Busy Beginnings

The last two weeks have been extremely busy for me! I have now had two full weeks of classes and internship. I must admit that I think I am taking on too much and might end of dropping a class. I would hate to do this because so far I have really enjoyed everything I have been learning. My schedule is not the greatest since I am not a morning person... I have to get up at 6:30 two times a week and 7:00 two times a week. I also have class until 6:00 pm three days a week. One highlight from classes this last week was attending a debate in European Parliament on Human Security and the Responsibility to Protect. Several of the speakers were from the UN and other important organizations.

For my internship, my advisor gave me four different tasks that I will be working on. These include (1) Assistance to Preparation of Special Issue of academic journal on “Intra-African and Africa-Europe migration," (2) Co-authoring of academic article on “Intra-African migration: Data availability and quality,"(3) Participation in internal seminars at UNU-CRIS, and (4) Other tasks related to migration-related projects of Programme 4: “Socio-Economic Dimensions of Regional Integration.” To be honest, the internship is a little overwhelming right now, but I think I will end up learning a lot from it.

Other exciting adventures in the last two weeks include going to the Atomium and Little Europe with my roommate Krissy last weekend. The Atomium is a structure built for the 1958 World's Fair. Little Europe is a little park with miniature statues of over 300 sites of Europe. On Tuesday night we went to the Belgium vs. USA soccer game, which was a ton of fun, even though the USA lost. I really enjoyed being in an American crowd because it felt a little like home. Yesterday, Krissy, Johnny, Malik, (2 of the guys in my program) and I took a train to Brugge, then rented bikes and biked 25 km from Brugge to the North Sea. It was an incredible bike ride along canals and the Belgium countryside! The ocean was nice though too cold to swim in. After relaxing in the sand for a while we rode back but got caught in a thunderstorm. We made it back safely, though by the time we got back to Brussels, we were tired, sore, and completely wet.

Today, we hope to go to the Royal Palace which is open to visitors only today, then I have a friend's birthday dinner to go to. This week I just have my busy week of classes, then on Friday, Krissy and I are going to see the band Owl City. Saturday and Sunday then is a trip to Cologne, Germany with my art class. Thanks to all who have sent letters and emails! Know that they are much appreciated!