Faerie DivaBat On The Loose

ARGH! I had this long entry and then the connection DIED on me. Grr. Took me an hour on this crazy keyboard.

We did so much this city. Amnesty Belgium was pretty interesting - they had a nice office, pretty big and spacious. They had a cartoon on their fridge which said "Think Globally Act Locally Panic Internally" - ha! describes us well.

Our CI for this week was Life Philosophies - a look into different religions of the world. We first went to a Holding Camp – like a Concentration Camp except they send people out to Germany after a while. Our guide acted as a SS guard and treated us almost like the prisoners – it was painful seeing what the actual prisoners had to go through. I can’t even begin to imagine why anyone could think of such a thing. Nina was in our group and she understood the German that the guide/guard was randomly yelling at us (she IS German) so it seemed a bit more painful for her.

There was a bouquet of flowers at the Execution area – almost made me break down. I really needed physical contact afterwards. That was just harrowing.

We then went to a Hare Krishna center – complete contrast! Chanting and prayer and talk about light and actual food. For some of us it was a bit bizarre (we were expecting only lunch) but they were really nice. After that, some of us went to a Muslim community center and talked to a young man from Othman – it was funny and frank, though we did get into some sort of battle-of-the-sexes thing, mwaha.

Next day we went to a Free Thinking Humanists group, with a workshop about issues like manipulation and freedom. It did get a bit tense (I felt at some point they were being manipulative) but it was an engaging discussion. (The rest of the group were happy to get free beer!) We then went to a synagogue; a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, and the closest I’ll ever get to understanding Judaism up close. Great experiences, all of them.

We all went to the Night Of The Proms – a major concert with both pop and classical music. Loads of big names were there – Belgian Idol Natalya, Ace of Base, Donna Summer, people from The Who, and of course various orchestras. SO MUCH FUN.

The Applied Education Dept planned Anti Discrimination week, and their main activity was providing different treatment to people based on what colour paper you got. Orange (which I got) was High Class, with special meals and random compliments during Morning Meetings (which was even funnier since I was coordinating Morning Meetings this week!) and candy and reserved seats. Pink was Middle Class, which got OK treatment. Yellow, the majority, was Lower Class, which were practically ignored. I figured out what was going on as soon as I got the paper – and when Bob shook my hand and gave me candy – and I just laughed my head off whenever the staff went all out to compliment us and pamper us. I wasn’t sure I particularly liked being “high class” since it was so lonely but it was really funny…

Celebration was MAD. And that was GOOD. I passed on the hat to Christie H and Brandy; and I got an award for my public speaking story thing in Utrecht, yay! Melissa’s parents are SO CUTE; Nina’s parents were really serious but I caught them sneaking a smile or two once in a while! Tom and Melissa (Melissa even more) had The Glow From Home ™ and now Nina will too. Awh!

I am a week behind on Nano and I am sure I have forgotten something in this entry, so feel free to ask me questions. And it’s 12:30 and I haven’t had anything to eat yet. HUNGRY!