Royal Visit

Dear Friend,

Hello!  How are you?!  I hope you are doing well and enjoying all the great things about fall....American football games, colorful leaves, the build up to Halloween.  Sadly, I will probably not be participating this year - they don't really do Halloween in England like in the States...plus, it's tricky to go as an American movie character if it didn't make a good box office showing over here...you might just get a lot of looks like you're insane (note: did my Dodgeball girl costume last year again and received many puzzled/horrified looks at my giant uni-brow, lipstick and mole).

I'm going to try to cut down on the astronomical length of my posts in an effort to whip them off faster (this should be interesting - straight from the blabbermouth's mouth), so here goes.  I posted last time about my job starting in January in Berlin.  Right now I got an amazing opportunity to work with a research study in Cambridge looking at the legal regimes of four developing countries and how the international climate change laws on forests and reducing emissions from them will fit, what challenges will be presented, how to ensure equitable benefit-sharing for local communities, what investors will need to include in their contracts, etc.  So I've been in Cambridge since the beginning of Sept. and will be here until the first week in Dec. (thus my complete failure to write again).

But in the spirit of trying to remember my time here in the UK, here's the story about the Queen's visit that I mentioned before.  So in early July I received a text from a friend asking if I wanted to go on an adventure the following morning.  My first question was of course how early this adventure was going to begin, and was confused at the response - 7:00 a.m.  What could possibly be starting that early?  No no, my friend, what I soon found out was that the actual starting time was 10 a.m. - we were just going to early....more like, the earliest people who have ever been early for anything...ever.  The Queen was coming up to Scotland to swear in her grandson Prince William to the Order of the Thistle (the highest knighthood honor you can get in Scotland) and the ceremony would take place at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.  In order to get "good spots" for viewing/picture taking...we showed up 3 hours early.  No people around, no press yet - we even beat the shift change for the night police.  It was hilarious.

So for the next seven hours, I stood pressed up against the barricades (at the very front, obviously) as gradually more and more people starting to crowd in and literally the red carpet was rolled out.  They put in special stairs over top of the stone stairs (red carpeted mind you), and marched in the royal archers and this royal band all in tartan with those massive furry black hats the guards in front of Buckingham Palace wear.  It was glorious - three Rolls Royce cars pulled up, one with the Queen and Prince Philip, another with William and Kate, and the last with Princess Anne (poor thing got the shoddiest one).  They joined the procession of Knights (except Kate - she just had to go in by herself and watch) all in flowing dark green velvet capes with plump green velvet hats adorned with enormous white feathers.  The Queen even had a page boy to carry her train in this ornate green jacket with gold trim, white knickers, high white stockings and the black buckle shoes....it was blissfully pretentious!

The ceremony didn't last that long, but afterward they all proceeded into the nearby building (to which the red carpet led) to have lunch.  We were debating whether to leave, since having stood there for five hours already, my heels felt like there was a sharp iron rod stabbing up into them and I couldn't really bend my knees anymore thanks to the heavy fog that had settled in and frozen my joints in place.  Silly to even question it, you might think - the only thing they were going to do was come out and get into their cars.  Leave immediately right?  Wrong.  We had chummed up to one of the policemen (Keith) who was on the other side of the barricades making sure no nutjob hopped over and made a dash for ol' Elizabeth, and he informed us that they had a specific block of time set aside in their schedules to come over to the crowd and shake hands after lunch.  Well believe you me, once we heard that, game over.  Two more hours - what's that after you've already stood for five.  But sure enough, they bailed.  Didn't shake hands with the lowly commoners.  Just hopped in the cars and took off.  Apparently, the royals were "tired" after such a "busy" day and retired to Holyrood Palace to warm themselves by the fire and have tea and scrumpets I'm sure.  Sooooo annooooooyed.  That made a little bit of their luster fade for me that day - but I was still starstruck to see the Queen :) I limped back home, promptly passed out and woke up with a little more feeling in my knees.

Thanks so much for reading, and take care of you!  Will write again soon.
Much love,
Beth x

Un-Dropped off the face of the Earth!

Dear friend,

How are you?!  It's been forever and a day since I last wrote.  I know, I'm sorry.  So shameful, but I have great updates!  So since we last spoke I have been searching constantly, emailing, and networking for a job post-program (Sept. on).  I almost fell out of my chair when I did a random Google search for "agricultural and environmental research fellowships" and up popped the Ecologic Institute.

