Farewell to Paris and most of all France

I am officially done with all of my obligations for Northwestern, hence I can enjoy these next few days in Paris to do some of the things that I never got around doing. For one sleeping into 1 PM, I haven’t done in a week…check that. Need to get rid of the excess wine I brought home from the vineyard, but I am sure it won’t go to waste. Looking back at the semester, I guess the only regret that I have had was that I didn’t meet enough French people. I guess it’s hard when you have a program of just American students with a few token French. Oh well I am leaving with friends that I can take back with me to Northwestern and I now have a few families I can stay with in France covering all corners of the country. I have lived it up here basically feeling like I have been on vacation for 4 months. I did have to work, but nothing in comparison to the hell I went through last year in terms of Northwestern science. I am taking a break from it this year and exploring other options. Regardless, my stay in France has opened me up to different ways of life and thinking. The things that I have learned from being here in France is really hard to put in words for a conclusion because I have written 30+ blog posts since being here, which probably equals out to maybe 100+ pages. I know that when I get back to the States I will be different, no matter how much I have tried to stay the same. The culture, language, and people will stay with me for a long time and I guess I will always have a soft spot for France. I hope to return and see cities such as Bordeaux as well as more castles and chateaus in the Loire, but that is for another time. Also someday coming back to Paris with a significant other would put me a great advantage, knowing where to go and what to do…

The biggest thing that I have learned since being here is that no matter how much I try to be European because of my identity crisis, I am American and will always be. The best thing that I can do here is take away aspects of the culture and thought and apply them to my life. I always associated myself to Illinois or Connecticut and never really to the US. When I flew across the Atlantic and stayed on a different continent for a third of 2007, I realized that no matter what city or state you are from in the US, there is an American culture and identity that is borderless across the 50 states. Even the near communist students in my NU program ended loving the US that much more by the end of our time in France. It’s not that France or any of these other countries are terrible countries, its just we all live a pretty comfortable and isolated life in North America. It is important to travel and experience the world, so that you can have your eyes opened like mine were. And now that I have done so much, I have realized that there are so many more beautiful places in the world that I can visit and there is such little time. I guess now I need to work on getting a job and making money so that I can do all that….

It’s sad but finally true; I am leaving on Saturday for the opposite end of Europe to the vacation town of Varna, Bulgaria where I will spend Christmas with my friend Ivy from Northwestern. Don’t worry blog doesn’t stop here because I will still be in Europe until January 4th! I am sure I will have plenty of things to talk about Central and Eastern Europe... Now I just have to find something to do with myself for the next few days before then.

Unexpected weekend in Belgium

So I am writing on the Thalys high speed train going back to Paris from a very quick but eventful two days in Belgium. Yes, it was my third time in the small country and some people would ask why go again? But my answer to them is whenever you visit another country no matter if you have been there before you will always learn something. So the story of how I got here starts last weekend in the south of France when I got an email from my dad and a family friend of ours who has a company office and plant in Belgium. He invited me down from Paris to spend the weekend with some Belgian and American hospitality. I turned in my paper Thursday and had my French final so I was ready for a relaxing weekend. I booked a ticket that got me into Brussels into the afternoon where I was met by a taxi who took me to the Biznis Hotel. Now the north of Belgium excluding Brussels speaks Flemish (Dutch) and the south (Wallonia) speaks French. Brussels is an international city that speaks both, but once we got outside, it was mostly Dutch which for me was hard but French still worked. I talked to the taxi driver about what it was like to live in Belgium. I told him that if you read the papers, it seems that the Belgian government doesn’t get along and there are talks of separation of the country. Like I said before that’s all Europe needs is another very small country. I mean Belgium is about 250km from the north end to the south. He said that among the people there are not any conflicts and that it was just the politicians who couldn’t get along. He further confirmed something though that the Flemish north is more heavily industrial and pays for the Wallonian south. His perception of the relationship is that while he worked and busted his ass per say, the southern “poorer” people sit around and do nothing. Although that might be true, one has to take into consideration that the south of Belgium was known for its mining and after that was wiped out, most of the investment and industry went into the north. I don’t know how much of it has to do with mentality or socioeconomic reasons.
Nevertheless it was interesting, and my last question was if he liked the European Union. Now of course he said yes, Belgium, being one of the original 6 members, benefits greatly from an united Europe.

Now back to the trip, I finally got to my destination, which was a nice business hotel. Judging that I do look 20+ years old, the people at the reception desk were still surprised to see a kid. There was initial confusion because my family friend had made the reservations under his company name and all of the information was different. Took a good 15 minutes to clear up before I got my room on the first floor. After walking in I liked it already because it was big! You can normally tell from how big the stairwell is, how big you room is going to be. If you can barely fit while going up, you are in for a small surprise. The room ended up being too high tech for me, when you walk in, you have to put your keycard in a little slot next to the door, turning on the power in the room. Now as good as it sounds for energy conservation, it’s definitely a hazard, because of having almost walked out without it a few times. Anyway I called my friend’s assistant, who ended up picking me up and bringing me to the office that was only 5 minutes down the road. It consisted of a brand new office (10 yrs old) with a manufacturing plant in the back being in charge of operations and sales in Europe and Africa. Now of course I was a little timid going into this whole thing because for the entirety of the trip I was treated like a guest: a young businessman instead of a college student. I was introduced to everyone being the friend of the American boss, which immediately would squelch their looks of what is he doing here? I also made a habit to prove myself with each person I met either talking about Flemish castles and art or what I have learned from being in Europe for four months. After waiting for a bit in the conference room, I was met by my friend and 4 other Americans from Naperville/Downers Grove who were from the company headquarters in the good ole Grove. Only did I later find out that they were somewhat of a board of directors for the company. I asked a lot of questions that I was genuinely interested in knowing the answers too like: do you export to Eastern Europe with all of the structural fund aid from the EU, what countries in Africa, do you take part in the Iraqi reconstruction, and so on. Had to show them quickly that they were not babysitting me for two days. After a few exchanges of conversation, my nervousness subsided and I was shown the manufacturing plant by my friend who along the way caught us up with what was going on with the families.

