Monday, October 6, 2008 - Our first real day on the EU!

First off, for those of you who have been waiting, "I'm sorry!" We have lots of meetings and lots of travel. I will try to update you as best I can.

Second, I would like to thank my new friends for uploading some photos since my camera and my computer refuse to communicate with each other.

Today was a hectic and interesting day as our first "real" day of meetings and business in Europe. Christina met all of us in the lobby at 9 am (All but Gary who was already off with Corina getting his new passport!)

We headed out to ARD - German Public Radio and Television Studios where we had the opportunity to met with Irmtraud (Irmy) Richardson who has been a broadcast journalist for over 30 years with the ARD.

ARD is the German version of NPR/PBS combined into a single studio in the Brussels correspond ant office. The goal of meeting with the media was for us to gain an understanding of the major issues of the day, how they are covered in Brussels and how that coverage varies back in the broadcasters home country (state). It was interesting to hear from their perspective what the hot topics of the day were, no surprise the financial crisis and Georgia. (The one near Russia NOT in USA peach country.) Gary joined us from the Embassy for the end of the discussion and a quick tour of the broadcasting studios. I have to tell you Irmy loved her Sarah Palin thank you gift!

After we finished the ARD tour we headed over to the GMF offices for a NATO briefing with Johnathan Parish, Senior Policy Advisor, NATO Policy and Planning, Office of the Secretary General and James Snyder, Public Diplomacy Division. They gave us lots of information about NATO and how NATO and various other organizations work together, however, what I found most interesting was the discussion regarding everyone's frustration at their inability to fully work together.

We had a very interesting discussion regarding the failure to fully capitalize on the successes through the failure of all the organizations to work cohesively together on humanitarian issues. It was interesting that there was the perspective that NGO's and the various governmental entities don't work well (if at all) together to coordinate services and infrastructure development.

Next we were given EU 101, a presentation on the structure and history of the European Union by Claudia Cola and Stefano Grassi both of whom were officials with the European Commission (which is a separate entity from the European Parliament). The European Commission upholds the general interests of the Union and is the driving force in the Union's institutional system. Its four main roles are to propose legislation to the European Parliament and the Council, to administer and implement Community policies, to enforce Community law (jointly of course with the Court of Justice) and to negotiate international agreements mainly related to trade and cooperation.

The day (as an entire group) ended with a briefing from Sinne Backs-Conan, head of the Brussels Office for Dansk Insustri (DI). Sinne is a past European MMF. She represents DI in Brussels, and abroad, as the voice of the Confederation of Danish Industry. Currently 11,000 companies are "members" of DI which aims to provide the best corking conditions for Danish industry in order to improve their competitive edge.

After this some of us had to grab taxis (there was a general public transportation strike so no buses or metro running) to head back to the hotel, freshen up and then run to our dinner host meetings. This is the first time we have the opportunity to meet with our hosts in small, informal groups. I went to a dinner with 4 other fellows hosted by Paulo Casaca, Portuguese Member of the European Parliament at the Restaurant Bifanas. It was a lovely dinner of wine, fresh fish from Portugal and lively discussion regarding the current state of the EU, the financial crisis and of course American politics.

Sunday, October 5, 2008 in Leuven

This morning most of us got up and had breakfast in the hotel. (It comes with the room!) We all then met up with Christina (Brussels GMF Staff) to head out to Leuven.

We walked from the Hotel to the Brussels Central Train Station - a nice 115-20 minute march - i mean jaunt, to catch the train. Leuven was a short 30+ minute ride outside the city.

Leuven is a small University town that really typifies the Belgium experience. An interesting fact is that Dutch, French and German are the three primary languages here.

In Leuven at various times over the past century, and still today, this becomes an issue. The University is the longest - still operating Catholic university in the world. Classes were taught primarily in French until the 1960's when the Dutch population began demanding classes taught in their native tongue. At that time the University split - though it has now come back together into a single institution. In the 1960's the University in Leuven became Dutch speaking and a French campus opened elsewhere - now the two campuses are back to being a single institution with classes being offered in both languages.

We were very lucky to be joined in Leuven by Tress (GMF Staff) who gave us a guided tour of the City. Her parents are both art historians who attended University there in the 1960's and were two of the radicals who blocked the doors to the French speaking professors. They had provided her with several pages of notes regarding the art and the history of the campus.

