani and myself took this trip. Where do I even begin?
We got in Friday night around 9 and searched for a bus to our hostel. Immediately we felt at ease due to the warmth and friendliness everyone showed us. We got to our hostel and quickly changed to go out. We went to an Italian restaurant (go figure, it's our fallback ah) and enjoyed a good meal and good convos. It was nice just to spend some quality time just the three of us and not have to worry about 20 other people! We then went to the Temple Bar area which is full of pubs and entertainment. We went to a pub that brewed their own beer, which was pretty neat. I stole some coasters and tried to take my glass too but it didn't go so well.
On Saturday we debated what to do, walk around the city or tour the countryside. Since our time was limited we wanted to make the most of it. We decided on the countryside tour and I am so thankful we made that decision. It was a 10 person bus with a nice old man named Ed driving. He knew so much about Ireland and Irish history! We went to the coast and the mountains. I will let the pictures speak for itself but it was amazing. I remember driving through the mountains listening to Coldplay and I could feel tears in my eyes! I seriously am the luckiest girl in the world for being able to do this!!!
On Saturday night we went to Brazen Head, which is the oldest pub in Ireland. I had a seafood chowder which was really good! We then met this man who started chatting us away and he seriously taught us some valuble life lessons. He started talking about friendships, relationships, being young and growing up. He told us to never forget our friends from home while we are at college and to never forget where we come from. I had been kind of homesick the week before so this really hit home for me. I had also been kind of down since my family is moving within the next couple of years, plus the fact that I'm graduating next year (SCARY) and worried about the strong ties I have built over the last decade with so many people. My parents threw me a going away/goodbye party before I left for Europe and I remember thinking to myself how lucky I was to still have such a tight knit group of friends. l I look at my mom, who is still very close with her best friend since 6th grade. I really hope that I can one day have that with some of my closest girl friends :) .............ANYWAYS, I truly think God sent that man (Anthony) to our table to talk to us for a reason and it was nice to enjoy some good english conversation for once, haah.
On Sunday we walked around and saw all the major cathedrals. Sadly we had to leave early and I had to leave town again for work. Don't worry Ireland, I WILL be back!

The past couple weeks at work have been a whirlwind, filled with lots of big news events. Here's a few things I've been working on..

-EU Heads of Government Summit: My first big EU Summit! Such an exciting day, journalists from literally all over the world. Main topic was the Greek Financial Crisis and what to do about it. In true EU fashion, no grand decision came out of the summit besides the fact that the EU would support Greece in whatever decision they make. We also went to the presser for the Greek PM, and I got to ask the first question! My voice was shaking, I was so nervous. Luckily he spoke perfect English.
-Belgian Train Crash: I'm sure many of you have heard about the devastating train crash in February. About 19 people died, and we were out there the morning it happened. Our photographer, Thierry, had the picture of the day in my opinion.
-Karadzic Trial: On the Thursday before I left for Dublin, my boss told me I would be going to the Hague, Netherlands to cover the story. I was to meet the cameraman from Amsterdam and we would cover the story. They put me in a hotel room and it was my first big business trip! I was extremely exhausted after Dublin and had to catch the train right away on Sunday to get to the Netherlands but it was worth it. The story was about a former Bosnian leader who is being tried for war crimes and genocide against the Muslims during the 90s. It was at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. I know that's a lot of information but it was a pretty complicated story. I worked my hardest but one thing I learned on Monday is accuracy is KEY. I had some troubles understanding the Bosnian translations and made a few mistakes, but it was a learning experience!
-Madoff: Today, well this morning, I went to Luxembourg (the country) to cover a court decision as well. I left at 5am and can't believe I am even awake right now. Basically the decision was about whether or not investors can file claims to the banks who lost millions of dollars when Madoff went under. Luxembourg is a very bank-heavy, rich country so it was a big deal. It was a very long day but I also learned a lot!


