Back to Europe!
May 22, 2009 by kwalker10
As Wes continues to tell me, I never really wrapped up my semester in Germany, did I? The last few weeks were a flurry of school projects, Weihnachtmarkts (Christmas Markets), and realizing how much I loved Freiburg and would miss it when I’m gone.
Now that that wrap-up is done, onto the really good news: I leave for Brussels in FOUR days. Am I ready? Perhaps. Am I packed? Of course not. BUT I’m super excited to get back to the Continent.
My summer plans in brief:
- Intern full-time at the US Mission to NATO (June 2- July 24). Wear suits and jackets every day in heat and humidity… who does’t love that? (In all seriousness though, this is an amazing opportunity and I’m beyond grateful for it.)
- Head to Paris for Euromeet to have CMC pay for expensive meals, network with CMC alumni, and visit one of my very best friends (who tells me this is the first week of the Parisian soldes, or sales, and that it’s also fashion week for hommes. Apparently I’m sneaking into a runway show or two?) (June 26-28)
- Visit Aymi, a good friend from my Germany semester, in Berlin (July 24-27)
- Return to a former home-sweet-home: yay, Freiburg!! (July 28-29)
- Day trip around Belgium, taking advantage of an SNCB deal where 10 one-way tickets cost 73EUR total and are good anywhere in the country. I’m thinking of going to Brugges, Antwerp, kayaking in the Ardennes, and Ghent. The nice thing about being in a country as small as Belgium is that I can get just about anywhere I want to go within an hour (and most far less than that.)
- I’m telling myself I’ll do research for my thesis, make connections for a Fulbright application to study multiculturalism in Estonia since EU accession, and work on grad school and fellowship applications. We’ll see how that goes.
- Explore Brussels. The three girls I know from Claremont won’t arrive until July, but Brussels, as the de facto EU capital, is full of expats and there are a lot of opportunities to meet each other. Hopefully I won’t gorge myself on Belgian waffles or chocolates in doing so.