NATO and Bruges

So, we finally got to go somewhere that is an international organization with security. And it was a good thing they did also. There were generals and high ranking military men everywhere inside NATO for some big meeting. This was also a lecture style learning experience but the first girl who talked was American and she was serious and she knew what she was talking about. It was by far the most informative hour on the trip so far. She mostly talked about how NATO works, how it is set up, and what the consequences are for actions taken against one of the members. The next guy was supposed to talk about the different partnerships that NATO has, but he was boring and I pinched myself to stay awake and it still didn’t work. Overall, NATO was much more serious and it was probably the only place where they really knew what they were doing. As far as international organizations go, this is the only one with real power since it is on the military side and since it is a treaty and not something with ever changing policies.

In the afternoon, we drove to Bruges, which is a small, picture perfect town that has all the old buildings and streets and canals just as they were before World War II. Apparently the town was too poor and medieval to bother restoring it after the war, so it stayed the same until like the 60s when it was revamped and all the abandoned buildings were filled with billionaires and designer shops. So now it is the best tourist attraction for people who want to pretend like they are in an old time, simple, European village while still spending tons of money on posh clothing and antiques. I thought it was beautiful and it did seem as if the town was friendly, but I really did not like the fact that it had all the same shops we saw in London, Paris, and Brussels. However, I did have an awesome waffle with chocolate and strawberries on it. And in one of the town squares, there was a carnival set up. I went on this huge ride and does very large flips with a car that also flips on the end. It was awesome, and when we were at the top, if it flipped upside down, we actually got a great view of Bruges.

After exploring for the afternoon and night, we headed back to our hotel in Brussels. Everyone was packing up, kind of, and we ended up watching Commando on some Belgian TV channel. With all their weird game shows and stuff, Europe still sees all the Hollywood movies and listens to mostly American and English music. I understand in the cases of less developed countries where there is not opportunity for many people to  devote themselves to the arts, but I thought it was funny that Americans study Europeans in historic art, but the Europeans look to the US for what we would consider the widely used modern artforms of film and music.