Brussels + Cross-Town Hockey

This past week, I traveled to Belgium Tuesday-Friday for a work conference and a business school interview. It was my first time in the country, and it was interesting to get back in the swing of speaking French! (I managed to get a haircut via French+pantomime, so it seemed to work out well.)

Belgium: 11M people, Dutch/French/German language, Euro currency

Brussels: Belgium's capital, capital of the European Union, home of NATO

Belgium is known for a few culinary items: waffles, "French" fries, chocolate, beer and mussels. I tried all of these and will vouch for them heartily. The waffles are sold by the same franchise at small stands every 20m in the downtown area. This gives Starbucks' sales cannibalization strategy a run for its money!

I learned that Brussels is home to a particularly notable monument: Mannekin Pis. This is essentially a statue/fountain of a 30cm little boy peeing. Mannekin Pis literally translates to "Little Man Pee" in Dutch. It is a very tiny statue, but crowds gather to see it. Rumor has it that years ago, two parents lost their little boy and pledged to construct a statue of him however they found him. Well, that was how they found him. In 1987, Brussels became equal opportunity and erected a similar statue of a young girl. It is not very flattering.

More dignified landmarks, such as the European Union's Council (the main institution) and European Commission (executive branch), are also located in Brussels. I got to go inside the EC for my interview, which was quite cool.

So, I spent Thanksgiving in Belgium, complete with a phone call home and room service pizza! Luckily, the next night I was back in Budapest - I palled around with Laura, a good friend from NUMB, who was visiting Hungary with her family. Together, we conquered Budapest's main Christmas market in search of mulled wine and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of some friends in the Hungary for Obama group. It was great to see her, and nice to have a real Thanksgiving meal.

That brings us to last Saturday, which was a very, very important sports day. I play hockey for one of Budapest's two main sports franchises - Ujpest - and that day we were playing our cross-town rivals, Ferencvaros. [Picture at left: I'm in blue.] This rivalry goes back decades. Ujpest was designated the official policemen's team during the Communist era; Ferencvaros was the "team of the people." All over town, you'll see stickers or emblems supporting one team or the other. My team has been beating the competition by somewhat unhealthy margins (17-0, 39-0, etc.) and we were looking forward to a close game against our rivals. I was also excited because some of my co-workers and friends from the Hash were coming to the game as well.

Though the game started a little slow, it turned into a blowout by the second period. I got our team's second goal off a rebound (I play forward now), and a later one off a tipped shot from the point. We won 10-2, and I spent the rest of the night celebrating with the Hash and my co-workers. Woo hoo!

So, life is good! I'm wrapping up a healthcare project for work. I head to Paris this weekend to meet up with a friend and interview for a business school. And the Wildcats finished up the season 9-3, which means I will be meeting up with as many of you as possible somewhere warm later this month!