Our speaker for the day was Koert Debeuf, a Belgian author and member of the Open VID (the Flemish Liberal party). He is a speech writer and spoke of various political issues, the banking crisis and the EU. However, what I found to be the most interesting were his thoughts on the difficulties of drafting speeches in at least two languages sometimes three or four. All of the speeches have to be in both French and Dutch, sometimes they also present in English and they may even sprinkle in a bit of German.

What was so interesting about this was the difficult transitioning from one language to another presents to the flow of the presentation and the political undercurrents of what is presented in which language. This impacts which newspapers and TV stations will cover what information. All quite fascinating.

Then a quick train ride back to Brussels for our dinner meetings with Nikolas Busse, NATO and EU Correspondent. I will let you know how that goes this evening!

The dinner was very interesting. We had several past European MMFs as well as some "friends of GMF". The discussion was lively and there seems to be a great deal of disagreement amongst Europeans regarding nearly everything! It was an interesting discussion from the fact that we were not even really in Brussels (Brussels is merely 1 of 19 municipalities that make up the metropolitan area which we generally think of as Brussels-that is where the EP is actually located - 1.5 blocks from the Hotel Leopold).

Nikolas's topic was titled "The European Union from a Journalist's Perspective" and I have to say, that this level of agreement pretty much sums it up.

Arrival in Brussels! Saturday, October 4, 2008

While that was an interesting flight! There really was NO leg room and at times I felt like the guy in front of me was sleeping on my lap – but I am certain the people behind me felt the same way. Oh well, we got in half an hour early!

Only problem was that we all had trouble answering the questions to be able to enter the country, sleep deprivation really is a form of torture. We all stumbled over tough questions like where did you come in from, what is your purpose for being in Brussels, what is your final destination? These were not supposed to be philosophical, thought provoking questions….or were they?

Seriously though, Gary’s passport had been misplaced by the United Agent who checked him in and took him to his seat. Thank goodness we still had Langer’s passport. I am not certain what they would do with the dog if Gary hadn’t had the paperwork verifying he had his all his necessary vaccinations. By the way, not sure if I have mentioned it before but Gary is blind and Langer is his guide dog. As a matter of fact Langer is an 8 year old golden lab from the California, though he now lives in the DC/Baltimore area. He is also the outgoing president of the Maryland ara of Guide dog Users organization.

It was not a fun experience, however we all learned a lot. We now know how to get replacement passports and that if you loose your passport – or an agent fails to give it back to you then you have the pleasure of spending countless hours in airport jail. Okay, it is just an office, but still no fun – especially after having not slept for about 24 hours. Luckily, Gary, Nneka and Rico were able to take care of everything and get to the hotel before our afternoon meetings began.

Saturday was a good day. We had a short debriefing with an overview of the next four days in Brussels, received an updated schedule and then headed out for a walking tour of the city.

It is rainy and cold here in Brussels, much colder than I had thought it would be – many of us are freezing and most of us failed to bring an umbrella.

I am terribly tired and I will try to remember to write more about it later, but I have to just say that dinner this evening was an experience! We had wondered the streets, looking in shops, a couple churches and some museums when we finally decided to grab dinner. The group picked a little Italian restaurant. The problem was that two of the meals came out still frozen and the fuse blew not once, not twice, not even three times but four separate occasions while they were trying to make our dinners. Oh well, the food was bad but most of us were having a good time and simply enjoying the fact that we were getting to know new and fascinating people in an exciting new city!

Friday, October 3

{Note: For some reason my camera and computer have decided that they are not willing to communicate – so you will have to wait until I can get some digital copies emailed from some of the other Fellows or until I get home for me to add pictures.}

Hello! I am typing these notes on the plane so I won’t be able to publish them for a day or two – so I apologize if they are outdated or my memory is a bit lapsed.

On Friday, October 3rd we had two more debriefings on the MMF Transatlantic experience before being shipped off to the airport.

