Fulbright Conference

For the past week and a half I have been away from Madeira.  I participated in a Fulbright conference in Luxembourg, Brussels and Brugge.  It was a busy and exciting week.  There were 35 or so of us.  "Us" being American Fulbrighters in Europe.  The vast majority were studying European history or politics or business, and I am still wondering why they wanted a poet along for the ride.  I learned a lot.  In fact, I'll bet I know as much about European government and its institutions as any poet in America.  Well, that may be a stretch; there is a better chance that I now know more about European government than I do about American government.   In Luxembourg, we visited the Court of Justice and the Court of Auditors.  For our lone night in Luxembourg, we were entertained at the US ambassador's house.

Then, the next day we went to Brussels where we stayed for a week, visiting the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, where I pretended to be someone.

I also took a picture of this ashtray, because with the accompanying sign, I thought it was fairly representative of political institutions.

We also visited the US Mission to the EU, NATO Headquarters and SHAPE Headquarters.  SHAPE is an acronym for the Supreme Headquarters for the Allied Powers of Europe.  The three writers on the trip all agreed that it sounded like something out of a comic book.  In reality, it is a military base where 8500 people live from 26 or 27 countries.  It has 7 elementary schools and 3 high schools, and to be honest, I felt a bit nervous the whole time I was there.  We were advised not to take pictures.  

We took a day off from Brussels to visit the College of Europe in Brugge.  It was a nice change of pace.  Brugge was quite lovely and relaxing.  I think I saw more bikes than cars there and the scenery was mostly overwhelming.

  

I saw this Michelangelo statue in a Cathedral.

The best day though, was Sunday in Brussels, our free day.  The sun came out after a rainy morning and I went on an extensive lark with a few friends and took a lot of pictures of a variety of neighborhoods.

Yes, I think that is a brain.  Then we continued to a park, a very big park where lots of kids were playing lots of games, including some pretty serious amateur boxing.

We also saw the famous statue of the boy taking a leak.  I suppose I have seen something similar on any number of pickup trucks in the United States, but this was the real thing.  He was dressed this way for some kind of festival.  

Of course, we sampled some of the local cuisine.

And we kept on walking.  I bumped into Claude's Belgian cousin.

It started getting late, so we headed back to the hotel, and then it started snowing.

But not 5 to 7 inches like it does in South Carolina.

All in all it was a great experience, but I am very happy to be back in Madeira, where it is not snowing and my students can't wait to discuss American poetry and film.