Hillary

This is what happened to me at NATO today. :)

Hey guys,
I haven't been updating a whole lot because not a whole lot has really been happening. I go to my internship Monday-Thursday and while I'm there, I usually just go to press conferences or stand outside meetings waiting for various politicians to comment on the issues that are being discussed at said meetings. On Fridays I go to my one class, where we usually talk about cultural differences between the US and Belgium, and the EU, and how to report on the EU.

Brussels is okay as a city. Most days it is cold and rainy and drizzly. I rarely ever feel completely dry or completely clean. One a week or so there'll be a sunny day. It's definitely an urban area; most people are hustling and bustling to get wherever they're going. I get along fine with using English most of the time, and I don't even feel bothered anymore that I can never understand what people are saying. There are so many languages around here that I'm sure no one can understand everything being spoken around them. Although, I do kind of get happy when people are talking in English and I can overhear bits of conversation. Occasionally I hear a bit of Spanish too.

I planned Nick's and my trip to Cologne, Germany and Amsterdam next month. We have round trip train tickets and hostel reservations to spend 3 days in Germany and 2 in Amsterdam, and total we're only spending $220 each, which is not bad at all.

I've been pretty stressed out dealing with housing issues for next year, but I'll get it all straightened out.

I found a book store that only sells books in English, so I was pretty excited about that! And I don't get lost just trying to get around anymore, and feel more comfortable with basic things like grocery shopping and using the metro line.



This is where I work. My office is in the white building in the middle that says "IPC" (International Press Center), then the European Commission is that big building on the right.



This is a piece of controversial art that was installed in the main entrance of the EU council building. I tried to get a picture that shows how much press shows up at these events, but it's hard to capture. There's a pretty big scandal surrounding the art, and I was there for the official unveiling!

Here's an article from the BBC about it.

(you can click on the photos to see the larger versions of them)

Well, I love you all a ton and you can call me at (913) 440-0787. I'd love to hear from everyone.

In Brussels!

I've been in Brussels since Monday, and this is certainly an odd little country. They have no government whatsoever, it collapsed at the end of December, but the EU is situated here, so laws are being created for the entirety of Europe, but not for Belgium itself. A lot of the intersections have no street signs whatsoever, so the cars all just kind of go for it, and I have no idea how there are not more wrecks. There are a bunch of different languages spoken here. About 70% of the people can speak French, 60% Dutch, 35% English, and I know I've heard Spanish around too.

I'm starting to get settled and used to how things work. I'm getting pretty good at navigating the metro and I can speak fractured French enough to kind of order food and stuff. My internship starts on Monday, so I'll be quite busy with that I'm sure. I've got a really good internet connection in my room (thankfully!) so I can finally post some pictures and stuff. Sorry about the lack of updates, everything has just been crazy!

I'll start with Paris and work to Belgium I guess because that's the order in which these pictures were taken.


This is the bakery that was directly outside of our hostel in Paris. I bought the best quiche there that I've ever eaten.


This was a neat square with artists and crepes.


We decided to walk to the Eiffel Tower from right about here. It took us a couple hours, but we made it before the sun went down!


This is my Eiffel Tower pic... it's really quite large!


This is what I saw when exiting the train station when I arrived in Edinburgh. There were thousands of people marching the streets with flaming torch swords (including kids who were just carelessly swinging them around) and then everybody marched up a hill and set a lion statue on fire.


Here's a view of Edinburgh from on top of a pretty tall hill.


View of the castle at night.


View of the castle from the street.


This is a typical street in Brussels.


St. Michel's Cathedral in Brussels. We went inside and it's really pretty. The cathedrals in Europe are all really cool and decorated with stained glass and statues and such.


This was a cathedral in Mechelin, Belgium, a city north of Brussels that we went to for a day.

Overall, I'm definitely still getting settled, but getting used to being so far away from anything and anyone familiar. I'm trying to take advantage of the fact that I'm in Europe because I really don't know when I'm going to be back. Also, I got an unexpected scholarship last minute which I had completely forgotten that I even applied for, so that's really nice! I think we might go to Spain/Morocco for spring break at the end of February, Ireland around St. Patrick's Day, Amsterdam and England when Nick is here in March, and hopefully Germany sometime on a weekend! The really awesome thing about Brussels is that I'm incredibly close to a bunch of other large European cities, which makes it really easy to travel.

This has quite possibly been the most hectic week of my life!