Well I think that about sums everything up. Betsy, my best friend from MU, and Abbie, another one of my sorority sisters are coming to visit tomorrow from Spain. I AM SOOO EXCITED!

top of the W curve.

In the weeks leading up to study abroad we had an orientation at school about the experience we would be embarking on. The staff explained to us something called the W curve, which basically says that you will go through a variety of emotions throughout the semester while abroad. On Friday, we traveled to Paris and needless to say, this weekend I was at the top of the W curve.

I'm not even going to talk about my week at work because nothing exciting really happened so I'll just cut to the chase.

Friday afternoon we took the train to Paris and checked into our hostel. Our hostel was amazing. It was a 3 story hotel with a bar, disco, lounge and restaurant. The staff was extremely friendly and the rooms were clean. I wasn't expecting roaches and cold showers, but I was still extremely impressed and thankful that we have my friend Carley as our travel agent!

We stuck around our neighborhood on Friday for dinner and ate at the hostel. We then met up with our other friends on the program, who have a friend from Mizzou studying in Paris. We went to this place called "The Panic Room." I can't think of a more fitting description of this place haha. It was extremely crowded and sweaty with lots of beautiful hip Parisians. Definitely different than what we were used to, but such a cool place and it was fun to people watch.

On Saturday we woke up bright and early to hit the free breakfast. One of the guys on our program had the idea that it would be pancakes, eggs, bacon, you know the usual American specialities. This was definitely not the case and it ended up being a poor man's continental breakfast. Warm orange juice, cereal, and some baguettes. Awesome. Hahaha but free food is free food, so I can't complain!


The first thing we did was hit the metro into town. Our hostel was a little far away but we ended up getting to the city fairly easy. We went to the world-famous Hotel Deville and it was beautiful. We couldn't go inside but we were able to snap some pics.

Then we went into a department store for some browsing but left empty handed. Don't worry though, we went back and did some damage at Longchamp. I got two purses, one for my mom and one for me. I got the limited edition Eiffel tower Le Pilage tote as a special souvenir/birthday present to remember the weekend by :) The boys bought watches for 10 euro and Paul's broke 6 hours later. Hahaha

Next we went to The Notre Dame Cathedral. It was absolutely amazing. Again, I have been so lucky to see such beautiful churches so far on this trip and this was no different. What's even better is the fact that there was a mass going on while we were there and I watched the preparation of the gifts and Eucharist all in Latin! SO cool.

Next, we went to the LOUVRE. SO UNREAL. WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW EXCITED I WAS! I seriously felt like I was right in the Da Vinci Code! Highlights of the Louvre included:
-Mona Lisa
-Italian paintings
-Napoleon's wing
-and last but not least....I SAW THE ACTUAL PAINTING THAT IS ON THE COLDPLAY VIVA LA VIDA ALBUM COVER!
-oh another highlight was when Gaio tried to show his MU student ID to get into the Louvre for free. EU students can get in and a photo ID with a huge tiger on it does not equal proof of EU residency. I seriously had tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard.


We stayed at the Louvre for about 4 hours, right till closing time. I could spend another three days there easily. I can't wait to go back with my Mom (hopefully!)

After that we got dinner at a cute little restaurant near the Eiffel tower. For 14 euro I got steak, frites and a salad plus desert. It was honestly delicious. Obviously not as good as my Dad's grilled meat but it was the first time I have felt full in a long time. The best part about the desert was the crepes...chocolate filled and heavenly. I was in a food coma.

By this time it was fully dark so we decided to hit the Eiffel tower to see it at night. We stopped in the market and got some 1 euro champagne to celebrate. Walking up to the tower I got tears in my eyes, I seriously felt like and still do feel like, the luckiest girl in the world. It was so magnificent and beautiful I wish I could describe it! Then the whole tower lit up and started sparkling it was indescribable!

On Sunday we woke up and debated on what to do for the day. Our options were go to Versailles or the Catacombs or just hang out and see more of Paris. We decided Versailles might be too much to do in one day, time wise, and Catacombs just didn't seem that appealing.

