adeline in BRUSSELS!!

One may say it is tiring to go to work during the week and then go travelling during weekends. Yes, this is very true, but as much as it is an energy-consuming experience, I find it very enjoyable. 

Last weekend Jenny, Valerie and I made another weekend expedition to London. Among all the places I have been to so far this summer, London is the first place that I haven’t had enough of. I am not able to articulate a clear reason why I would want to go back again. Maybe it is the numerous West End musicals that I long to watch? Or the magnificent old architectures? Or the big parks that one can spend an entire morning lying on the grass and enjoy the rare splendid weather of London? Or the free of charge museums? Or the breath-taking view from the London Eye? Or because I can finally fully comprehend what others are saying? Or because I haven’t done enough shopping on Oxford Street? The list can definitely continue… I was also glad to meet up with my old friend from St. Stephen’s while I was in London and did some catching up. It felt different meeting an old friend on foreign land than in Hong Kong.  

Anyway, I just want to say…LONDON! I WILL BE BACK! =D

In my 1^st blog I mentioned learning about the European Union and the European Parliament in my internship. Let me write a bit more about my internship at HKETO. Another major part of my job here in the Office is to assist my supervisor in arranging duty visits to other European cities and organizing delegation visits from HKSAR government. During the year, my supervisor and her colleagues will visit other European cities like Paris, Madrid, and Barcelona etc. and have meetings with the government officials and business contacts. A lot of preparation work has to be done prior to each visit, from lining up meetings and luncheons to car rental. Thus at times I will have to contact car rental companies and hotels to make enquiries and bookings. The process of making enquiries for quotations may be quite tedious as being a government office, there are many procedures and prior approval must be obtained before anything proceeds on. I believe the inflexibility makes work less efficient.  

Several weeks ago I had lunch with another colleague in my office who works in another unit, we talked about the difference between the Hong Kong and European working style. I was quite curious to know his view as a Belgian working in a Hong Kong office. He agreed that there are too many procedures in the office and that isn’t the way the Europeans work here. We also had an interesting discussion on why Hong Kong people have such long working hours. We both agreed that the tedious procedures in our office were one major reason. I cannot say that no Europeans have long working hours, but from my observation, Europeans generally have a less hectic work life than Hong Kong people.

Last Monday (29/6), I attended an informal meeting with my colleague and the Treasurer of the Belgium-Hong Kong Society (BHKS), who so happened was also Jenny’s supervisor in ING Bank. Obviously Jenny and I both didn’t anticipate meeting each other in an office setting, so this meeting was quite a special experience! 

HKETO is responsible for running BHKS, which aims to promote bilateral economic, social and cultural ties between Belgium and Hong Kong. Jenny and I were invited to this meeting as the Society has been planning to take in student members and thus invited Thomas, a university student from Antwerp, to join the meeting to brainstorm student activities. 

During the meeting we covered a variety of issues, including the added value of the Society, the functions of the Society’s website and how to make the website more member-focused (which weren’t quite related to the original objective of brainstorming student activities). All these issues demanded creativity and I was particularly impressed by Thomas’s ideas. He was a clear example of how to think outside the box. He was able to utilize his expertise in international business communications and brought many interesting and creative ideas to the table. I, on the other hand, lacked the creativity. I realized the limited ideas that I contributed were more from the practical perspective.  

Nothing has been decided during that meeting and I hope another follow-up meeting can be arranged before I finish my internship in HKETO.

Last weekend (20-21 June) Jenny, Elisa and I went to Amsterdam for the weekend. It was our 1^st weekend trip. Having done some research on the Internet and also with the aid of a travel book, we basically planned our trip before departing Brussels.  

On Saturday, we did some sightseeing in the city centre. Our 1^st stop was the Dam Square. There we found the Royal Palace, the National Monument, the Nieuwe Kerk and the Madame Tussaud
Museum. I was a bit disappointed as I expected it to be as spectacular as the Grand Place in Brussels. However, the Square itself was not too attractive and thus we did not spend much time there. 

After lunch we headed to theVan Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank House. The Van Gogh Museum contains the largest collection of paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. I like how the paintings and exhibits were arranged as I could learn about Van Gogh’s biography and also understand how his works developed in a chronological manner.  Our next stop was the Anne Frank House; which was the place where Anne Frank and her family hid for 2 years during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II. The House displayed the original objects that belonged to those hiding, some historical documents, photographs, film images and Anne’s original diary and notebooks. All these exhibits helped to create a vivid image and atmosphere of the hiding period. 

Our last stop for the day was the famous Red Light District. It is quite fascinating to see how liberal the Netherlands is. Prostitution has been legalized in the Netherlands several years ago and thus self-employed prostitutes rent rooms and offer services from behind a window or glass door. It was an eye-opening experience touring in the RLD. But I guess once is enough. 

Our day did not end here. We had a little “adventure” afterwards. The hotel that we originally booked was full and thus we got upgraded to another hotel. The receptionist called a taxi for us and it was supposed to take us to the right hotel. Apparently we were taken to a wrong hotel. With the kind help of the receptionist at the “wrong” hotel, we hopped onto another taxi. Taxis in Europe are mostly equipped with the GPS; however, the drivers just do not seem to benefit from such advanced technology. It was pretty frustrating sitting inside the taxi at midnight looking at the driver who did not seem to know the way to our hotel. All this fuss occupied another hour and we finally got to our hotel with a nice room overlooking a canal in Amsterdam.  