Hi guys,
I'm currently sitting in my hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland! I don't have a very strong internet connection, so I may not be able to post many pictures, but I'll try...

So, we got into Paris, France on December 26th pretty early, and we were staying in a hostel in the Montmarte region, and it was super cute. The hostel was about two blocks from the Moulin Rouge, and right outside our door was a french bakery so I had some of the most delicious quiche I've ever tasted! Their eclairs were also quite good.

We spent one day walking all over and seeing all of the sights. Of course we made it to the Eiffel Tower (but didn't go up. the line was really long and it's quite expensive. plus, it's been cold.), the Arch de Triomphe, etc. I really liked Paris a lot. I guess I'd heard a lot of really bad things about it, that the people were rude, that the city was dirty, etc. and that wasn't my experience at all. Of course, some people seemed slightly frustrated that I couldn't speak French, but nobody was really mean or anything. And the city seemed really clean. It smelled a little funky at first, but you got used to it. All of the buildings were really cute and well kept. The crummiest building that I saw was actually a McDonalds.


After a few days, we flew here to Edinburgh. The first thing that we saw when walking out of the train station was thousands of people marching down the streets with torch swords. Seriously, I don't know how they didn't set the entire town on fire. Little kids were swinging them about and such. There were also bagpipes playing. The crowd all marched up a hill and set a giant lion statue on fire. I'm really not sure what they were doing... it was some sort of celebration and definitely an interesting way to enter the country.

The town itself is alright... this week it has been very touristy because they host Hogmanay, a new year's celebration, and people come from all over Europe. The architecture is really neat, but other than that it seems like there's mostly just pubs and tourist shops. It's definitely a relief to be in an English speaking country again. Also, I saw the coffee-shop where JK Rowling wrote the first three Harry Potter books.

I've been really upset about a mix up with communication and such, but Mom rescued me (thank you so much!) and for a couple days, I thought I was not going to be able to get from Edinburgh to Brussels... and then I thought that I wouldn't have a place to stay and what-not, but the situation is under control!

New Year's was pretty neat. We went to this giant street party. There were seriously 100,000 people there, and everyone was crammed onto the streets and there were djs and laser light shows, and then at midnight there was a big countdown on giant screens and fireworks over the castle.

I'm just hanging out here in Edinburgh for the next two days, then it's off to Brussels for me! I'll post pictures when I get a better internet connection (good connections are much harder to find in Europe than they were in the US). I want to know what everyone is up to! I miss you all, keep in touch.

Maggie in my Suitcase

This is what happens when I pack my suitcase at my mom's house.

Now I'm sitting in the airport, boarding soon. I feel like I didn't pack hardly anything at all, just one suitcase which wasn't even full and a backpack. Hope I didn't forget anything important.

About ready to leave...

So, it's pretty ridiculous for me to think that in 48 hours from now, I'll be somewhere over the Atlantic, heading towards Paris. I've never been to Europe before, and now I'll be going there for 4 whole months, and that thought absolutely terrifies me and excites me at the same time. Sometimes, we have to do what scares us. They're the things that help us become better people. We can't spend our whole lives afraid to leave the familiar. Maybe we're missing out on so much more.

So, for my internship, we're supposed to dress business casual. For anyone who knows me, you know that I have absolutely no idea how to dress up, wear make-up, or pretend to be remotely feminine. I'm just an extremely awkward kid. I'm working on it though. After two shopping trips, I have one nice complete outfit... I'm really pathetic. I'll pull through though. Worse come to worst, I'll buy some clothes in Europe. They sell clothes there, right?

Everything that I own has been haphazardly tossed into various boxes and bags, and I have no idea how to properly locate any of my belongings. I still have so much to do before I'm ready to leave. And is tomorrow really Christmas Eve? That certainly snuck up on me.

I think the thing that frightens me the most about this whole experience is that I have absolutely NO IDEA what is going to happen to me. I don't know what I'll be doing, what the city will be like, the types of people that I will meet. It just kind of seems like this dark, scary abyss that I'm heading into completely blindfolded. But, I do know that everything is going to be okay.

I'm going to (hopefully) take tons of pictures and post them here for people to see from time to time, and keep this blog updated so that my friends and family know what I'm up to.

I just set up skype, so anyone can call me anytime at (913) 440-0787, and I'm pretty sure that I have voicemail with that too, so leave me lots and lots of messages. They'll certainly be appreciated. I get unlimited calls so don't worry about money or minutes or anything.