Belgium welcomed us with chilly, but open, arms on our first full day in Brussels! It was pretty cloudy, but thankfully did not rain and the temperature was really nice – although others may disagree. We began the day with a walking/bus tour of the city. Our first stop was at the Robert Schuman statue – as is expected for our EU group. We all made sure to tell our tour guide that we were great friends with Robert Schuman.

From the statue, we walked down to Schuman square, which is in the center of the EU institutions – European Commission, European Parliament, etc. in the area. We had a beautiful view of the city on both ends.

After Schuman Square, we piled into the bus again and headed to the Atomium. The Atomium is a massive structure that was built in 1958 for the Brussel’s World Fair, an international event that originated as a technology exhibition. After the World Fair ended, the Atomium was supposed to be torn down, but ended up being the only structure left intact. The structure has a great view, especially from the top, but unfortunately, we did not have enough time to actually go inside and/or make it to the top of the Atomium.

While we were there, we had a short break during the tour to get coffee and snacks. There was a waffle truck across the street that a few of us went to – and boy, am I glad I went. That was hands-down the best waffle I have ever had in my life!

After the Atomium, we headed to Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert to find lunch. This is a beautiful shopping center covered by an arched glass roof, which stretches on for miles, and has high end stores, restaurants, and theaters. Because we are a pretty big group, we split into two smaller groups for lunch and went to two different restaurants, but everyone really enjoyed their food!

When we finished eating we were able to walk around the area for a bit to wait for the other group to finish. Dr. Birchfield pointed out a nice, cozy bookstore that she loves. We all piled into it and found the English books. The selection was in a small space, but there were some really great books in the collection!

After our leisure time in the bookstore, we began our Chocolate Tour! On the tour our group went to a number of chocolate shops and for the first store Dr. Birchfield picked out different types for us to try and divided it among us. I tried the milk chocolate option and it had hardened caramel in the middle with another ingredient to balance out the sweetness. It was absolutely delicious! There was also a dark chocolate option that had vanilla in the middle. I did not try that one, but everyone who did said it was amazing as well. At the next two shops, we all were able to go into to the shop with Dr. Birchfield and pick out the individual pieces of chocolate we wanted. Both of the stores had wonderful options and the chocolates were beautifully crafted. The nice thing about the tour was we also got to see more of the city while we walked from store to store.

After the tour, we had a spontaneous visit to a beautiful cathedral. The inside had great artwork, architecture, and stained glass windows. It was particularly nice to be able to compare this cathedral to the previous ones we have seen in Metz and the many we have seen in other cities. We ended the day in a nice, semi-secluded park, pretty close to the cathedral, where we talked for a bit about the highlights of the day. I would definitely say Day 1 was a success!

Today is the day we say goodbye to our French bread and cheese and say hello to Belgian waffles and fries! On our way to Brussels, we stopped in Bastogne to visit the Bastogne War Museum. This museum is designed to show visitors a new perspective and an interactive framework on World War II through the Battle of the Bulge. We were able to follow the story of a young boy and his family throughout the war to give us a more personal story of the war. This was done through three different movie theaters within the museum. Because of the war, the young boy was sent to live at his uncle’s house while his parents stayed behind to take care of their bike shop. Unfortunately, this was the last time he would see his parents because they were both killed in a bombing. This museum gave us a better insight into the lives of civilians during the war and how they lived before, during the occupation, and after the war.

After the museum, we stopped for a quick lunch at an Italian restaurant. In addition to getting some good food, we also learned a fun fact about one of the program participants, Abbie. She does not like cheese, but her favorite food is pepperoni pizza……I know we were all questioning this too but she says as long as there is a good cheese to pepperoni ratio, she can tolerate the cheese. After lunch we hopped back on the bus to drive the remaining two hours to get to Brussels and meet our host families.

We were greeted by our host families at a meet and greet at a local restaurant. Our group was the first to arrive so we waited eagerly by the patio as our host families began to arrive. Although we were a bit nervous to meet them, we all could not be more thrilled with the families we are going to be living with for the next month! I want to give a special shoutout to me and Harper’s host family for being so wonderful and preparing us a traditional Portuguese dinner for our first night in Brussels!

Happy Sunday!

