We missed you, Knuty!

MC's chicas were reunited last night after another weekend of separation (tear). Jess and Meg were in Paris, while Bec took the visiting chicos south to Granada... she'll tell you all about that soon. I went to Brussels with my political econ class to see the European Union and have some fun in Belgica! We took off from Madrid and arrived at our very nice hotel late Wednesday night. After getting settled, a few of us went out for a couple Belgian brewskis. It happened to be karaoke night at the nearest little bar, so we endured some painful croons but enjoyed some drinks and sang along before heading in for the night.
We had an early wake-up call Thursday morning for a meeting at the European Parliament. The Spanish parliamentarian we were there to meet was busy, but we got the tour from his assistant, and briefly greeted him in passing after creeping in his office. Next we headed to a quaint part of the city for a quick lunch. Being the good friend that I am, I risked my life for a Brian Dearborn photo shoot, and barely escaped death by a moving car. We went on to our next meeting with lobbying firm Business Europe, and then back to the hotel for a brief siesta before dinner.
Knut, our professor and frequent visitor of Brussels, took us out for a typical Belgian meal. It would have to suffice for Thanksgiving dinner for the Americans in the class. We enjoyed mussels, Belgian fries (don't even think about calling them French in Belgium), and of course some more Belgian cerveza. Delish. Dinner turned out to be quite the cultural experience, as we all used the paper table cloth to teach and learn ridiculous words and phrases in different languages. Fat and happy, we headed to see Grand Place (gorgeous at night! Check out the pictures) and Mannequin Piss, Brussels' famous statue of a little boy peeing (??). Whatever they're into... Then we passed a lucky Belgian statue, which some of us were bold enough to touch. (So I'm either going to get married within the month or never at all... Eeek.) Knut took us to one of his favorite Brussels bars, The Coffin, where we drank beer out of skulls and Knut told us about his days as the lead singer in a death metal band. Needless to say we all got to know our each other pretty well this weekend.
Another early morning on Friday, we met with two more EU lobbyists from different industries, then took the tram out of downtown to visit the Estonian embassy. Suburban Brussels in the fall was beautiful and reminded us of home. After an interesting chat with the ambassador, we headed back to the EU Commission building, where we had our final meeting with a Swedish commissioner. For dinner, Knut took us to another little Belgian place for some more authentic food and beehs. That night some of us went out to the popular club You and danced the night away euro-style.
We took a trip out of town on Saturday, to the beautiful city of Brugge. The old-Europe city was all ready for Christmas, and we all got in the spirit, doing some shopping, and tasting the seasonal hot wine. We visited a shop that makes their own chocolate, and of course enjoyed lots of samples and spent lots of money. It was worth every euro and every calorie. Back in Brussels, we went out for dinner and another fun night hanging out with people from our class.
Sunday morning we got up to visit King Leopold's museum of stuff he collected from his own personal African colony, walked around a little park outside Brussels, and finally enjoyed an authentic Belgian waffle. Seriously packing on the pounds this weekend between the waffles, fries, chocolate, and beer. How all Belgians aren't obese I'll never know.
The trip came to a close with our flight back to Barajas, where we said tearful goodbyes to our new friends. I headed back to MC's to be reunited with my long-lost roomates. Tonight, Rowan and Owen (Jess' and my Aussie friends that we met in Granada) are in Madrid, so we are going to meet them and show them our stomping grounds. Check ya laterrrrr.