Strasbourg

A very short excerpt. The European Parliament has their plenary session once a month in Strasbourg, France. You might be wondering why the parliament would waste tax payers money (they spend hundreds of millions on transporting everything), and waste their time (it takes about 4 hours to drive and 5 hours on the train), but there is only one reason: the French. the French are definitely one of the dominant players in the EU. It brings business for the Strasbourg area and France as a whole. However, the rooms are much smaller (there is only one room), and it wastes money and time of people who don't have a lot to spare of either.

While I was there I watched a little bit of the plenary session-they were talking about the upcoming G20 Summit. I also went to lunch with Anneli and her friend from home who is now a successful businessman in Russia. They were talking about the upcoming elections and how best to deal with the economic crisis when talking during the election season.

To pay for our expenses the program gave us some money, but to maximize that money I tried to get a ride from someone who was driving. I ended up with this nice French woman who works for an English MEP in the unattached. She has been working in the EU for over 20 years so she had many stories to tell me. It was nice to get a different persepctive on the EU. I feel like I'm missing out on that aspect in my office because my superviser is usually "too busy" to tell me about how the EU works. I guess that just makes me more self-sufficient in the end, but for now I wish I could learn a little more.

I was in Strasbourg for 3 days total and I spent an afternoon just exploring the town. Strasbourg is very pretty. There is a river running through it and all the buildings look like they could be from Shakespeare's time. I was a little sick and it was actually kinda cold so I didn`'t stay out for too long.