Beaucoup Beaucoup de Muesli

More videos to come...


Bruges:

Beaucoup de Muesli

Video dump, courtesy of Steph's apartment and the awesome internet connection there.


National Day Festivities in Brussels:





King of the Belgians coming out of the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula:

Speculoos McFlurries

A lot has happened in the past few weeks. Aside from working occasionally as an intern (oh yeah, is that what I do here?), I have said goodbye to my roommates Lauren and Lani and moved in with Steph for three weeks. This whole bumming off of other people's apartments has worked out spectacularly well for me here.

I've been spending time around Brussels, eating at tasty places like Subway (you have no idea how truly happy my tastebuds were that night) and figuring out how to be an adult and take the bus.

Last weekend, I went to Bruges, a idyllic town in western Belgium. We went to an antique market, a bunch of churches, saw one of Michelangelo's sculptures, and shopped for lace and chocolate. We also ate at a pretty cool cafe called "Tonka" and ate Tonka milkshakes, which tasted kind of like horchata.

Below are some pictures I had fun editing. Others are on facebook.

Crêpes

I flew from Rome to Paris on Friday night. My first attempt to speak French in France went like this: I had purchased a bus ticket from BVA to Paris online, but hadn't been able to print it out. So I took a deep breath, walked up to the ticket office in the airport, and when it was my turn I said, "Bonjour monsieur! J'ai acheté mon billet, mais ... uhh ... I couldn't print it out. But I have my confirmation number right here!" He responded: "Okay, write your name down and I'll look it up." Fail.

I met up with Steph and Lani once in Paris and we stayed with another girl from BYU, Ingrid, who is an intern there. The weekend was wondeful! Great weather, tons of crêpes, falafels, pastries, mmm... I did actually successfully speak with people in French, too. And I would like to take this opportunity to disprove the rumors that Parisians are rude. We had many people who were extremely helpful and kind to us. In fact, the only snooty people we met were an American family in Versailles from Salt Lake City. We hit up the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, Luxembourg Gardens, Notre Dame, and Versailles, as well as a crazy Fête Nationale party, some very successful shopping, and (of course) Mac Do's! I still feel like I barely saw any of Paris though, and I'd love to go back if I have time in August.





More pictures are on facebook.

Gelato

I went to Rome last Thursday morning. My plane flew into a small airport outside of the city, so I took a bus to the main train station and walked to my hotel. I definitely considered taking a taxi, but the line for taxis was like 30 people long. So I just walked. And I only had to pause at the corner of the street and pull out my humongous map and look ridiculous twice! (Okay, maybe three times.)

The B&B I booked was one that other people from the conference were staying in... but it was just an apartment in a condo builiding. And I couldn't figure out which room it was - some guy let me into the building, and directed me towards the stairs. But of course, he was speakin'Eye-tal-iunn, so I didn't understand him. The elevator looked SUPER sketchy (like it was back from the days of the elevator tap dance in Thoroughly Modern Milly or something) so I walked up to the 6th floor. And back down. And then looked at the mailboxes and saw the owner's name on 6A. So I walked up again, and ran into a guy that spoke English. He was able to direct me to the 2nd floor. It was pretty nice. I mean, I'm basically happy anywhere that is clean and has wireless. Such a product of the 21st century ...





After I took a nap, I was reluctant to go back into the blazing Roman heat. But I had three hours until the opening presentation of the conference, so I talked myself into walking to the Trevi Fountain and getting some gelato. This was one of the things I remembered liking the most when I went to Rome with my dad 5 years ago.




More pictures of my walk to and from the Trevi fountain are posted on facebook. As well as a stunning debut of yours truly actually in front of the Trevi fountain. (That's right... I actually got brave enough to hand my camera to a stranger and ask them to take a picture of me. It was intense.)

Thursday night in Rome, we went to the opening presentation of the conference, and then to dinner at Hotel Forum - a beautiful rooftop restaurant with an amazing view. The prices on the menu were more expensive than my flight (good thing my boss was paying), and I couldn't bring myself to eat more than the noodles in my main course (my seafood was looking at me ... with eyes!), but I enjoyed it anyway.


I don't have much to say about the conference now, but I did write something that is posted on the Woman Stat's Blog.

Toblerone

So tomorrow I am traveling to Rome for a conference and then flying to Paris on Friday night to meet up with some friends. I had a minor freakout yesterday about getting all the plane/train/bus/taxi connections right and finding my way around, but I think it will be okay. Hopefully I'll have lots of pictures and stories to record when I return to Brussels on Tuesday.

Don't worry... I refused to see Taken before I left, and I'm planning on sharing a taxi and then telling my apartment number to every single guy that I meet. Luckily, my dad works for the government and I just know that he's been lying to me all these years about not being a CIA agent.

Bon voyage!

Bon Anniversaire, America!

For the 4th of July, a bunch of us headed to Knokke to go to the beach! We had been warned about the brown water and lack of waves, but it turned out to be a really good trip.



