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This article will be published soon in Backstage, the Journal of Trainees for the European Commission

Dairy of a stagiaire

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
My umbrella didn't even survive its first morning in Brussels. The storm already tore it apart before I arrived at the Madou tower where the first meeting of my traineeship (or stage as I believe it is called in Eurospeak) was taking place.

Today, I was acquainted with the bureaucratic side of the Commission. My stage started with a long talk on rules and procedures. Next, we had to stand in line to get all the paperwork concerning our application sorted out and then in another line to get a bunch of other papers with yet more rules and procedures. That was my first day at the Commission. Standing in those long lines I couldn't help but wondering how I would be able to adjust in my new working environment, after having worked as a development worker in a nice and warm tropical country with little or no rules that could not be bent.

But this afternoon brought back some colour. A friend who's working as an assistant of a member of the European Parliament gave me a tour around the enormous building. Amidst the ocean of serious-looking people in grey suits, the hallway of the European Socialists was refreshingly colourful. Here, the dress code was jeans and sweaters, and the walls were full of protest posters in dozens of languages. I'm curious what the people at my DG will be like!

Tuesday, October 7th
I've got almost 600 new friends, instantaneously!
Over the past two days there was a Welcome Conference for all new Stagiaires. During the speeches we learned that the European Commission is even more energy-inefficient than the average European, had a small peek behind the scenes into the workings of the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions and learned about the worries within Euroland about where it's heading with our Union after that annoying little country in the north-eastern corner of Europe spoilt the party. But, more importantly, the Conference brought nice and long lunch breaks and… drinks!

This evening I hardly felt the cold wind anymore when I walked home with a great smile on my lips, happy about all the nice and interesting people that I had met and talked with. What an international crowd! I have already discovered that you're really not cool if both your parents come from the same country, and you might as well pack your stuff and go if you’re in a relationship with someone from the same country as well. I think I’ll fit in quite well in this new working environment after all! :-)

Thursday, October 9th
Great fun with my roommates at the 10th floor of this huge Commission building today. All four of us are still facing some difficulties settling into Brussels and our new working environment. I myself had come in late today, because I had been waiting 1,5 hours at my Commune to register, only to get a letter stating that I should come back in three weeks.

When I came in one of the other stagiaires in my room was making bewildered phone calls to her bank, because when she went to the ATM this morning to withdraw money, the machine swallowed her money. The third girl in our room had gotten married since she applied for the stage, and wanted to use her husband's name at the Commission. She will have some more bureaucratic walls to conquer before that can be achieved!

Our male roommate then had just heard that his accommodation in Brussels was cancelled and was searching hard for a new place. The only thing he had found so far was located in a street called Rue de Facqz. The poor guy was wondering how to on earth to pronounce this, and how he, as an Italian would ever be able to explain his address to a girl. Of course this immediately became the running gag of our room.

Wednesday, 15 October
What to choose?! So much nice stuff to do! Teach my language, learn another language, write for the journal, prepare the Who is Who book, parties, movies, sports, excursions, conferences… waah, when am I going to sleep during the coming five months?!

My Italian roommate is still lost in translation. Today he came back from lunch with new football shoes for the Stagiaires' football competition. Looking at the shoebox, he was shocked to find out that he had been shopping at Place Cocq!

Saturday, 24 October 2008
Fog, great fog and big pounding hammers in my head this morning, or actually I’m afraid it's already afternoon. I remember lots of wine of different kind's yesterday evening, and cheese as well. I had a great evening, or at least I think I did…

Oops, an embarrassing memory pups up from the clouds in my head. A nice fellow stagiaire offered me a ride home, a gesture I didn't refuse after I almost got mugged in that creepy area on my way to the party. Although his face looked vaguely familiar to me I didn't think we had been introduced yet. Gosh, was I wrong... Turned out we had a very interesting conversation during drinks at the Welcome Conference, the contents of which he managed to reproduce flawlessly at 3am this morning… Damn, what an impression I must have made. Too many new faces, information, drinks, parties, meetings… I think I need a few more hours of sleep now…

Thursday, 13 November
I'm one of the lucky few who managed to get on the list for the trip to NATO! Actually, all you get to see of NATO is a conference room, the rest is inaccessible because of security restriction. But of course we didn't tell that to our poor jealous roommates who had to stay behind in the office! They were incredibly happy with the NATO-pens and other goodies we had bought them.
Can’t believe it’s not even 1,5 months since the stage has started. Adjusting to my new working environment turned out to be a lot less hard than I feared that first windy day at Madou. Already I have seen and done so many new and interesting things, and then to think that the fun has only just started!