So we went to the Arc de Triumph first! It was really cool. We didn't go up it because it was 9 euro so we saved to go to the Eiffel tower again. It was just as pretty during the day and this time I got to go up to the top (well..almost the top.)

As someone who isn't very comfortable with heights I was feeling a little uneasy on the way up. Add that with the fact that I had spent the last 20 minutes waiting in line fighting off trinket salesmen and you can see while I was on edge. We were crammed into an elevator and it was extremely stuffy. As soon as we got up, I burst out and was speechless. I could see the entire city of Paris. Again, it's hard to describe this but hopefully the pictures can help.

We went to a little creperie for a sweet treat afterwards, we were starving. It was this little family owned restaurant and a young boy brought us our food and drinks. He was so cute, and this is the part of the day that I started getting really homesick for the following reasons...
-The little boy reminded me of my precious little brother who is actually taller than me. I can't believe how old he is getting. He is going to be in high school next year!
-We met a nice family from Orlando who was traveling through Europe for the week and it made me think of my family when Cyrus and I were younger. I am so lucky I have been so many places and so thankful that my parents have showed us as much as they have, and have supported me in doing this semester abroad!
-My mom has a huge sweet tooth and I can only imagine how long we would of had to wait at this restaurant for her to make up her mind ordering. I would of been so annoyed.


Anyways...we then walked around some more and ran into all my friends from London! It was so nice to see familiar faces and I can't wait to visit Hillary, Emily and Kristin at the beginning of March.


We ended the day by going to the Moulin Rouge. It was really pretty at night all lit up. I wish I could of seen the show but it's super expensive. After that we grabbed dinner at an Irish place and surprisingly had American food. So there I was, in Paris next to the Moulin Rouge at an Irish pub eating chicken wings and potato skins. I am the most cultured girl in the world.

All in all it was an excellent weekend and I am so lucky that I was able to experience. I can't wait to go back when my Mom visits and hopefully the weather will be a little warmer!

First trip

This week has been amazing. I have many updates on work, travel, and life in general so I will try to make this post as organized and coherent as possible.

Work:
This week was slower and less hectic than last, but I finally got my first dose of foreign diplomacy. On Tuesday, they told me to be at Reuters at 6:45 am to cover a NATO conference. The conference was the NATO Military Committee Chiefs of Defense Session. The session was a precursor to the Afghanistan conference in London that I'm sure many of you heard about this week. I was so excited to go to NATO, an organization I have learned about in all of my political science classes. The security there is absolutely insane and I had to get a press badge and everything you carry has to get a NATO tag noting that it went through security. Don't worry I saved both for my scrapbook! So anyways, we get in and set up to film the arrivals. I saw the top military commanders from dozens of countries walk through the door in uniform. It was so neat seeing them pull up in their motor brigades. Unfortunately we were unable to see US General McChrystal because he went through a different entrance, but it was still cool seeing everyone else. We shot the arrivals then quickly began writing up a short script and editing the footage to send to Reuters in London. I might have mentioned this before, but Reuters is a news agency. So we cover stories and send them off to different stations and media outlets across the world. We take laptops with us everywhere so we can edit and send breaking news right after it happens. I actually helped with the writing process this time which was cool as well. Later in the day we went back out to NATO to cover the announcement of the new Civilian Rep. to Afghanistan. This was just a press conference but it was interesting as well. One thing that I gathered from all of this was how big of a deal the war in Afghanistan for people besides Americans. Sometimes I think we forget how many foreign troops our helping us fight this long war, and it is important to be thankful for that in addition to the hard work of our troops.

The next few days were very slow at work, but tomorrow on my birthday I will be interviewing Pro-Tennis player Yania Wickmayer! She is from Belgium and is becoming one of the top female tennis players in the world! I'll let you know how that goes.

