from the archives: Of visitors and Inter-European travel
March 20, 2004
Hello all!
Since my last missive, I’ve decided time is of the essence and I really must get cracking at seeing other parts of Belgium and France at the very least, if not further afield.
I spent a weekend in Lille (just over the French border) with Bettina and John, my landlady and her husband, at a chamber music workshop or “stage.” FYI, here everything that involves learning (internship, workshop, seminar, etc.) is a stage. It was very different from music camps I’ve been to in Canada. The whole focus of the weekend was working on the piece to be performed at the Sunday night concert. There were no other activities, aside from lavish multi-course lunches with good wine. On each of the three days each chamber group got about two hours of coaching (incidentally in French) and then had the choice to obsessively play for the remaining hours of the day OR to sit in cafes drinking coffee or (if after at least noon) beer or wine. I guess you know which I chose:-)
Lille is currently the cultural capital of Europe, a title which moves from city to city each year. They have really cleaned up the city - which is an industrial one - and when I reported back to people in Brussels about how much I liked it, I was treated to blank stares as though I’d said to a Torontonian that I really liked Hamilton (or for the west coasters - think Vancouver and Chilliwack). They are aware of its existence but have never thought to actually GO there. Our accommodation was at Mr. Bed, pronounced as though it were French. The room as so small that I could comfortably lie in bed and touch both walls, but sadly could not comfortably turn over. It was very cheap.
This past week I had my friend and fellow-cellist, Sally, from Victoria here for a couple of days. She was in Britain visiting family and very kindly dropped by to “play tourist” with me here. In particular, we both really enjoyed a day trip to Bruges, a Flemish town almost on the coast. It was a real tourist town, but with good reason - canals, 15th century architecture, charming cafes, etc. etc. We did it all - took the canal boat ride, climbed the 400 stairs to the carillon, and were treated to Mozart on the bells at the top, ate frites with mayo in the town square. It really doesn’t get any better! Sally and I also went to the musical instruments museum in Brussels which has some pretty weird and wonderful stuff.
It was great to have a visit from home and I have one more of these visits to look forward to. My friend, Greg, newly promoted to Head of Hair for Aveda Australia (OK, he actually didn’t get that title and indeed has a much more impressive one, but I cannot resist saying I know a Head of Hair) is coming for Easter week. I know we will have a great time as we always do - and in particular because we are going to Paris for Easter! There will undoubtedly be much over-consumption of food and wine along with long hours of laughing about two kids from Wingham meeting in Paris from our respective homes in Brussels and Brisbane.
I also recently went to a reception at the Canadian Ambassador’s house in honour of a newly approved Research and Development relationship between Canada and the EU. The highlight was checking out the Ambassador’s home. He (the Ambassador) is a bit of a “good ole boy” but has a pretty nice place, on a very pleasant suburban street. I’m probably the only person to ever arrive there on foot but was a good adventure.
Notes from the Commission:
But lest you think it’s all music, international diplomacy, and tourism, I have actually done some work. I recently attended a five hour meeting (entirely in French) to review a contract relating to an international nuclear energy research agreement to which the EU is a party. It was very interesting to hear the Europeans’ opinions of the draft contract, which had been drafted by the American Department of Energy.
March 11 (the day of the Madrid bombings) was quite an emotional day in our office since three of my colleagues are Spanish, two of whom are from Madrid. It reminded me very much of September 11 in North America. A mere four hours after the event happened, there was a silent protest in the main square of the Commission part of Brussels. Several hundred of us attended including the president of the Commission - our biggest wig of all; I was inches from him but didn’t of course recognize him until he was pointed out!
Linguistic observations of the week:
I have no French for you today (or even Commission-English) but I thought I’d give you a couple of very interesting words of the day I got from my Word of the Day subscription. Anyone heard of pleonasm? To use more words than necessary to express an idea - for example, I saw it with my own eyes. Although not learned at the Commission, use of pleonasms is certainly all the rage among fonctionnaires (Commission staff) making documents extremely “heavy” as they would say (from the French lourd) instead of cumbersome. And I’m probably guilty of it in these notes to you.
How about Bowdlerise - to remove parts of a text considered offensive. This is what I would like to do to Commission pleonasms.
Food notes:
Haven’t much to report except my recent observations that Leonidas chocolate shops appear like Starbucks in North America - if you’re in a city, you are never out of sight of one. And we had Leonidas at our last staff meeting - a nice touch I thought.
A quick announcement to those of you who know my family - my nephew, Perry, and his wife, Tracy, are the parents of a baby boy, Joshua Graham, born yesterday. All are well according to the brief chat I had yesterday with the proud grandma, Cathy. This of course makes me a great aunt - yikes.
Well, that’s it for a rainy Saturday afternoon. In the past three weeks, we have had snow and 22 degree weather, and everything in between, but it seems to have settled back to its preference now - 10 degrees, dark, and rainy!
Happy spring to all!
Celia
+32-494-28-98-09
Avenue des Azalees, 48
1030 Brussels
Belgium