International inter – Luz Cardona Canales
By tacking orders from Señor Jacob, alias ‘my boss’ lol I must to write about my first très bon weeks in Bruselas… humm what I can say? well in one hand is the city, I like it, some parts of the city remind us about the Belgium from that time, almost all the sidewalks are from that time, yeap, this kind of square rock frames? girls… you can not use high heals here, is like feet torture. On the other hand, its own Flemish-French style of the city, sometimes is complicated to understand (due everything is write in both languages) but this makes it more interesting. Takes some couple of weeks to ‘comprendre’ but not impossible to adapt, this is easy. Belgium people are very polite, sometimes you will find a smiley face, which is sometimes odd in Europe (don’t take it personal) but at least here you have more multicultural environment (besides Italy and Germany) and easy going persons. I love cultures and met people from everywhere, so this is what I like the most from Belgium.
Food of course! The ‘pomes frites’ were the first Belgium meal that I tried and they are delicious =P , I recommend ‘Tarte’ sauce, is my favourite. The ‘gauffre’ are the even better than the pomes frites, is extremely lekker (delicious) the only petite problem is depends on the topping it will cost you 1,20 for each one… I remember that I tried one with: hot chocolate, Chantilly and banana, it cost me 6 euros!!! yea… the food here is expensive in every single restaurant buuuu, but anyway, is worth it.
If you were thinking why WYA, why WYA Europe, why a Costa Rican girl wanted to be part of the crazy staff of WYA in Brussels, well…here you have my honest answer: Firts – after I have finished my master in human rights and democratisation with the EU I was looking forward to get more information about how NGO’s and regional systems works, the most interesting is the EU (at least for me), so… I applied and happily, señor Jacob and la señorita Iris, decided to choose me, then my experience begun and still is going on =D. So far I have learned a lot of how the EU institutions work, especially two of the three in the EU system: the Parliament and the Commission, all thanks to señor Jacob and the ‘green book’ (you well get it if you come here, you’ll see).
Second – At the moment I’m recording in my memory as much as I can about how works a NGO as the WYA. I was even more interested after I studied the author – which I admire a lot – Mutua who says that the ‘new role of the Civil international organizations such as the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) -are- a new voice for the process and agenda setting’, this new voice started in 1999 and today is represented by the civil society of young people as me, you and thousands of more who are committed with the human dignity, solidarity and peace = WYA in all parts of the globe.
And as last but never the least, I’m exited and happy to attend and met some MEP’s and other interesting people involve in this fight for fulfil human dignity. This will be possible to see, get more knowledge and to share, in the next seminars and conferences at the EU Parliament. I’ll keep you posted, for now: hasta pronto!
Atte: Pura Vida Costa Rica!