 On Sunday we visited a windmill village called Zaanse Schans. Zaanse Schans was one of the oldest industrial towns in Europe. Now there are 8 windmills operating in the village. Jenny and I visited the Cat windmill which produces paints. The scenery from the windmill balcony, together with the wonderful sunny weather, was breathtaking. We also tried the Dutch pancake and it was very delicious! 

Jenny and I had another “adventure” that afternoon. The 2 of us missed the last ferry back to the other side of the Zaandijk. We sought help from a windmill owner, hoping he could tell us that there would be alternative transportations to cross the Zaandijk. We were told earlier that day that the other ferry at the other side of the windmill village, which operates after 5pm, had broken down. The windmill owner was having a family gathering there that evening and he invited us to join them and offered to drive us to the train station later. We really appreciated his kind offer but that didn’t seem to be a feasible option as we had 2 trains to catch – one back to Amsterdam and another one back to Brussels. At last we told the family about our situation and the windmill owner immediately offered to take us to the other side of Zaandijk in his little private boat. Jenny and I were completely overwhelmed by gratefulness and relief. The windmill owner was our hero. Without his generous help, we would have been stuck in the windmill village. 

We truly experienced the friendliness of the Dutch. They were all very welcoming and helpful in every way. What a memorable experience!

I have been staying at the Institute of Cultural Affairs (ICA) since I arrived at Brussels. ICA provides accommodation for both long-term and short-term stay. I believe I would be regarded as a short-term resident as I have met some residents who have been living here for years. I see a diversified group of people in ICA. In ICA, I have had the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life coming to
Brussels to take on a permanent job, for internship (like me) or to study. As ICA is located close to the EU headquarters, many residents here work for the European Commission or for their countries’
Mission to the EU. During meal times, we often share with each other about our day at the office. I have met a university student from Germany who has come to Brussels to work at the office of a member of the European Parliament and got to know the tasks that she was responsible for in the MEP office. It is quite interesting to learn how hectic my friend’s work gets when the MEP is in the office. One of my friend’s main tasks is to handle the enquiries that the office receives from the general public. I just cannot imagine how knowledgeable my friend has to be in order to accomplish such task. 

Apart from talking about work, we also talk about our hometown – its culture, people, education etc. I was told that last weekend was the Fins’ mid-summer festival and many Finnish residents in
ICA took their holiday and gathered to celebrate this festival. The Fins’ mid-summer festival should be comparable to the Chinese festivals like mid-autumn or Chung Yeung Festival. In ICA, most residents have to do household chores – kitchen chores and “space care”. “Unfortunately”, I have been assigned to clean the toilet on my floor. We are only required to perform our space care once a week, so that is not time consuming. I still remember I was a bit reluctant to wear a facemask while cleaning the toilet for the 1^st time. However, my mum was very concerned about it so I wore it to ease her worries. It is a rare opportunity for me to clean the toilet and stop being a spoiled girl (that is how my mum calls me) as my domestic helper does all the cleaning when I am at home.  

Personally I prefer doing kitchen chores more, especially dinner preparation as I am always anxious to know what the chef has prepared for us for dinner. For dinner preparation, I am mainly responsible for setting the tables, preparing the salad and also cutting the bread. This is again a rare opportunity for me as I seldom spend time in the kitchen at home. I am glad to find myself doing things that I almost never do while I am in Hong Kong.

It so happened that the European Parliament (EP) Election, which occurs every 5 years, took place one week after my arrival at Brussels, Belgium, from 4 June to 7 June 2009. As a foreigner, I did not have much knowledge about the European Union, let alone the EP Election. On my first day of internship, my supervisor suggested that I read more about the EP Election as I would have opportunities to attend seminars with her on the subject. This marked the beginning of my journey of discovery of EP Election and of course, EP in general.

In fact, during my first week at my hostel (ICA), I have heard many European residents talking about the Election during meal times. Thus I had the impression that people are quite concerned about the Election. However, to my surprise, the turnout rate for this year’s EP election reached a “historical low value” of 43%. I believe 43% turnout rate for a Legislative Council election in Hong Kong would not be a “historical low value”. I shall not further compare the turnout rates for political elections in the EU and Hong Kong as afterall, the EU and Hong Kong are very different in many aspects; thus such comparison may not have significant meaning.

It appeared that what I saw in ICA did not represent the true situation in the EU member states. One of the reasons for the low turnout rate was the EU citizens have difficulty in seeing the linkage between the work of EP and their daily lives. The EP Election here differs from that of Hong Kong Legislative Council as the EP exists on the EU dimension (as opposed to the national dimension). I tried to magine what it would be like to have such form of institution in Hong Kong. Indeed it would seem distant. I was told that governments do not receive a lot of money for publicizing the EP Election. Hence, given the limited financial resources and the current global financial situation, little was done to raise the citizens’ awareness towards the EP Election. I believe that was another reason contributing to the low turnout rate. There was noticeable difference between the extent of publicity works in the EP Election and the Legislative Council election in Hong Kong. For example, very few posters of candidates for Members of Parliament (MEPs) were found in my neighbourhood and signages with the EP Election slogan were only found near the EU area; whereas in Hong Kong, we would often see candidates touring around Hong Kong in buses promoting themselves to the general public, posters and banners found everywhere on the streets etc. This was one interesting aspect that I noticed during my first week here and prior to the EP Election.

Nonetheless, there is a lot more to the EP Election; the underlying implications of the results, the future development of the EU, the impact on many global issues such as the current financial tsunami, climate change and many more…