Last week on...aka a recap

I apologize for my lack of communication in the last week. Since getting back to Copenhagen I have been slammed with work (shocker). I will try to give a concise wrap up of my travels.

So this is what you missed. Monday through Thursday we were in Brussels attending meetings and lectures on the EU. We went to the Commission, Parliaments, Council, Permanent Rep. to Denmark, and the US mission to the EU. We did small group visits, four students per group, to different lobbying firms. Our group went to the Danish Agricultural Council. One of the highlights of Brussels for me was our trip to NATO. We started incredibly early on Thursday. My roommates can attest to the fact that I was not happy to get up at that time. There was a lot of grunting and banging into objects around the room. We got there a little before 9, waited in the bus, then went through secutiy. It was quite dramatic. The first spokesperson was from NATO. The man was from CA, very interesting and sharp. It was a good presentation. The next speaker was a rep. of the US. I didn’t enjoy him as much. Reminded me of Rush Limbaugh.

After NATO we went to the EU Parliament. It was the first day all week that rain didn’t pelt us. Brussels is very pretty when it isn’t raining. We got our last Belgium waffle before our meeting. Our first one was in the train station were we hide from a particularly lovely rains torm that left our dress clothes sopping wet. The waffles were so good. Not like American ones. They edged have caramelized sugar or something. The insides are gooey. I get mine with nutella. Amazing. Seriously delicious.

After Brussels we headed to the Hauge. We arrived in the evening to our ‘hotel’ which was actually a hostel. Our teacher was so mad at DIS. The other group had stayed in a nice hotel, when they had come at the beginning of the week. Our prof said it was the worse place he had ever stayed and that DIS was going to hear it. We believed him.

Then we got to sit in on the trial. It wThe hostel wasn’t great. It was Spartan, kind of creepy. We had a great dinner that DIS paid for, so that helped a little bit. The next morning we went to the International criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. We met with a lawyer from Texas who explained what she does, how she got there, the situation. (ICTY- left)

It was fascinating. On trial was the Former commander of the Croatian army, the assit. Minster of defense, and the commander of the special police in Croatia. These men were being indicated for persecution, deportation, inhuman acts, brutal treatment, border. The room we sat in had glass in between us and the court room. We could see them and they could see us. On Friday there was a witness on stand

who use to be friendly with the men on trial. He originally, a few years ago, testified against the men. On Tuesday he recounted he testimony, and so when we were there the prosecutor was proving that. It was intense, but the prosecutor was very impressive. She spoke in English as did everyone else in court minus the witness whose words were translated for everyone.

After the ICTY we went to Amsterdam. As a class we had lunch and went on a canal tour. Amsterdam is gorgeous. It looks like a medieval city, with beautiful buildings, cobblestone, canals, and actually had more bikes than in Copenhagen. After the tour a small group of us went to the Anne Frank house. It was moving, I’m really glad that I had the chance to see it. I didn’t realize how big the house was, and the setup. It brought a sense of reality tothe journals that I didn’t expect.

After we walked around the city. We ran into the red light district. That was so disturbing. I didn’t know what it was, and learning about it there on the fly was upsetting. I was very disgusted and sadden by the area. But then we keep walking, had a sandwich and the got on the bus to head back. We drove all night. I slept around 8 hours, but would wake up every hour. Not ideal We got back to Copenhagen a little before 9. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and then camped out in my kollegium to catch up on sleep.

In NYC there are the bulls, in Amsterdam there are elephants--a rare picture of me(you can be in them if you are taking a million of pictures. this time i was better. only 150 in a week. as opposed to 200 in 4 days. that's progress?)