Afterwards, we went back to Sinoui's and celebrated Independence Day with s'mores and the contents of a package from Garrett's girlfriend. And we loved it, 'cause we're American like that.

They are not. But they still loved it.

Stale Pringles

Somewhat lacking in entertainment, but informative (hopefully) nonetheless.

From: laurenemilys@gmail.com
To: european.governance@gmail.com, lynn_elliot@byu.edu
Date: Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 3:48 PM
Subject: Lauren Smith Weekly Email #1

Jason and Dr. Elliott,

I made it to Brussels. I arrived on Monday morning, and BYU Intern Lani Livingston and Sister Romney picked me up from the airport. So far this week, I've been able to attend FHE, French lessons, Institute, and will be playing the piano for a baptism tonight. The ward is very welcoming and I'm really grateful to have people that I can easily fit in with already. I am sharing Lani and Lauren Soelberg's flat - it is small but comfortable. We live in a very nice area which is very close to the EU building, the metro, and the Romneys' house.

I met with my boss, Michiel Matthes, on Tuesday afternoon for an hour and a half at the Romneys' house. He is Dutch and spent a while explaining how he got involved in Alliance for Childhood. The Romneys then explained what they have been doing to help Michiel in his work. He then went over what I should be doing at first. I need to be reading up on all the material he has sent me from past conferences, etc., and then start on merging the powerpoint slides into a report of a conference that the Romneys previously summarized. Then I will make my own report of another conference given in March. I also agreed to attend the conference they are hosting in Rome on 10 June. I booked my tickets and am currently working on getting a place to stay for the night of 9 June. Another BYU intern, Steph, is thinking of coming to Rome with me.

I am working in the basement of the Romneys house, they have an office set up there. It is really a great set up because it is only about 5 blocks from my house. The Romneys have been really helpful in getting me established in Brussels as well. I have already started on my cultural activities, going with Lauren and Lani to see Grand Place and Mannequin Pis, as well as eating some Belgian waffles. I am still getting over jet lag, but am starting to work on the projects Michiel has given me.

I also am going to talk to him soon about using some time here in Brussels to work for the Woman Stats project. I have been doing research for Valerie Hudson in Provo, and she would like me to continue inputting data from the documents I am reading here, since WomanStats has a few variables about children and their human rights.

Sincerely,

Lauren Smith


From: laurenemilys@gmail.com
To: european.governance@gmail.com, lynn_elliot@byu.edu
Date: Fri, July 3, 2009 at 11:49 AM
Subject: Lauren Smith Weekly Email #2

Dear Dr. Elliot and Jason,

This week has gone by quickly. I started out on Monday by reading most of the materials that Michiel had sent me - reports of previous Alliance for Childhood conferences, a summary of child abuse in Irish schools that had recently been in the news, information sheets on Alliance for Childhood, etc. Once I had finished that and felt I had a little bit stronger understanding of what Alliance for Childhood does, I returned to the Michel Vandenbroeck report that I had started last week. I took the images of Dr. Vandenbroeck's slides from a pdf and inserted them into the text. I also did quite a bit of editing on the report for readability, punctuation, etc.

I finished the report on Wednesday, and prepared to start on the 3 March conference, which I was supposed to make a summarized report of out of 2 tapes of audio from the report. However, when I put the tapes into the tape recorder, the static and outside noise on the tapes was so bad that I could only make out every 5 or 6 word. It got worse as the conference continued. I had a meeting set up with Michiel on Thursday, so Elder Romney and I determined to wait until then to discuss what we should do. Entrance to the Brussels Museum of Fine Art is free every first Wednesday of the month, so Sister Romney and I took some time off and went with Lani to the museum.

On Thursday, I met with Michiel and he said that the tapes were not a huge deal, since he was the one who gave the presentation, and we already had the powerpoint slides he had used. However, he was interested in recording the comments after his presentation, so he wants me to go back and see if any of those are more intelligable. We also discussed the entire agenda for the Rome conference and he told me the background of everyone coming. Michiel is going on holiday immediately after the Rome conference, so we discussed projects that I can work on until he returns in August. The list includes: executive summaries for the Michel Vandenbroeck and Peter Moss reports (both of these reports were written by the Romneys), adding book descriptions and books to the system on Alliance for Childhood's website, transcribing the meeting in Rome, and researching Gaiasoft and LinkedIn as tools for raising awareness for Alliance for Childhood.

This week I was also busy making my travel arrangements for the conference in Rome. I am flying on RyanAir to Rome on Thursday morning and attending the opening presentation and dinner for the conference on Thursday night. Then I staying in a bed and breakfast very close to where Michiel and other members of the conference are staying, attending the conference on Friday, and flying to Paris to meet up with Lani and Steph and some other people on Friday night. Then, we are taking the train back to Brussels on Tuesday. I feel like I was able to get pretty good deals on all of these plans.

I am meeting with Michiel next Tuesday at his home to discuss the book projects, and will probably spend some time working from his home during the rest of July, when he is on holiday.

