last month' update from the land of chocolate and beer

Hello! Guess whoz back? Yeah, it’s been really long since my last update. Soo, in general- September was very nice in here, beautiful Indian summer.
One of the most memorable experiences was Sailing weekend!!! Amazing. Our big international crew met on Friday night in Newport. We split into boats (because we were too big group we 2 two boats) and settled down. We were very international…as always. My boat: LT, Spain, Columbia, Poland, Turkey, Germany, Belgium. Nice?:) aha! It was very nice, warm and peaceful evening. All sat was such a chill, literally almost all the boat was sleeping on the sun, a bit of wind and loots of fresh air. Uhh, great!!! well, when we reached our final destination Blankenberge…hahaha, we had difficulties to remember the name….one guy from our boat even proposed to buy a dinner for that who will write down correctly the name of the town…everybody was paying for themselvesJ we had small gathering on our boat…well, to be honest- all gatherings were on our boat (size does matters!!!- one of conclusions of our weekend)..well, the way back was a bit more adventures- stronger wind, nobody (almost) was sleeping…everybody had a chance to “drive” the boat at least for an hour…it’s COOL!:) Even next day, at work I felt a bit waiving, but experienced guys said it’s normal. Definitely I will try it again! :)
Some educational part:

I and other trainees from my project, we went to visit DG Trade and EUROPE DIRECT information point in Brussels. Well, It was interesting. Our colleagues( still, we work under the same name) didn’t impress me..lol when we asked smth we were interested in about EU, they advised contact our service..hahaha! DG Trade was more interesting. We had a presentation about EU’ trade and afterward presentation about export helpdesk. It was interesting as well. This day out helped me to realize that the job I am doing is very wide. Because staff from exportHD said that almost half of their enquiries are the same as we are dealing with. But in my project it takes really very very small part of our job. In general I enjoy my working experience here in Brussels. To be honest, it’s not so challenging and not so much space to express your creativity, but it’s fine, for me as a recent graduate it’s really cool!

One more thing I was living and took lots of my personal efforts- an advertisement which appeared on 22nd of Sept in yata_talk yahoo group. It was a calling for European students to take part in a seminar in Washington DC with very good conditions…but the thing was that each country could delegate only one participant! That was reeeaallyyy big challenge for our chapter. Basically it was more principal arguments. I guess some competitors took the principle that everything is possible to use in war and didn’t hesitate to use it. Well, I thought that there was one person which really deserved to go there and basically I was getting in that principle fight because of her..but things turned unexpected and I got the right to apply there. I was even more happy to hear that I am selected to go there. I fixed my us visa. I have my tickets. YEAH, ppl, next Monday I am in Washington DC!!!!! I consider that as really cool present for my birthday from myself and ppl who supported meJ

Last weekend me and my friend Veronica from Equador, 2 trainees in Belgium, we went to Dinanat! That is really beautiful place and I was planning to go there for quite long. But that sat morning we went there without any plan…the trip to dinant…we went there with 3 trains…which were stopping in the middle of nowhere…lol we had lot’s fun with Veronica! It’was really cool to travel with her! Finally we reach our target in late noon…we went up to the fort…had some fun up there…then I spend about 10 min in a line among 5-10 year kids waiting for one attraction…well, I was the only adult looking in that line…it must be funny to see it from aside;) but finally, I did it! It was funJ
Yeah, Belgium is famous for the beer! While trying Belgium beers I found that I like Leffe dark one the most…and guest what? The abbey which produces the beer was in dinant! So, 2 beer fans couldn’t miss that opportunity. Since Dinant is not big and all distances are walkable, it was nice Indian summer noon, nice walk along the river…and we reached smth what looked like the abbey from the label of the beer…Yeah, happy moment. We went inside. It was middle of the service. And then we realized that this is not THE Leffe abbeyJ and we already were happy ant started taking picturesJ ok, then we asked for the ppl and we went to the real one. BUT IT WAS CLOSED! because some concert was inside. Can u imagine? Lol but we r tuff girls. We found the priest…and Veronica was negotiating like we came from very far away and we would like to see inside, etc..well we haven’t mentioned beer…so finally we got inside. It was really very nice place! Afterwards, on the way back, accidentally we found “the leffe museum”if you can call it like this. It looked bit spooky, nobody was in there..so we sneaked in, looked around and went outJ well, we go, until smb stop! On the way back we got some leffe beer and decided to enjoy it on the bank of the river…but we met some difficulties to open it…lol but that’s already another story. How Veronica found new “friends” by giving one euro and afterwards they helped us to access our beer. ( well said- access the beer) really nice day in Belgium! Buuuut it was not the end! Here is time for a nice night in Belgium!
it was a White night in Brussels. This “thing”/event is organized in may places in Europe. The idea is – may performances, concerts, lectures is going on during the night in the city, some shops are open…well, nobody is sleeping. Afterwards breakfast is served in the main square. First we gathered in one of trainee’ place for housewarming party.( the house with the best view I’ve seen in Brussels!!!!) well,then all bunch of strange internationals with portable bar ( it means bad of beer) went down to the city…not very successful – missed the last bus, last metro, got poring rain, taxi driver shouted on us and almost kicked out form the car- for nothing!..well, anyways, we loked around the central parts but finally ended up in the place Le Corbeau … it’s like Orleanas on Wednesday with Siena retro hall musicJ lol but it was cool! All the night we were dancing on the tables ( everybody does it) because there were no other space..untill the bar closed.

Well I am still very proud of myself- every Sunday ( even after all night dancing on the table until bar closes) I went for volley! It’s still great tradition going on!
Unfortunately this Sunday I missed it, it was a circumstance of Belgium autumn- I got cold…this weekend I spent in bed and watched about 30 episodes of FriendsJ lol well, but about volley- I got Lithuanian replacement- a friend of mine came to Brussels, so on Sunday she went instead of me…oh, it’s good to see a face you know longer that 3 month! We enjoyed pink soup, tower cake (for Lithuanians it would be known as Sakotis) and some other LT attributes. Well, in the late noon we sent to the city to meet other trainees and have a cup of teaJ

That’s briefly how I was living last month in the land of chocolate and beer, with ridiculous stories, amazing people and beautiful Indian summer.
Tomorrow I am starting my French language courses at work…it seems one more comedy is about to begin;)