After a month in Metz, our last day is sadly here. We started our day with a tour of the Lorraine American Cemetery. This cemetery has the largest number of graves of United States military casualties from World War II in Europe. The guided tour offered some insights into three men who are buried in the cemetery. The first story we heard was about a Medal of Honor recipient named Ruben Rivers. He earned his Medal of Honor because he stayed in his tank for three days straight in order to provide coverage for his men. The death year on his grave stone reads 1944 but he did not receive his Medal of Honor until the 90s because he was an African American Soldier. The second soldier we learned about is unknown. The cemetery still has many graves with a headstone that reads “here rests in honored glory a comrade in arms known only but to God.” The cemetery is actively working to identify these men and finally give peace to their families. These graves demonstrate to us that the men who fought in World War II lost more than their lives; they lost their identity. The last grave we visited with our guide is the grave of Charles Campbell. The most impactful part of his story is the last letter that he wrote to his father before he died. In this letter, he talks about his plans for after the war and his ideas about the future. Sadly, Charles would not see the end of the war but that makes his story all the more impactful because we are reminded that these soldiers were young men who were not able to live out their dreams because they sacrificed their lives to keep us safe so that we could have a future. At the end of the guided portion of our visit, our guide asked us one simple favor. She asked us that as we walk through the rows of graves to take a minute and read some of the names on the grave stones in remembrance of the soldiers to keep their memories alive.

After the cemetery, we traveled to Nancy where we were joined by Pooja and Harper who had a bit of a “prague-lematic” time getting back to France since their flight home from Prague was canceled. Before our scheduled ride on the tourist train, we had some time to explore the Place Stanislas. Known around the world for its architecture and beauty, this square is earned a spot on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The square was constructed by the architect Emmanuel Héré and the iron gates were constructed by Jean Lamour. The square is a pivotal part of Nancy because it is home to the City Hall, the Opera House, and the Fine Arts Museum. The tourist train gave us a comprehensive overview of the city and its historical significance. But, I think we would all say that the best part of the train ride was that at the end of the tour, the conductor drove us to the restaurant where we were having our group dinner!

Our day ended with a group dinner in Nancy and a quick train ride back to Metz so we could finish packing to leave for Brussels the following morning. While we will all greatly miss Metz, we are excited to move on to Brussels and see what new opportunities lie ahead.

Our last day before the long weekend (and our last day at GTL!) was full of presentations and tying loose ends together before we head to Brussels! To start the day, Dr. Birchfield treated us for our last day of class with a variety of tasty pastries from a local bakery. After getting our sugar fix, we started with brief group presentations for Dr. Markley’s Human Rights class.

For these presentations, we referred back to our EU member state that we did presentations on a few weeks back, and this time focused on what human rights offenses are present there today. We grouped ourselves based on development level/similarities between countries (ex: well developed democracy, post- Communist state, etc.) and then focused on one human rights issue in this region that we found particularly interesting. My group consisted of Romania, Bulgaria, and Croatia, and we chose to focus on the discrimination against the Roma people in Romania and elsewhere. We first began by giving a history on the Roma people and their migration from India to Europe, as well as the history of discrimination against them in Europe. For many centuries they were enslaved, and still today face discrimination preventing them from obtaining jobs, housing, and education around Europe. Dr. Markley’s first-hand Romanian insight was particularly helpful, as she was able to further fill us in on the Roma’s access to education, and the conflict between the cultural Roma tradition of pulling girls out of school and the need for education as a basic human right. She compared the treatment of the Roma during the Communist regime (during which the Roma were forced to change their culture to fit that of Romania) to today, where they are heavily discriminated against, but maintain the ability to act in accordance with their own culture. From here, we had a brief discussion on the difference between acculturation and assimilation in relation to human rights, particularly for the Roma people. Other groups gave interesting presentations regarding topics ranging from Finland’s data collection to the refugee crisis and mistreatment of refugees in Hungary, Greece, and others.

After presentations, we took a brief break in which many of us decided to return our rental bikes to the shop in Metz. Despite our own doubts about our ability to bike all the way into town (in a group of 19!) without a crash or fall, we all successfully made it to the bike shop, enjoying the beautiful sights of Metz along the way for one of our final times. Afterwards, many of us feasted on delicious crepes in town before heading back to GTL for the afternoon session of class.

Back in class, we all continued to work on our argument for our scenario for the future of Europe, as outlined in the White paper. This paper presents five future possibilities for the European Union by 2025, with possibilities ranging from simply improving the current EU setup to decreasing the EU back to just an economic community. My group was given scenario 1, entitled “Carrying On”, in which the EU maintains its current institutions as well as improving upon policy and functions of the EU. This includes a more outlined and communal immigration process as well as improvements on the stability of the Euro. Each group gave a brief “rough presentation” on our scenario, to be perfected during our time in Brussels, and debated again a few weeks from now when we have more polished research and first hand experience from our site visits and briefings in Brussels.

Today was a perfect wrap up for our time in Metz, with the future of Europe scenarios helping to fuel our thinking before our time in Brussels, when we are fully delved into the world of the EU. As class ended, Dr. Birchfield gave us a brief overview of what our next few days will look like, getting everyone excited for what’s to come!