First day of work and the enormity of the Parliament!

Well, I'm here in Brussels!  I must say that I am thoroughly enjoying it.  I like being in a real city again with lots of people and the hustle and bustle of things.  Now granted, I'm not driving in it, so I might be singing a different tune if I was :-)

It's beautiful here.  It feels like any city in Germany but taken to the extreme with a myriad of cultures crashing together.  It makes sense what with the European Union being here.  As I walk down the street, I hear all sorts of languages being spoken; there have even been some that I don't recognize, which is saying something :-)

Within the Parliament itself, there are people there in some sort of official status for the EP (European Parliament), but there are also staff.  Apparently, the majority of them are NOT from EU countries.  There are quite a few from Morocco (like the repairman who fixed the door to our office this morning), with some from other countries like Columbia (the woman who works at the coffee shop) or Ukraine (a woman I met in the elevator) thrown in the mix.  It really is fascinating.

The Parliament building is enormous in and of itself.  First off, there are like four massive buildings in the complex.  Most of those buildings are some of the highest buildings in the city.  Here's a picture of what I saw when I went to the 15th floor this morning:


This was a pretty cool view.  But how we got there is even more amazing.  First off, we need to take the correct elevator, and not the F elevator which will take you to the offices that we have on the third floor, or the offices on the sixth floor that are next to the German Communist party (don't even get me started on the posters they have hanging up on all of the walls!).  Take the E elevator, which leads all the way to the top at the 15th floor.

Or, I can also go down into the basement to send a letter on floor -2 in the Carrefour (supermarket).

If I want to file a petition, I need to go to the third floor of L, take an elevator to the first floor of L, walk down a couple of hallways which then become J, which then become the fourth floor of another building, go through a couple more hallways, and then take another elevator to the fifth floor of that building.  Woot!  It's a party getting around there, let me tell you!  However, the enormity of it all does sort of speak to me, because it shows all of the people that are (hopefully) committed to making the European Union a better place.
 
Those are my thoughts of the adventures that I had for today.  Hope you enjoyed them!