Thursday, July 7th

Today we woke up really early and had our first breakfast at the chateau. Everyone was dragging because we stayed up so late. The Parliament members can really get down, especially to the Bee Gees. Their party last night was a lot of fun and I met several MEP's from Great Britain and Germany. After breakfast, we went into town to visit the European Parliament. It was pretty cool that we got to see Parliament in session...it was also neat because of all the translations that were happening. Pretty awesome considering 23 languages were being spoken in the room and work was still getting done! We listened to the English translations on headphones as the MEP's addressed the Parliament. Following the Parliament session, our group met with a German MEP who I had coincidentally met at the party last night. He said he'd been to Atlanta before and the town of Villa Rica also. I've never been there so I thought that was kind of random, but then again...a girl from Butts County, Georgia hanging out with EU Parliament members is kind of random too.

When we left, we walked around the city of Strasbourg which is so beautiful! We had lunch at a little French restaurant which was delicious...just like everything I've eaten this week. After lunch we had one last appointment for the day: the Council of Europe. We listened to another lecture, which was interesting, but it was difficult for everyone to stay focused today because we were so exhausted. I took a nap when we got back and I'm definitely going to bed early tonight. Bonne nuit!

Pictures below: main auditorium in the Council of Europe headquarters, the girls in my class and me taking a break, statue of Johannes Gutenberg who was from Strasbourg, Cathedrale Notre-Dame de Strasbourg, Ashton and me at lunch, another picture of the cathedrale, outside of the EU Parliament