Travel:
We took our first trip on Saturday to Bruge, Belgium. I AM IN LOVE WITH THAT CITY! The day started out with us almost missing our train and we were running around frantically looking for our teacher and the poor other kids who are stuck with us loud midwesterners in that class. We got on the train with minutes to spare. It was no Hogwarts Express but definitely better than the Amtrak. I just sat there and listened to music the whole way enjoying the ride. Side note, I highly encourage everyone to download the "Hope for Haiti" album on I-tunes. It is a beautiful album and my personal favorites are Coldplay Message 2010 and Beyonce's Halo. Anyyyyyways we got there and I was at first in awe of how beautiful the city was. It's a quaint little medieval-esque town full of canals, churches and museums. It was snowing when we arrived and just looked like something out of a freaking postcard. The first thing we did was went to a gorgeous Catholic church, the Church of Our Lady. I saw my first Michelangelo statue here! It was of Madonna. The rest of the church was beautiful and even had tombs of Charles the Bold, a duke of Burgandy, and the duchess Mary. It was literally amazing.

Next we went to the Groening Museum which was full of artwork from Northern Europe. Lots of renaissance, baroque and Neo-classical stuff. A lot better than some of that MoMA Chicago stuff, Daddy! :) Just kidding. But seriously I really enjoy this type of art as opposed to modern art because this is full of history and shows so much about the time period it displays. ABout 3/4 of the art depicted some type of Christianity and that to me was fascinating. So many images of Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist etc. I loved it. Of course the final room had some modern stuff with some canvas that had a bunch of numbers on it. Hahahaha.

After that we went to the shopping area of town and had lunch. There is some great stores there and I definitely want to go back shopping. We were in a time crunch and all the restaurants had long waits so we ended up eating Pizza Hut. That was the low point of the day if not the whole trip. I hate Pizza Hut and I don't even eat it at home. Of course it was a buffet, in pure American style, and the place was packed. Hahah

Next we went to the city square which is comparable to the Grand Plac. The city square is where the Basilica of the Holy Blood was located.

The Basilica of the Holy Blood is hard to put into words. I choked up walking into this magnificent church. It was built in the 12th century and is the most beautiful church I have ever seen in my entire life. What's even better is the fact that the Church has a relic of the Holy Blood.

"Legend has it that after the Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea wiped blood from the body of Christ and preserved the cloth. The relic remained in the Holy Land until the Second Crusade, when the King of Jerusalem Baldwin III gave it to his brother-in-law, Count of Flanders Diederik van de Elzas. The count arrived with it in Bruges on April 7, 1150 and placed it in a chapel he had built on Burg Square."

So, I was able to walk up to the altar and place my hands on a relic of the Holy Blood.

There's really not much I can say about it, because I just closed my eyes and prayed. It was probably one of the most spiritual moments of my life.

Basically we just walked around the rest of the day and went to one more museum. I love Brugge and can't wait to go back when it's nice out and take a boat tour through the many canals. One thing I especially liked was the Catholic influence in the city. It was very refreshing to take a step back from my hectic day to day here in Brussels. It was a very humbling day!

Daily Life:

-Conveniences
I hate to say it, but simple things at home are just flat out harder to get accomplished here. We all tried to go to a movie last weekend and the line was out into the street. There's no ticket takers, people stick their money in one little machine. It just seems so inefficient. Of course there's nothing like Fandango either, and even though I sometimes laughed at my Mom for always using it I really miss it now :)

Grocery shopping is the same way. We have 3 people in our flat with a TINY fridge and we honestly cannot fit more than a couple day's worth of food in. Also, food comes in such small amounts here. Carley and I both take turkey sandwiches for lunch most days and each pack only has about 5 slices, therefore we have to buy some every other day! My friend Michael summed it up best. "It's so different here. In America you get in your big ass car and you go to the big ass Wal-Mart and buy enough food to last you two weeks and you don't grocery shop till then." Hahaahaha so true.

Besides the people at home, I miss things being open on Sundays and past 7pm any day for that matter, I miss unlimited drink refills at restaurants, I miss iced water with lemon at restaurants, and I miss Mexican food. That's about it. I just had to get that off my chest!