Ecologic is a think tank on environment and sustainable development with its head office in Berlin, Germany. It also has offices in Brussels, Vienna, Washington DC, and San Mateo, CA.  They started a Transatlantic Fellowship program to have North American young professionals come over and spend a year in Berlin to encourage cross-cultural understanding and action on incorporating environmental and sustainable development considerations into broader policy.  The areas they work in are agricultural, water, marine, Arctic, and global health policy.  Finally, after having found this in January, applying and hearing back sometime in February, and interviewing through March and April, I was offered a fellowship position (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) starting January to work on agricultural policy coming down from the European Union and German government and analyze its environmental effects and draft recommendations to the corresponding entity.  In addition to collaborating on the projects in place, I am to research and produce my own project on an agricultural policy issue during the year.

I cannot even believe I received an offer to do this.  I interviewed via videoconference twice (which if you've never done that before it can suffer a lag-time so that your responses could actually end up interrupting your interviewer every time she tries to continue talking - not that I'm speaking from experience or anything), and the atmosphere of the office sounds very pleasant and laid-back yet productive.  I'll be mentored by a woman originally from Slovenia who is incredibly smart and nice who specialized in Eastern European small farmer and less favored area policies (I think).  I've never been to Berlin, which sounds weird to say about the city I'm moving to, but it sounds amazing from every person I talk to!!!!!!!!  It is considered "the New York of Europe" but is way cheaper, thank goodness.  I know almost no German, but Ecologic encourages fellows to take a language class as part of the experience and (best part) we only work four days a week so that on the fifth day we can "dive into the German culture".  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!!!!  You are offering me the chance to learn another language and basically enabling my tourism habit - um, where do I sign?  I joke, but seriously I cannot believe how blessed I am to have gotten this opportunity!  Thanks for listening and sorry I babbled about it for so long.  Just wanted to keep you updated on what I'll be doing all of 2013.

So in the meantime I am looking for something during Sept-Dec.  I have tentatively found a research thing in Cambridge, but it's not finalized so I will write about that in a couple of weeks when things are clearer.  Have a great story from the Queen being in town for Holyrood Week, so I will try to write that before the weekend is up!

Hope everything is great with you, and I'll write again soon (not lying this time)!
Cheers,
Beth

The Waffle Was My Downfall

Hi friend!  How are you?  I hope you are very well!  It's been a ridiculously long time since I've written, so I'm going to structure this a little differently - I'm going to post with dates signifying when the event I'm writing about took place until I can work up to the present.  Sorry for the confusion!

Dec. 3-8, 2011 - Brussels, Belgium

I was invited to give a guest lecture at the University of Louvain-la-Nueve on December 6 on US food labeling health claims.  The professor who invited me was our guest speaker for the Drake Journal of Agricultural Law banquet last year, so when he found out I would be over here this year, he invited me to hop over to Belgium and present to his consumer protection class.  I took the 4-hour train down from Edinburgh to London King’s Cross station where you catch the Eurostar train.  That was my first time in the Chunnel, which takes you under the water separating the British Isle from “the continent”.  It reminded me of the BART train, which goes under the San Francisco Bay, but free of a highly probable earthquake.  Thus, quite on par with all of my train journeys, I instantly passed out for the entire 30 min. ride underground (I swear they put sleeping gas in the vents).  Slightly underwhelming but amazing at the same time – literally I was in Britain and within an hour I had entered two different countries, France and Belgium.  Unbelievable how compact Europe is.

            I was also incredibly fortunate to have met an administrator from the European Commission through Drake who deals with US trade negotiations for wine, chicken, and beef.  He and his wife invited me to stay with them and their two little boys for a few days before the lecture, so I got to see the inner-workings of a German household!  Given my non-existent German and infantile French, unfortunately I could not communicate with the boys, ages 5 and 2.  They were so adorable though and it was great conversation with Felix and Vanessa (…in English...obvi).  They had a children’s theatre performance (in German) to attend the day after I arrived, so I spent the day at the Belgian history museum, the Bellevue, in which of course I took infinitely longer than expected because I can’t help but read almost every sign and visit every room.  But I did manage to take some pictures of the Royal Palace next door, ate a late lunch at the café on top of the Museum of Musical Instruments (had a killer view of the city), and stood dwarfed in the shadow of the Palais de Justice, a building so massive in its symbolic display of the power of the law that Hitler apparently requested to visit it after he’d conquered the city. 

