European Commission

Well my first week is almost finished.  We have psychology classes tomorrow from 9-12 and again from 1-4.  They pretty much take the whole time so that is where I will be tomorrow!  The classes are pretty interesting though.  Our international studies class has been covering the history of Belgium.  We have gone through many of the things we study in history in the US (such as the 100 years war and the Battle of Waterloo), but the Belgians side of it.  The lady who teaches it reminds me of Princess Diana, or maybe what she would have looked like when she was older.  Some of the stuff we went over today involved artists like Rubens and Van Eyck who I learned about in my art history class, so I already knew about them!  We also went over the past Kings of Belgium, including the current one...who had an affair and has a daughter who lives in England!  This afternoon we had a field trip to the European Commission.  I had no idea how in depth the EU really was until this trip.  There are 27 countries that are a part of the Commission and about 500 million people!  One of the stipulations to join is that you have to have an established market economy so you can keep up with the big countries.  The EU started because countries just wanted to have peace  and solidarity.   This weekend almost everyone is traveling to Amsterdam.  I'm a little bit nervous about going there, but with a big group I think it will be ok!  I am really looking forward to going to the Anne Frank house.  I think that will be SO neat.  We also are going to go to the Van Gogh Museum so that, I'm sure, will be interesting as well!  I don't have any new pictures today, but mom wanted me to take some of my room, hotel, and show you where I'm staying!  So I will probably post those either tomorrow or when I get back from Amsterdam!  Love you all!