Ciao,

Lauren Smith

L'IKEA et Le Cinema

Last Saturday, Steph and I ventured out to IKEA. It was way on the other side of the city, but we were able to get there by taking the metro and then walking for about 10 minutes. Luckily, when we came up from the metro stop, there was a sign right in front of us that said IKEA, and an arrow that pointed in the direction of the store. Otherwise, we would have had no idea where to go. The Romneys had loaned us comforters and pillows from a bedroom in their house, but we wanted to go buy our own things. (I just found out yesterday that the Romneys have their own blog, where they write about all of their own fascinating adventures. They are amazing.) IKEA was crazy - but I loved that it only cost me 35 euros to buy a pillow, a duvet, a duvet cover, and a fitted sheet. Of course, that was after I spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out the difference between fitted sheets, flat sheets, and duvet covers. They don't teach you words like that in French class. I finally looked at the pictures hard enough to figure it out. Now I can get rid of the sleeping bag I had on top of my air mattress and feel a little less like I'm at girls' camp. Ew.

It took us so long to navigate IKEA that we just took the metro from there straight to the movie theatre to meet up with a bunch of kids for Transformers 2. I mostly only went to prove Cameron wrong ... since he basically called me a wimp and told me that it was too intense for me after he saw it ... (So rude. And just because I sat with a hoodie over my eyes through the majority of Knowing, jumped every 5 minutes during Terminator, and dug my nails into his arm during the scary dog scene in Up!). The movie was 8,85 euros, but the theatres were really nice! The screen was way bigger than the usual ones in the U.S. ... or maybe I've just been spending too much time at the dollar theatres. We just won't mention the whole scene in the movie theatre where I lost my ticket in my purse, couldn't find it for 10 minutes, and made Sinoui and Christian go convince the girl at the ticket counter to give me a new one. Yeah.

Anyway, Transformers was actually pretty good. Except for the glaring geographical errors, which I (of course) feel that it is my duty to point out and will do so now. Look people, I have been to the pyramids, and I have been to Petra. They are nearly 500 km away from each other. (I looked it up.) But the movie makes it seem like it takes about 10 minutes to drive from one to the other. It also appears that Cairo, where the pyramids are, is on the ocean, when the distance to the Gulf of Suez is 150 km and the distance to the Mediterranean is even longer. The movie also completely disregards the fact that Egypt and Jordan do not share a border. They are separated by an Israeli city called Eilat. The characters traveling by car from one place to another would have had to wait in line for hours at at least 2 Israeli border control locations, just like everyone else. It is also very strange that the US military, while fighting aliens in Egypt, would have Jordanian helicopters come to the rescue. While the military did call an Egyptian general for help, whatever happened to the U.S.'s B.F.F.L. and the reigning military force in the Middle East, Israel? I'm not saying that I am full of righteous indignation that the makers of Transformers left out Israel or anything, it's just that the U.S. military asking the Jordanians and Egyptians for help before calling on the Israelis is completely unrealistic. Another note, the monastery in Petra (where the tomb of the Primes was found) does not go in as far as they showed. I definitely sat on the edge of that opening for about a half an hour and probably would have noticed if there had been paintings of Greek-looking gods and statues like the movie showed.

This week I am back to work. I'll try to blog more about what I actually do at my internship later. Ciao!

Le Grand Place

Coolest thing in Brussels so far, I've been there twice in the last 24 hours. Here are some pictures of the medieval center of the city, by day and by night.

I <3 L'Environment

Brussels is very eco-friendly. For example:

• The escalators don't run all the time. They have sensors that make the escalators start to ... escalate when you walk up to them.
• You have to sort your trash. Plastics and glass in one bag. Everything else in another bag.
• The grocery stores don't bag your groceries. You either bring your own bag or buy shopping bags for 10 cents each.
• The lights in my hall and stairwell are never on ... you have to walk around in the dark until you find the lightswitch. It's fun.
  

Brussel Sprouts and Belgian Waffles

Bonjour!! I made it to Brussels and I can't believe it's already my third day here. Currently, I am at work. I came early today and talked to Cam for an hour on skype ... so good! Then I researched flight ticket prices for the conference I am attending in July... it's in ROME. I work in a house the Church is renting; my boss doesn't have an office (he is a banker and manages this NGO from home in his spare time), and the Romneys (my new best friends) have an office here. The house is over 100 years old and hyper-cool [eepere - cool].

It's also only like 5 blocks away from my flat... score! I'm living in an apartment building in central Brussels with two other girls from BYU. Our flat is tiny but cute, and the money I'm saving by splitting the rent three ways makes sleeping on an air mattress seem like the best thing evvvver.

So far I've unpacked, gone to FHE, gone grocery shopping, gone to French class, met with my boss, slept for approximately 22 hours, gone to Lani's work and mooched off their wireless, blown out my alarm clock, agreed to play the piano for a baptism on Friday, ridden the train once, the metro 4 times and the bus once, and made plans for the weekend. More later!