2nd Wind

Hello everybody! I am back from Prague and it was exactly what I needed to really ward off the homesickness that has been plaguing me for a while. Prague is amazing; it is everything that anybody you has ever told you about it. It was nice traveling alone as well simply because moving in large groups can be a little stressful/ dramatic/ inefficient for doing the things that I want to do. And we all know that the world revolves around me :)

Anyways, on a slightly different topic, in efforts to update all you wonderful people on life here across the puddle (and you are going to have to forgive me but I am not going to deal with loading pictures until a later date so for now it is just going to be text...sorry)this has been what has been on the up-and-up.

Fields trips:
-NATO Headquarters: Went to the NATO Headquarters just outside of Brussels and got to be a part of a Terrorist Attack drill that happened to fall on the the day we there and about 10mins into the presentation we were being given. We also got to meet the 3 star Admiral that represents the US at NATO. I could give you his name but I don't have it on me and will look it up later and add it. http://www.navy.mil/navydata/bios/navybio.asp?bioID=276

-European Council: This woman (again I have no names on me and will add them later) was amazing and I want to BE here. She is the representative for President Solano when it comes to Human Rights and is also a former James Madison student. She talked about how EU uses certain avenues in order to improve aspect of human rights on a global scale. I will want her job if I decide to enter a more political sphere.

-European Parliament: Again another great speaker, this time a civil servant who was working on public relations for the EU at the time. Not a high mucky muck but a really great speaker and a wonderful guy. He ended up giving his presentation on general EU stuff and how it functions (WAY too many sub groups to be productive.) But the question and answer secession was interesting and long and in depth and he knew a lot more than he was letting on when he was presenting and I think he was surprised by the knowledge we had through the questions we were asking.

-SHAPE: This was cool because our "guide" was a two star colonel from Poland. Great guy. We also had a panel made of him, a colonel from Ireland and a representative from the US. We got to ask them questions and then answer from their different view points. Best part of this visit was when the Irish colonel and the US colonel almost got into a fist fight when Wes asked them about using private security forces in Iraq. It was hilarious and all of us learned a lot from it. I had the sense to sit across from our Polish colonel during lunch and we got to talking about life and politics and culture. He liked me I think because he said I should come work at SHAPE and that it would be a good place for me and gave me some reading on it. I would say I could use him for a job but he is retiring off to his yaht in Poland in about a month.

-European Commission: Okay this one was boring, no lie. We got a general overview of the Maghreb (Northern African countries) and the EU's relations. He ended up throwing us scripted answers to our slightly more controversial questions and I wasn't so much into it.

Yeah, write more later, be back soon. Love you all!

~Claire