Luxembourg and Brussels

Hello everyone! Last weekend I went to Luxembourg City and Brussels with my European Policy Seminar class. We stayed one night and afternoon in Luxembourg where we stayed in a great hostel. I walked around all night with my friends to see some of the tourist sights because we only had a few hours the next day to do anything. It is a beautiful city and there were breath taking views all over. The next day we all went to the European Court of Justice where we heard a court case about Value Added Tax and deductibles. It was an amazing unique opportunity however hard to pay attention for an hour on non-business transaction. The rest of the afternoon it rained so once we gave up on touring threw the rain we sat in a bookstore and I read about Ireland and it made me even more excited for my fall break this week.

Brussels had such a beautiful Grand Square, defiantly one of favorite so far. My friends and I went to two really great bars. One was famous for having artwork from Rene Magritte who painted The Son of Man. The other bar had more that 2000 different types of beers and I met so many people from Brussels, Paris, America and all over the world. I spent a lot of time there that weekend. With my class, I visited NATO and the US Mission. They both had amazing speakers and by the end of the day I started considering jobs in foreign affaires. We also had a really great group dinner in the center square. Speaking of food I am sure you all have heard how excellent the waffles and chocolates are, and it is true. However I recommend if you go you don’t even have to pay for chocolate you just have to go into a lot of stores and they all let you test some. I saw the Mannequin Piss, which is the little gold statue of a boy peeing and I also saw Marat by David. It was a great weekend and my friends and I are still talking and laughing about all our adventures.

Sending my Thoughts to Matt's Family

October 8, 2008

I apologize for waiting so long to update my blog. In addition to being lazy, life has been extremely busy. Last weekend we had a class field trip through Burgundy. We went to Dijon, Boune and some place hidden in the country. I tried escargot and a liquor called Kir which is a mix of white wine and cassis (currant liquor) and of course bought some mustard. In Boune we had a wine tasting four red, one white and we tasted straight cassis which tasted like cough syrup. We stayed in a hostel in the middle of the country with a population of maybe 25 people. Amazingly enough it turned out to be one of my favorite nights. We had dinner all together and again it was a regional specialty of Burgundy, beef stew. After dinner, we had a “talent” show where anyone could perform where some students did gymnastics and some sang. My favorite two shows were Nick and Kate who performed Mama and the other was Matt “singing” My Girl with his backup singers Alex, Nate and Peter. I can easily say that those two performances were more entertaining than any shows I’ve seen. Later that night my friends and I wandered down dirt road and saw the clearest night sky since I’ve been in Europe. The Milky Way looked like it was painted and ever second you looked at the sky another star revealed itself.

Friday, October 4, 2008

On this day at 4:30pm I received the horrible news that our friend Matt Wanetik passed away that same day at approximately 5am. The cause of death is still unknown but the most reliable information we received was from our advisor, that he had a heart mutation and his heart failed him that morning. Matt was an amazing person and a friend of anyone lucky enough to be in his presence. He was a truly unique character always making life more exciting and more humorous than you could imagine possible. Every moment you spent with him would be with a smile on your face, even when you didn’t understand his humor but his laugh would make you laugh. His smile was contagious and you would catch it even in passing. I feel cheated that I don’t have the chance to get to know him better but I feel incredibly lucky that I had the pleasure to meet Matt August 20^th, 2008.

I want to share a brief memory of Matt that is clear in my mind and represents what a clear friend he is. When we stayed in Dinky Town, France there was this fantastic tree with braches longer than its trunk and weaving in and out of one another. Seeing the boys climbing the tree there was no way I couldn’t try to conquer this tree. Unfortunately I did not calculate the movements necessary to climb this tree and the clothes I happened to be wearing that day. Needless to say I got stuck upside down clinging to some branches. After egging me on to get up the tree, Matt came underneath me and told me to let go. Seriously. “Chev don’t worry I got you” Matt said very casually. Looking behind me I knew it could potentially be excruciatingly painful but without thinking twice I let go. Matt defiantly staggered but caught me none the less. This shows the amount of trust I had for him and how only a great friend would catch you from an awkward tree climbing situation.

Life is such a beautiful gift and each person is another cherry on top of an already amazing Sunday. I don’t think it is possible to heal from death but I do think that with death comes incredible growth and we should definitely not let these lessons pass us by.

Matt’s Father gave us some advice last night at the Memorial. 1. Always do something more because that is what Matt would do 2. Always let your parents know that you love them and 3. Always let your parents know that you care.