Inside the EU Parliament
by Devon Donohue-Bergeler
Even though everyone here is international, I am still a ...
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mission to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, other thoughts
November 30, 2009 @ 4:35 AM | Permalink
The mission to Strasbourg allows me to continue my rollercoaster metaphor. Where should I begin… with the low point. That usually makes for good storytelling.
Because I wrote my thesis about excursions in a study abroad context, I somehow felt drawn to the task of organizing our mission, even though this is not my job. I put in crazy overtime (like staying until 10pm on short Fridays) in order to ensure that everything would run smoothly. Yet I have no experience with the EU Institutions in Strasbourg and my French skills consist of combining the 50-odd words in my active vocabulary and hoping the listener is good at guessing from context.
So here’s the joke: I was hopelessly unqualified to do what I did, yet some of the other trainees with whom I traveled fell into the comfortable trap of depending on me for logistics. My helpful colleague in Terminology Coordination, who also did planning tasks that weren’t part of her actual workload, got to witness a mini-meltdown after I was overcharged one euro.
After two long days of buying the right bus tickets, finding places on time, and attending talks and plenary sessions, the six of us went to town together to find a chocolate cafe. I was (not so secretly) hoping that the others would treat us planners to a cup of hot chocolate. That would cost one euro per person. Simple enough…
The first trainee decides to return to Luxembourg early and skip the next day’s planned visit. The second trainee decides to visit the Cathedral instead of joining us at the cafe. The third trainee finishes her coffee and decides to meet up with the second trainee. She pays and leaves. The fourth trainee possibly senses trouble with the bill and escapes. He pays and leaves. The fifth trainee and I finish our drinks and pay the bill. I hand the waiter 20,25 € and expect 10 € change. “Voila, neuf euro.” We leave, but I am calculating in my head. “Wait, I think he made a mistake…” In the end I couldn’t convince the waiter with my lousy French that it was his problem and not my problem that he had undercharged someone else in our party. Although even if my French was perfect, he did not make the impression of a man who cares about the phrase “the customer is always right”.
Really, Devon, one euro is not the end of the world. But the principle of it (and the lack of sleep due to the Door-Slamming Olympics at our awful hotel) left me steaming mad and fueled the pounding headache that had been building over the past two days. I will never play travel agent again unless it is for a good friend who directly requests help, or unless it is my actual job and I know what I am doing.
What I learned from this experience is that I should not expect any sort of thankfulness when I help people without them asking. Maybe they didn’t need my help in the first place! I also learned that if I take on responsibility for others, I shouldn’t be surprised to be taken advantage of. What a depressing lesson in human interaction.
On the plus side, I got an inside look into the workings of the European Parliament. As the US American, I sometimes feel like I snuck in somehow. Also, my position in Terminology Coordination is extremely specialized; because of this I’m often missing the big picture. This mission to Strasbourg, and our upcoming mission to observe committee meetings in Brussels, are meant to fill in these knowledge gaps.
A few final thoughts:
1) Yes, this blog had some negative views about interactions with my fellow trainees. But I like and get along with all of these people as individuals. The group dynamic was just not what I expected, and that is my problem, not anyone else's problem.
2) If I am selected as a Glimpse correspondent, I will hopefully have a wide audience of readers. If not, I still hope to share this blog with friends and family. (It might help if I share the link with them…) But since much of my blogging will be about the people I interact with, how should I identify these people without violating their rights of privacy? There is a trainee, for example, who is an unofficial Eurovision expert and I could write a whole short story about his peculiarities. But if I am honest, I could write some hilarious bits that could be embarrassing or even hurtful to this person. So should I identify people only by their nationalities? Should I ask for explicit permission to use real names? Should everyone be assigned a code name in the blog?
3) I am going to Hamburg this weekend to be with my husband on my 30th birthday! Although I have met some amazing people during my traineeship in Luxembourg, I’d like to celebrate the big 3-0 with someone who has known me for longer than 3 months.
4) When applying for the Glimpse correspondence program, I came across some old writing samples. This one made me crack up:
Freudian Limerdick
In Vienna lived penis Freud.
He pressed into the void
Of subconscious thought
Desires, whatnot,
To know the drives we avoid.
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I am feeling much more positive about things after the mission to Brussels, which was great. Hopefully I will be able to blog about this tomorrow...
Devon Donohue-Bergeler on mission to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, other thoughts
2009-12-03
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Posted on 12/03/2009 by
Devon Donohue-Bergeler
I am feeling much more positive about things after the mission to Brussels, which was great. Hopefully I will be able to blog about this tomorrow...
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