August 21, 2009 - Five Day Study Trip - Brussels

August 21, 2009 - Brussels

After a late night of preparation for our first official trip, 30 Muhlenberg students, 3 Center for European Studies Coordinators (Monique, Dario, Isabella) and our Residence Professor, Dr. Laposata, and his wife Kathy, boarded our two level bus at the invigorating time of 7 AM. By 10:30 that morning we were situated, shirt and tie and all, at our first destination, the European Parliament complex, for an overview lecture and tour. To impress our hosts Dr. Laposata said that he would give extra credit in his class for good questions asked. So, after the presentation you wouldn’t believe the level of sophistication and intellect behind each of the questions asked by some people.

After a fascinating visit to the EU Parliament Center, we bussed across the city to the giant iron molecular structure and Mini Europe. The giant iron molecular structure is just a massage tower of connected atoms that make chemical formation of an iron element – constructed because southern Belgium came into being due to its iron abundance. Mini Europe is a mini theme park with a series of shops, restaurants, and the main attraction, a stroll through ‘mini Europe’ literally, where Kelly and I strolled through mini replicas of main attractions in all the European counties (eg Tower of Pisa, Big Ben, Eifel Tower etc.). The whole Mini Europe and Iron Molecular structure were a bit much.

From there we checked into the Crown Plaza hotel, dropped off our stuff - I took a quick power nap. An hour later we were back on the bus to center city where we were met by a series of tour guides who would show us around. On the hour tour we saw key sites like center city, the palaces, an ancient ruin of a monastery, a random group of Japanese tourists who stopped us to take a picture of them (of course they had their fingers in the peace sign motion), and everyone’s favorite Brussels attraction, in addition to waffles, THE MANICAN PIS! From the city tour we strolled to the Delirium Bar for a few drinks from the bar’s over 2,000 drink selection.

Once at the bar, which was around 6 PM, the group was given the rest of the night free. Many people remained at the bar scene, but a few friends, Josh and Alex, and I took the metro to a nearby shul, The European Shul. I had found the shul that morning when I had a few minutes of free time. At first it was very difficult to find the schul because there were no indications of any Jewish life at all, just a plain brown door, could’ve been a mere apartment. But after some door-knocking and direction requesting from strangers I was able to locate the shul and find the services time – 8 PM. When we walked into the shul we had a few minutes to kill before everyone arrived so we took some pictures and walked around. It was quant and beautiful. After services, while sitting at the Kiddush, of course playing the typical Jewish geography, I ended up realizing that the man across from me was my cousin Avram Siegel, a grandson of Shirley and Nate Rothner. What are the chances!

From shul we went to Rabbi Avi and Nehama Tawil’s house from Shabbat, where we were also joined by Rabbi Avi’s Uncle in-law, Rabbi Menachem Hadar, who is the head Rabbi of Brussels. Rabbi Avi is the director of the European Jewish Community Centre (EJCC) that does Jewish youth outreach across Europe (events@ejcc.eu). Just imagine a to full chabbad families and a few guests. The long rectangular table must have sat 30 people. And 5 courses later, and many a discussion about politics, economics, European and American similarities and differences, personal stories, and the typical dvar torah (piece or speech about Torah), we waddled out of Rabbi Tawil’s house the fullest we had been in a week. From Rabbi Tawil’s house, we went to Rabbi Michoel Rosenblum’s house – he is the Rabbi of the European Shul (info@theshul.eu) – for drinks. After a few strong Belgium beers, some more talk of politics, economics, torah and more, we headed back to our hotel around 1:30 AM. What a night!!!