Buuuuut on the other hand I wouldn't trade my life for anything! Although I have to go grocery shopping so often I love being able to buy fresh baguettes every single day to take for my sandwiches, and I love that I can pick one Fanta out of a six-pack if I don't want to buy the whole thing. I love it here, I really do. I just need to get past my American "I want it NOW" mentality :)


Tomorrow is my 21st birthday! It's very exciting, but I am wishing I could be with family and friends from home as well. But, I know that this is where I'm supposed to be and these next few months will fly by so I better enjoy it while it lasts!

Paris next weekend-CAN'T WAIT!

Au Voir & check my picture site for Bruge!
-Cyreia

PS: I know all of you are probably worried about how I am holding up without Law&Order SVU. It works online so I can watch it, plus Criminal Minds is on here in English! HOORAY

Life as an intern

Sorry it has been so long since my last update. This week we started class and our internships and I have been quite busy to say the least.

I work at Reuter's, in the broadcast news department. There are two other girls from my program who are also interning there, so it's nice to know some familiar faces! Monday was our first day and we really weren't able to do much because the TV crew was our covering a EU conference so basically we spent the day getting our press passes. We had to go to the EU and get official credentials. Very cool! On Tuesday we met the broadcast department and immediately I was thrown into a story. I traveled to Liege, Belgium to cover a strike at the InBev factory. For those of you who don't know InBev is one of the largest breweries in the world and about a year ago they bought out Anheiser Busch. They make beers such as Stella Artois, and a lot of other ones that are popular in Belgium. The workers were on strike because InBev was threatening to cut about 200 jobs from the factory. So, they built a 30ft high wall of beer crates to block the semi-trucks from getting any inventory. This can cause a beer shortage because no one is getting the shipments! It was so cool being out there watching the workers shout and chant, drink beer, and also start a huge bonfire. This is definitely something I didn't expect to see!

On Tuesday we had our first art class. Our teacher is a very sweet woman who I think generally cares about our learning. I am taking an Art History class, and we take several weekend field trips. I will be traveling to Bruge and Antwerp (both in Belgium), Amsterdam, and Trier which is in Germany. I am so excited!

At work on Wednesday we went to Port, Antwerp which is an hour away. Here we were covering a story about Opel. Opel is owned by GM and is kind of like the European equivalent of Saturn. Again, GM is threatening to cut jobs as well but in this case an entire factory's worth, roughly 3,000 workers. On Tuesday no other media was there and I think the workers were kind of intimidated that we knew something they didn't. No official announcement had been made yet but we later found out the European GM President was flying into Brussels to make negotiations.

On Wednesday we also had our first French class. The lady basically spoke no English so you can imagine how difficult that was! We played a couple of games, but I am quickly learning that French is a lot harder than Spanish. I'm still having trouble with my R's and such.

On Thursday at work we traveled again to Antwerp. I went with a freelance photographer who picked me up at 7am. That is the earliest I have ever had to be anywhere in my life. Darko was really funny though, and gave me lots of advice about Europe. He sang a lot in the car ride and kept my spirits high in the wee hours of the morning. We learned that the workers found out that the plant would most likely close in June. We interviewed several of them, and I was running around with the boom mike getting people's names and such. I speak no Dutch so I couldn't do the interviews but it was still so much fun being in that environment. Every major media outlet was there from the AP to German TV stations.

On Friday we had class with Gareth and we talked about some Brussels/EU issues. A lady from Turkey came and spoke about why Turkey should join the EU. It was very interesting to hear her perspective. The whole EU still fascinates me. Could you imagine an American Union? The US, Mexico, Canada, etc. all sharing a common currency, open borders and so on. Never would that happen I think.

In other news, we've booked two trips to Paris and Dublin! Can't wait!

Here are some pictures, enjoy. http://s750.photobucket.com/albums/xx150/csm2f/