Snow

L.S.,

I cannot believe that no one posted anything poetic about this morning's snow. Last week there was 10 minutes of sunshine, and everybody was all excited, but something as beautiful as snow in Brussels does not seem to inspire anybody. What is this world coming to?
Look at all the beautiful pictures: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Snow They've even got pictures of snow in Madrid.

Instead of writing my own poetry, I thought I'd simply steal someone else's. But the only thing I could find is this poem by Billy Collins:


Billy Collins - Snow Day

Today we woke up to a revolution of snow,
its white flag waving over everything,
the landscape vanished,
not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness,
and beyond these windows

the government buildings smothered,
schools and libraries buried, the post office lost
under the noiseless drift,
the paths of trains softly blocked,
the world fallen under this falling.

In a while I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch,
sending a cold shower down on us both.

But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news

that the Kiddie Corner School is closed,
the Ding-Dong School, closed,
the All Aboard Children's School, closed,
the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed,
along with -- some will be delighted to hear --

the Toadstool School, the Little School,
Little Sparrows Nursery School,
Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School,
the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed,
and -- clap your hands -- the Peanuts Play School.

So this is where the children hide all day,
These are the nests where they letter and draw,
where they put on their bright miniature jackets,
all darting and climbing and sliding,
all but the few girls whispering by the fence.

And now I am listening hard
in the grandiose silence of the snow,
trying to hear what those three girls are plotting,
what riot is afoot,
which small queen is about to be brought down.

Javier Solana

Dear reader of the blog,
Last week, the EU High Representative Javier Solana held a press conference in the Council.













Selon nos envoyés spéciaux, après un exposé sur le rôle de l’Union en tant qu’acteur international, M. Solana a tranché (je résume) : « Vive l’UE dans un monde globalisé ! »

Pour des raisons techniques (Alex and Franziska are giving German lessons, while Olivier is in his office, hidden under his desk - as always), nos envoyés spéciaux m’ont demandé de publier cette information, mais ils ont promis de vous tenir au courant de tous les événements importants.

Goodbye Alessia, goodbye Loly!

Psycho dinner … by Atanaska Hitchcock

Dear trainee,
I suppose that you want to know how was it? Then why didn’t you come???
Ok, ok, I’ll tell you everything!
I came with Soti… we were late.
Then we joined the others… who were having fun!

It’s so nice to organize dinners for trainees and get together…

But I don’t know why, I was a quite sad. Maybe, because there was no speech in Spanish or Portuguese!!!
Or maybe because I became the defendant in a criminal case, regardless of any fair trial rights or presumption of innocence! (Btw, I apologize to the readers of the blog who suffer because of my comments or bad character).

Because Melinda, Martin and the other trainees were not there, or because I ordered a strange kind of meat?

And for the second time of my life (for the first one, see Filipe in the box) I had to face the terrible truth:

During the conference on Friday afternoon, as I was not there to protect him, Melinda cooked Martin with some water from the Parliament, using a preparation method based on old Hungarian traditions in spicing!

Melinda, Martin, trainees, where are you?

I missed you.

Retour

Mesdames et Monsieurs...
après une longue absence et après l'avoir attendu pour semaines et semaines...
finalement le retour a' Bruxelles le plus important de l'année....

Voilà de nouveau....

LE SOLEIL!


Alessia Tanas

Free language courses

We have attempted to place at your disposal as many language courses as possible.
Mais attention, the courses vary in quality and the quantity of material presented.

Alexandra is giving German lessons. I remember that two guys (German and Italian) started those lessons in another organisation (Eurocontrol) by teaching how to say to a girl "You have beautiful eyes."

It seems that it can be very useful! So, repeat after them Mr. President, "Du hast wunderschöne Augen"…

Quant à moi, Miguelito gave me my first lesson in Spanish : ¡M…..! ¡J….!,













... while Melinda was listening to Martin: “De hond heeft de kat onder de tafel ontdekt”.













Milena also tried to give some Czech lessons to Ricardo,
but you already know what happened. Few seconds later he said: Ajoi……..euhhh, désolé mais c’est plus fort que moi, je dois absolument citer Shakespeare maintenant, car
The time is out of joint;
O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!

The Photoshop Boys

Finally the truth comes out!!!

Yesterday, we went to see Mme K**** about the Strasbourg trip and we noticed 3 big metal boxes in front of her office.

Oh my God, said Melinda, who can be in there? Maybe they are stocking the bodies of the trainees who want to go to Strasbourg!

It can be Chris, nobody saw him on Munday!

Or is it Martin? No, Melinda, only in your dreams!





Finally, after some consideration of the situation, we had to face the terrible truth: Filipe was not there at lunchtime...

P. S. Le président vient de m'appeler et il a formellement démenti cette information!!!

Filipe, are you calling from the box?

Pour Memoire: Voyage Strasbourg

Comme une Wise old woman a dit une fois "Please read carefully the attached information and note that for organisational reasons the form must either be handed to the Traineeship Office (0170.FK.05) or sent by fax (84.44) by 23 February 2006".

Donc si vous voulez y aller il faut l'envoyer before 23.59 h. du 23-II-2006.

Rappel aussi pour la "conference (in english) will be held by M. XIROUCHAKIS, administrator at the Council, on Friday 24 February 2006 at 15h00", c'est pas si important mais, bon...

CE SOIR: BON ANNIVERSAIRE JULIAN!!!

happy happy happy birthday!!!

Spokespersons Election !!!

Dear trainees, At the beginning, there was only one thing we were certain about: we needed leaders! The problem was: where could we find them? Easy, all they have to do is to meet some of these requirements: One from the South (East), one from the North (West); One bilingual, one trilingual; One that everybody knows, one that nobody knows… And the most important, they have to accept to be candidates. The first e-mail was sent by Anna. WOW, what a leader! But who is that courageous girl? Mystery…. Ooo, another e-mail, it’s Filipe! WOW, what a leader! Come on, you know him, he is in our football team! And the last candidate is… Miguelito! WOW, what a leader! Of course, I know him, we are in the same office! The election started early in the morning! Suddenly, somebody asked our candidates to present themselves (that way, trainees would better understand their program and thus, be in a better position to make informed choices)…Is a leader “a leader” if nobody knows it? So here they are. And they have something in common: their motto: "vote for us, we are tall"! “Yes, Yes, I vote with my two hands”, said Martin(200cm)… and he didn’t come, he had a meeting… Now that elections are in the air, it's a good time to begin the fight. Yeah, we want to see you fight to the last drop of your blood! Fight tooth and nail! It's the law of the jungle! Eh bien non, il n’en était rien :( On n’a pas voté, Julian était déçu... Mes amis, terminons l’œuvre de citation inaugurée par Ricardo (à 6h du matin, le jour de l’élection) par celle-ci « Tout le plaisir de l’âme consiste en la gloire ». Et souhaitons bon courage à nos héros !!!

Photos: Instructions

If you want to post a photo as a part of a message, everything you have to do is click on the photo icon on the bar of "Créer".

If you want to add a significant amount of photos the simplest way is to
1. Click on the link "Photos" on the right-side menu.
2. This will take you to Ringo,
3. There you should introduce the common Gmail account that we have [the one sent to you in the email of 21st February] and the same password c'est a dire "europe".
4. Uploading photos there is quite straight forward.

Bienvenue / Welcome

Our blog viens d'être created.

Let's see comment il travaille.