European Union - INTL 390 by Adriana Sowders

Introduction

sowdersap — 2025-01-28 01:56:34 UTC

Hi! My name is Adi and I’m from Los Angeles California. Here at the college I’m a sophomore and a double major in political science and international studies. I selected this course because I predict it will assist my job navigation process as I get closer to graduation. Excited to meet with everybody further!

What Do You Think You’ll Learn On The Trip?

sowdersap — 2025-01-28 02:11:24 UTC

Undoubtedly, this trip will be an amazing opportunity to learn about the European Union in depth. However, I am especially eager to see how the European Union effects the everyday lives of Europeans. Exploring the cities, I imagine that we will come across some form of custom or standard implemented by the EU that will come as a shock!

European Commission Meeting

sowdersap — 2025-03-11 19:15:43 UTC

Meeting with the Commission was an amazing opportunity to engage with young people in European politics! I thought it was so neat to chat with people, close in age, that are interested in the same fields as myself. In terms of the content of their presentation, I found it fascinating that the Commission does all of the "heavy lifting" in terms of writing the vast majority of language. Leaving the meeting, I was super excited to draft a follow up email and express interest in internship opportunities!

College of Europe Meeting

sowdersap — 2025-03-11 19:19:56 UTC

Just the walk alone to the College was mesmerizing and astonishing, with Bruges being such a beautifully historic city. Again, I resonated with the student speaker most due to our great similarities. She is such an inspirational and intelligent young women that lead a very engaging discussion. I really appreciated her use of the visual timeline to display political cause and effect. I am also curious to see how their location in Albania will progress, considering it is freshly new right now. I know that Balkan political participation has been a huge mission for the EU, and this educational institution is great propelling factor!

Irish Embassy

sowdersap — 2025-03-11 19:23:33 UTC

As I prepare to represent Ireland in April, I found this meeting incredibly useful and advantageous towards my future performance! All of the questions I was going to ask Google, were directly and easily answered by the Irish representatives. It was especially interesting to hear Ireland's stance on European defense as a military neutral country. What a rare opportunity this was!

Estonian Embassy

sowdersap — 2025-03-11 19:44:42 UTC

I would say this meeting was the most relevant, as all of our questions related to topics the European continent is currently navigating. Asking Estonia how about their internal concerns towards Russia was incredibly eye opening. Living so far away from the Ukrainian conflict, it is sometimes difficult to see the severity of the situation. However, sitting with an induvial whose life can be directly impacted should this conflict expand, made me realize how defense is truly a crushing issue.

Belgian Waffles!

sowdersap — 2025-03-12 04:07:35 UTC

It makes me so sad that I’ve made it this far in life without experiencing this absolute delicacy. The girls and I probably visited the same waffle place five times throughout the trip, each time somehow being better than the previous. My classic order was a liege waffle with biscoff butter, simple yet magnificent. I can never eat waffles in the U.S. again because I just know they’ll never compare. Yum!

Bruges

sowdersap — 2025-03-12 04:14:04 UTC

During our free time we visited the Bruges city plaza! Approaching the square we had loud screaming and chanting, all of which in British accents. I remember thinking we might have accidentally walked all the way to the UK.

Come to find out, the Bruges-Birmingham football match happened to play later that day. This meant the plaza was filled with nearly 2000 British dads that ventured all the way to Belgium for a grand tailgate.

We ended up hanging out with a group of Brits for the next two hours and talked all about our culture differences! Even though this was something not in the itinerary, the rarity of the event made it all the more special and memorable.

And if you were curious, yes our British friends went home victorious!

Smurfs Everywhere

sowdersap — 2025-03-12 04:21:00 UTC

The more we explored Brussels, the more blue friends we saw! From bus stations, benches, to even the 17 UN Sustainable Goals, it was obvious that everything had some kind of association with Smurfs.

One day, as we found ourselves in line for an ice cream truck, we noticed a Smurf dessert flavor! At this point, it was mandatory that we get to the bottom of this blue mystery. Turns out, that the Smurf storyline was originally a comic series illustrated by a Belgian author!

The more you know :)