First thing this morning (at 8 am or 7 am my time!), we had the most interesting speaker professor from the American University School of International Service, Gary Weaver. According to his bio/introduction he teaches courses on psychology and sociology with an emphasis on the cultural aspects of international politics. He was there to give us some background on European culture as well as American culture and how an understanding of both would empower us to better communicate over the next 20+ days. What I found most fascinating was the fact that most Americans don’t believe that there is an American Culture. His analysis was that we could really break American vs. European Culture down to just two verbs: be vs do. Americans culture is all about to do, what is your occupation, are you going somewhere this evening, what did you “do” on your vacation. Whereas European culture is all about being. Further, Europeans “tend” to be more realistic or fatalistic while they perceive Americans to be way to optimistic. Of course these are gross over simplifications – however, think about what level of truth exists for you.

After Gary, Thomas K-B (sorry I have no idea how to spell his last name and the book is in my luggage) he is a Director of Policy Programming at GMF and he spoke with us regarding transatlantic relations. Whereas Gary shared historical and statistical data {Did you know you are six times more likely to get mugged in London as you are in New York?}; Thomas shared the common perceptions of the day. Ideas on immigration/migration within the European Union, misconceptions regarding race, questions regarding the rising tide of racism. It was an interesting discussion and brought lots of questions to the fore.

After our sessions, around 1:30 or 2, our fearless leaders (Neil, Emily and Sasha) sent us off to Dulles to catch our flight to Brussels!

So here we sit, on the plane to Brussels from DC. I doubt that I will do much more typing as there really is NO room between me and the seat in front of me. Though as an aside, if any of you have an ipod and you are going to be doing any international travel I highly suggest the purchase of a new toy/accessory. Rico, (he is a fellow Fellow and the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies) has a pair of sunglasses that plug in to his ipod. They turn the ipod into a wide screen tv. Amazingly cool! I was sitting next to Rico and he let me try them and I have to say that they are fabulous. I would, however, suggest that if you have the opportunity to purchase and they have some that wrap around and give full eye coverage that you invest in that style – these you could see under until you were completely engrossed in the movie.

Well, more on my next dispatch from Europe!

October 2, 2008 - Dinner speaker at Nora

The speaker this evening was Jeroen Doomernick, a Dutch anthropologist focusing on immigration and integration, he is a fellow with the Transatlantic Academy. He spoke primarily about migration/immigration control with an emphasis upon regimes which attempt to attract highly skilled workers while limiting migration of lower skilled.

It was an interesting discussion focusing on the regional differences and the policies that specifically impact boarder countries.

Well, I am obviously not a good poster/blogger yet! I saved what I wrote earlier - but I failed to publish it. This will continue to be an interesting learning experience, I apologize already to all you experienced bloggers.

As most of you know DC is fabulous. Not that I will really get to see anything while I am here other than the inside of the hotel and the GMF offices. However, it is good to be in the city and get a feel for what people are talking about on the streets. Being DC it is politics - isn't it always politics? It seems that everyone is talking about the debate this evening and planning (looking for) watch parties, even many of the fellows.

Today's meetings were full of introductions, overviews of the program, filling out paperwork and getting our briefing books. This evening we have our first real presentation. I will try to tell you about it later, if I am not exhausted.

If you are bored take a look at the Hotel website: http://www.rougehotel.com/

I must say it is an interesting place, they are trying to be ultra cool and they may have tried just a bit too hard. In the pictures I doubt you can tell that the curtains are red velvet and while I haven't gone through them all - I didn't see a picture of the leopard print, terry cloth robes hanging in the closet.

Well, I am off to dinner at Restaurant Nora http://www.noras.com/ They have simply amazing organic food. John took me to dinner there when we were in DC last winter/spring.

If you would like to read through some of the briefing packets feel free:
http://www.gmfus.org/template/mmf_usa.cfm

Just some light reading to while away the hours!

Cyn

Okay,

So a lot has happened since that initial post more than a year ago. I WAS SELECTED!

Now it is October 2, 2008 and here I am in DC, getting ready to head out on this adventure. I hope to be able to upload pictures and information in order to stay in contact with you all while I am gone.

First, if you aren't familiar with the GMF you should take a look at the website: www.gmfus.org this is going to be an amazing experience.

Second, assuming you could care less about the policy and politics of international relations and development; here is the itinerary of cities I will get to visit:

Washington DC - October 2-3

Brussels, Belgium - October 3-7

Paris, France - October 8-12

Turin Italy - October 13-17

Prague, Czech Republic - October 17 - 22

Copenhagen, Denmark - October 23 - 26

After all this I will be thrilled to come home again, home again!