            The next day I visited the European Commission and the European Parliament.  The Parliament is an amazing complex that is so huge yet supposedly very functional according to the assistant to the Scottish Member of the European Parliament.  Felix had worked with her on the Beef Hormone issue recently, so she was amazing to take time out of her day to have a coffee and give me a tour.  Her MEP is the head of the Agricultural Committee, so she is directly working on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy right now – amazing conversation about the lobbying she is subjected to and their negotiations!  I collected my bags after that and headed to my new housing for the next three days – Paul, the professor, and his wife Valerie had graciously suggested that I stay with them and their two children, ages 6 and 3.  I have to admit that was a bit of a test in my map reading abilities since I had to use public transit (tram), then walk to find my road in French, and eventually arrive at a door I hoped was right.  Luckily, I had managed and Valerie was the one who greeted me with Charlotte and Antoine, as well as their renter Amanda who I was embarrassingly kicking out of her room to stay there.  Apparently that was a contingency in renting the room to her though that I would be coming in December…but still I felt terrible!  Valerie is amazing and was a fellow with an organization in DC last year, so she is in the process of writing her book.  Thus, the kids completely understand English and Charlotte could still speak it, albeit shyly.  Their house is fantastic – setup like a traditional Belgian house with the three-storied living area and bedrooms upstairs, but the man who had originally lived there converted the upstairs rooms into apartments for the metalworkers in his shop.  In what used to be the shop out back in the garden, they’ve built a kitchen and sleeping quarters area more away from the street connected to the front part by a glass hallway.  Fabulously generous, warm, welcoming, interesting people. 

            That night I attended a Christmas concert at the Notre-Dame du Sablon Church that I had been invited to by Felix and Vanessa’s friends, who I met at a small coffee, tea, and desserts gathering after the German theatre performance.  Granted it was all in German, a few pieces in French (I think?!), and two in English (I Wonder as I Wander and Hark the Herald), but it was so beautiful in the church, the choirs were amazing (they had bused in from a region in Germany and the other from Antwerp), and it was great to experience a European holiday festivity.  I was told if one wanted to, one could attend at least two Christmas celebratory events every night until after the New Year…..we’re talking Dec. 5^th at that point – brilliant!  Bonus – I tried my first mulled wine afterward – hot, spiced red wine *at the back of the church* that all concertgoers were welcome to!  Y.U.M.  Yes please, exported back to the States immediately.  Upon leaving the concert, I waited in the cold for the tram to come for about 45 min…..of course the workers had decided to go on strike on that line for the first time…well…as far as Valerie could remember.  You can take this for what you will, but I appreciated it when she said my continuing hopefulness that the tram would eventually come even after 45 min. was what they loved about the States – our positive attitudes.  I just didn’t want to walk a mile in my uncomfortable dress shoes but hey, didn’t want to disagree!

            The next day I gave my lecture…yada yada…but actually it was kind of amusing.  I was presenting to students at this Uni who were all native French speakers and only one girl in the class was from Quebec, so she had great English.  Everyone else spoke/understood basic English (I think, or more like I hope?! J) but I was shocked when Paul told me that I might be the first American some of them had ever met so they would be quite curious about me….maybe it’s irrational for me to be shocked by that, but nevertheless, I had not thought of that (I’m their first impression?!…oh boy, haha).  So I tried to give myself a pep talk that I would speak slowly (which I managed) and straightforward so as not to confuse anyone.  But immediately when I started….the self-deprecating jokes just came out, which can be a bit hard for a non-native speaker to interpret as to whether you’re serious or not.  I didn’t inundate them with too many, and I was relieved to hear scattered laughter so some people got them, but still – it’s so natural at this point it’s like verbal diarrhea.  Kind of like my verbal tick of “sorry” (thanks Mom J).  Regardless, the professor was very pleased with my presentation and I think the information was well tailored to the audience.  Phew.  I spent the remainder of the afternoon in Louvain-la-Nueve at the art museum before taking the train back into Brussels (*Belgium is split between French and Dutch speakers, so when tensions over instruction being given in French rose to the point in the 60s that those professors and students were protested against and kicked out of the now Dutch-speaking University of Louven, Louvain-la-Nueve was a town specially created for a separate French-speaking Uni).  These two incredibly nice women with minimal English were so excited to show me around the museum and insisted on cryptically explaining the evolution of color palette usage through the centuries (…..complicated subject matter in a shared language let alone with very few understandable phrases).  So I missed the train I meant to take, but it was a great experience.

