Here is an English recap of my latest blog posts which (finally) brings my blog up to date for now. To avoid repeats, please check my Danish posts for pictures!
I recently ‘celebrated’ my first three months here, and it’s unbelievable how fast time has passed by. In a couple of weeks, I will be going home to Denmark for my Christmas holiday and when I return in 2012, the Danish Presidency will be up and running and we will know the true meaning of being busy. I’m excited for the month of December. Belgians are pretty enthusiastic about Christmas, so Grand Place is equiped with a huge tree and a light show and the Christmas market stretches through most of the city center.
At the Representation, I've been busy which a range of interesting things. A few weeks ago we were visited by the Danish Minister for Business and Growth. I was jointly responsible for planning his visit, which mainly included meetings with members of the European Parliament. It was quite a task to make it all come together, but also a great satisfaction to follow the minister and his delegation around most of the day and see how things worked out (almost exactly) as planned!
Lately, much of our work has been preparation for the meeting in the Ministers' Council for Competitiveness which happened today and went very well. Also, the beginning of the Danish Presidency on January 1st is approaching fast, so a lot of time and energy is going into preparations for that!
I joined the "planning committee" at the Representation as one of the intern representatives. We're going to organize some social events during the coming Presidency to get people’s minds off of work once in a while.
Also at the Representation, we had to test the emergency slide that allows us to escape from the 7th floor into the courtyard in case of an emergency. It was pretty fun but hopefully we will never have to use it for real!
On November 16 I went to a concert with the Danish singer Oh Land, which was held at a pretty cool and intimate venue called Botanique. I didn't know Oh Land all that well beforehand, but she is super cool and it was a great show! Afterwards, she hung out outside and I bought her cd and had her sign it.
The week after on Saturday, my roommates and I held a party at our apartment. We had invited the interns from the Representation plus a number of Danish and international interns working all around Brussels. We were about 50 people and it was so much fun.
The following Wednesday, I went to a nice dinner with my colleagues, which took place at a Scandinavian restaurant in downtown Brussels. It was our own little Christmas party and we had a tasty Scandinavian buffet, which to some extent reminded me of home.
I've also been on a few more trips. In the beginning of November, I went to Namur, which is very nice city about an hour south of Brussels. Where the two rivers meet there is an old fortress from on top of which there is a gorgeous view of the city and surrounding area.
In the middle of November, I went to London to visit my super good friend Sandra who is on exchange there this semester. It's only a two hour ride on the EuroStar train from Brussels. She's living in Surbiton near Kingston in southwest London. I arrived Thursday night and spent Friday shopping in Oxford Street, Regent Street and Carnaby Street in central London while Sandra was doing school stuff. That night, we went out with a couple of her friends in Kingston. We went to a pretty nice club called Hippodrome and had a super fun night. Saturday, we stayed in Surbiton/Kingston, did a bit of shopping, hung out at Starbucks and chilled with movies at her place. Sunday, we went to London and walked around Camden Markets where we also had lunch. In the afternoon we went to the theater and saw The Wizard of Oz, which was an impressive production that I enjoyed a lot! I went home to Brussels early Monday morning.
This past weekend, I went to Milan with James, who was already there for work. Friday we saw the amazing Duomo di Milano cathedral, which is very impressive and offers a nice view of the city from on top of it’s roof. Also, Milan is probably most famous for fashion and endless shopping opportunities, including Armani, Dolce & Gabbana and so much more. Saturday we did more sightseeing and went to a huge fair with hand-crafted products from all over Italy and the rest of Europe. That night, we went to an amazing restaurant in the area just south of the center, where we had the greatest Carbonara ever, and later we had drinks at a small bar alongside the beautifully lit canal. Sunday I got home in the afternoon and spent the rest of the day doing stuff around the apartment and prepare for the Council meeting on the following day.
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