This week, I've confronted both French and Flemish, in Leuven and Brussels. Since arriving in Leuven, I've had this impression that I'm only aware of 25% of what's going on around me. For example, because I can't understand what people around me are saying, I feel as though I have free reigns to say and do what I want in public. Like on the 30 minute commute to Brussels on Saturday afternoon where Kaitlynn, Sarah, Christina, and I talked nonchalantly about human trafficking. Who wants to here that? I've also felt like I can dance and make random noises all over the place.
Over the weekend, I finally felt like I was grasping a little bit of the fact that I'm not living a fake life. I even caught onto a few words. Winkle means store. I think. My favorite Flemish phrase is NACHTWACHT. I'm really not sure what it means but it's fun to say in a really guttural ( and probably really offensive tone). It's also the name of the store that sells wine past 6:00pm. What, Morgan? 6:00pm? How quaint and European! No. It gets old quick. We've made friends with the Nachtwacht man though. He sold us a corkscrew. I don't think he sells them. We haven't sprung for the hairdryer, but like priorities, right?
Apparently, it's not true immersion with only two languages you don't know though! Today was the first day of our internship! I got up at 6:30a.m. to get ready. I headed down for breakfast, only to see a group of kids I had been going out with every night for the past week suddenly look so respectable and functional in the real world. It felt like we were all going on a field trip as we crammed onto the train together. When we got off the train, we saw that we were not the only ones making our way into the Alberto Spinelli building. I turned to Sarah, and asked if she felt like we were going into the Ministry of Magic. For all I knew and was expecting, we seriously could have been. As I turned through the revolving door, my stomach was doing some spinning of its own. I was so nervous! We walked in the door, and our program director told me that since I was to start at 9:15, I would be the first one to call my office to come fetch me. Considering 25 of my new housemates/ eating mates/ classmates/ party mates were right behind me, I made the call. Then I realized that when my guy came to get me, I would have absolutely no idea who he was.
He came down the stairs and walked over to my program director, who then introduced us. As I reached out my hand to make his acquantice and he didn't even notice, I wondered for the 400th time this week how old I'll have to be before I can go one whole day without embarrassing myself. I left my friends downstairs and headed up to the 10th floor, once again packed up- this time in an elevator. The close quarters were not nearly as uncomfortable and smothering as the 5 different languages bouncing off the close corners.
I was in the office for all of 5 minutes before my boss told me I would be going to a committee meeting. I grabbed my bag as we went from the 10th floor to the third floor and then somehow ended up going from the E block to the G block, which means a whole different building. What? I guess when there are over 750 MEP's alone, you need a lot of space. So I'm in this crazy room at the end of what I can only say was a maze, when my boss gives me a program and tells me that I can "ring him to collect me" after the meeting. What? I'm here? You're not? Meeting? Europe? Parliament? I sent my mom a frantic email while I waited for the meeting to commence, only after realizing that it was about 3a.m. in Delaware. Nervous and not knowing what to do, I looked around like a crack head looking for her dealer. Then! Down the hall, came CHRISTINA! I don't think I've ever been so happy to see her! We went in together and tackled our first European Union Committee meeting: The Eastern Partnership and its Multilateral Platforms- what impact. These seemed so official and so daunting. But I found a perfect way to lighten the mood, when I opened my laptop to a Desktop Background of Lana Del Rey seductively winking in front of a huge American flag. Hello European Union! After figuring the important things, like that coffee was delivered to us and that channel 2 meant English (um thank God!), we sat in and took notes like 2 dorky politics interns on the first day of work. Oh, sorry Latvia, you meant you didn't want your notes verbatim?
When my meetings were finished, I went back upstairs and started reading a 92 page handbook on the European Parliament!!!!!!!!! This would have been bearable if I had any sort of distractions, but alas. The other two guys in my office spoke Latvian the whole time, so it's not even like I could have any idea what was going on around me. It was just me and my 92 pages of logistics and procedures. It's a very isolating feeling to be in the same room as other people and have no idea what's going on around you.
I asked my office a million questions, to the point where I might have annoyed them. They told me that over the course of the semester, I would largely be focusing on the European Partnership, which is totally ok with me. I did more research on that for the rest of the day. A lot of the objectives focused on bringing about democracy and trying to bring the Eastern states up to European standards. This was a real life scenario of bringing human condition into its best by means of political work aka everything I love about politics. I'm very excited to be involved in this project. I'm even more excited because a lot of these relations have to do with Russia, and this just may be the closest my infatuation every gets to Russia! I keep mentally saying the Soviets, so I should probably chill with that. I also have this urge to introduce myself as a Latvian serf, which I should definitely chill with. My coworkers seem really awesome though, and I'm looking forward to the remainder of the semester.
Oh, want the key to impressing your foreign office on your first day?!? Tell them the first trip you're going on is Amsterdam! This weekend!!!!!! Then ramble about Anne Frank when they bring up "the night life".
P.S. There was ice cream at dinner and wine after. Happy Intern Day!
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