            The next day I went out sightseeing, and since it was the first Wednesday of the month, the national museums were free in the afternoon!  Totally by chance – yay!  In the morning I walked instead of taking the tram six stops into town.  Amazing to uncover things you wouldn’t have normally seen, like the Botanical Gardens, the monument memorializing Belgian independence and the first National Congress in 1831, and St. Michael’s Cathedral sort of off the beaten path.  From there I visited the famous Grand Place—unbelievably ornate buildings surrounding a large plaza—and the Mannekin Pis—the fountain with a little boy peeing the water into your waiting container that has become sort of a symbol of the city.  However, the latter is quite deceiving if I may say so myself.  The pictures make it look like the fountain is big and freestanding in the middle of some plaza.  It actually only stands about two feet tall and is set into a wall alcove that’s fenced off with a good five feet in front of it.  Standing across the road and watching the hordes of tourists recently unloaded from their buses snapping pictures of it reinforced Paul and Valerie’s comment that it would be thoroughly underwhelming – my thoughts exactly.  So I hit up one of the hundreds of waffle shops surrounding this tourist trap and spent the next fifteen minutes trying to scrape some of the overflowing Nutella off of my already sweet waffle (note: no topping is necessary on real Belgian waffles sold on the street if you ever visit Brussels) and prevent my hair from flying into it.  Unsuccessful on both counts and was immediately covered in Nutella from head to toe.  After that disaster, clearly I needed a beer J so I headed to a little pub by the Christmas market and ate the most delicious traditional Belgian beef dish accompanied by a tasty Belgian lager.

            The afternoon at the museums was so interesting.  I walked into the huge raised foyer of the national art museum that houses both a 15^th-16^th C. onwards wing and a modern wing and there were about 30-50 people milling about.  About 20 of them had these paper blindfold mask things over their eyes, no shoes on, and were using blind walking sticks.  They were saying things in French and reaching out in front of them like they were feeling for something.  One girl got dangerously close to touching me and since I didn’t know what they were doing, who they were, and couldn’t understand them, I was not pleased at the prospect of being semi-fondled by this person faking blindness.  After dodging out of the way, I asked the desk worker what was going on.  They are a group of protesters (art students, patrons of the museums, Brussels residents) who gather every Wed. afternoon when they’re supposed to be able to visit the modern wing to protest because it’s been closed since last February.  They’re very upset about it because she said there’s really not been any good explanations as to why it’s still closed/not really any work has been done to it even though the reason given for closing it was renovations, so they come up with clever ways of showing they’re pissed each time.  This time they were seeking out the painters whose names they were saying (shows how much modern art I know right?) but couldn’t see because the modern wing is still closed, and the shoe thing was because I was there the day after Dec. 6^th – a separate holiday from Christmas (also with St. Nicholas but they consider him separate from Santa) where children leave their shoes by the door with a carrot in there for his donkey and they wake up to small presents.  They were asking St. Nicholas to bring them the gift of reopening the modern wing.  Clever huh?  After touring the old wing, I visited the museum dedicated to Belgium’s famous modern artist Rene Magritte.  It confirmed my hatred for modern abstract art.  I know this makes me sound uncultured and stupid, but I just can’t get the "wow, that really speaks to me" meaning of it or why it’s so spectacular.  It helped that the displays explained what was going on in the world and his personal life at certain times that influenced changes in his methodology, but I still can’t be bothered.  Much more of a 19^th century impressionist fan.

            So that was my time in Brussels!  I made it back to Edinburgh with a relatively uneventful trip.  Granted that was the day 100 mph winds decided to come up in Scotland, so delays and reroutes were threatened, but we forged ahead on-time and didn’t take a ridiculous amount of extra time.  The train was a’rockin though – slightly nervous we were going to be blown off the track!  Slight nervous that you may not have made it to the end of this monstrosity of a blog post as well….so with that, I will just say thanks for taking time to read this, hope you are doing great, and I’ll post again very soon about Christmas in the UK!  Take care!

Cheers,

Beth