We all went back to the hotel and got some good, and let me emphasize good Belgian beer before going to the Amadeus restaurant in Ghent for ribs. Beer 4 €, Ribs 15 €, Good company that is twice your age, but treats you the same: Priceless. Now I have been to Ghent before 5 years ago with John Nihoul from Kent. That was during the summer and better weather months. Now it was just rainy and gray, but still better than Brussels might I add. I don’t know how many have read my post on my last trip to Belgium, this one was certainly better for Ghent is a university town that has many nice pubs, restaurants, shops, and cathedrals. That night while making the rounds of bars and pubs, to show me the hotspots of Ghent of course, nothing more…we ended up at this famous beer hall that had a trademark of selling this beer that came in this huge glass a yard long. Now having a few beverages before this task made me think long and hard about the journey that I was about to embark on. I took the quest egged on by the others, reminded me of a frat party, and was told to give up my shoe in insurance for the glass. After I had started drinking, I suddenly thought oh shit what happens when you have to go the bathroom and only have one shoe. Immediately, I was offered everyone else’s shoe at the table, but it was hard to find one that fit because of being size 12. Well you know what they say about big feet….its hard to find shoes! I finished the big bong of beer and reobtained my shoes. I don’t know if I just made up a new word, reobtain, but it works for me although Word spits it back.

We left the fine establishment and went back to the hotel even though it was only midnight. I definitely needed sleep and knew that I was probably not going to make breakfast the next day. I handled the whole thing fairly well and got up in the morning to go with the guys back to Ghent, where we visited some of the cathedrals, which are most of the pictures from the trip because rain and electronics sadly don’t mix. We also hit up a mustard store and then some fine Belgian chocolates. What was surprising to me was that when we went to this famous mustard store, it had been the same one that I bought mustard 5 years ago. I couldn’t buy anything now because it would be another month before I come back to the land of over-consumption and wide open spaces. No seriously I have said it before, I miss the US. We finished up getting the presents for the wives, which thankfully I don’t have to deal with for another decade at most. But it’s good to learn some of things beforehand in an effort to block out some of those small fights. We went back to the hotel in order to get ready and some rest for the Christmas party in a Belgian castle with most all of the European employees of the company. Before retiring to my chambers, I ran across the highway to the gas station for some chocolate milk, Pringles, and water. Chocolate milk has been the only milk I have drank since being here in Europe except for the ice cream, and even then chocolate milk doesn’t exist in France only in Belgian processed bottles. On the way up to the room, I was given a blazer that was two sizes bigger than me, but did the job. I wore my usual attire of black pants, belt, and nice shirt to go along with my brown walking shoes. As usual I did not bring black dress shoes and was not totally matching. But that’s ok because there were people at the party who were 10x more underdressed. Instead of a tie, I just unbuttoned my shirt and curled the hair. Be that false as it may, people I mean women still looked even with Italians in the room.

The party was a beautiful old castle that was more like a mansion/chateau than a medieval castle. There was an upstairs where all the guests were greeted and then the floor underneath was the dance floor and dinner hall. This is the one large event every year that includes everyone from the Belgian office, UK, Italian, German, and the rest of the European employees. After standing around drinking my orange juice with some of the guys that I had met the day before, I was introduced to many other Belgians who were working for the company. When it was time to sit down, they called us by tables and I was put at the head table with all of the other executives and their spouses. Before the dinner started they introduced all of the important people who stood up and took a bow. I wasn’t expecting getting called up as well at the end. I felt a little bad that I was getting this kind of treatment, but of course I liked it. We ended up taking a 5 hour meal with 4 courses and dessert. There was a wine and beer for every course, but I only took a glass. I was sitting with the original 5 that I spent the last day with along with 2 other Americans and this Dutch businessman and his wife. I had some very interesting conversations at the table not only with the men, but their wives. The Dutch businessman was very interesting because not only was he in charge of bringing in more sales for France but also he was an antique guns collector who branched out and engineered a lab that works on metals and fibers for bullet proof vests and armor for ships, planes, helicopters, and vehicles. Talk about a hell of a guy. He also told me that it was currently weird that the French, British, and especially the American militaries were increasing their orders to about 140,000 vests a year, let alone everything else. After the meal was over with, they had a dessert buffet that was complimented with dancing right after to kind of even it out. Our bus left at 1:20 with all of the executives leaving everyone else to go crazy as the guys told me. Well this is getting too long, so I would just like to conclude with me saying good bye to everyone after the party that I had met because of their early flights in the morning, but that I might be seeing them soon. By the way, the time it took me to go from Brussels to Paris is the amount of time it took to write this blog…