Coke, Doctors without Borders, RAIN!
The fires of hell have finally cooled off! It rained today. Thank you Jesus! Today we went to Coke's European Headquarters and then Doctors without Borders Brussels office. Its quite a difference in atmosphere! Coke was interesting because we talked a lot about the challenges of doing business in Europe and also about the differences between the American and European methods of competition management.
And we had to have a quick lunch today. Thank goodness there was an IKEA next door! Yes folks, I got to go to an IKEA here. It was lovely.
Doctors without Borders was our nongovernmental organization stop here in town. They do a lot of good work but catch a lot of flack from the American government because they are absolutely neutral and will not accede to American demands on some issues and on location of work.
I HAVE to talk about last night. I went into the part of town called Saint-Géry, where we have gone several times to watch World Cup games. It is like the Viriginia-Highlands of Brussels. It is also home to one of the biggest Brazilian bars in town. Last night was the Brazil game, so we thought, what the heck, lets go watch it there. Boy am I not disappointed! It was an honest-to-goodness street party! They had traffic blocked off and there was a band and everyone was dancing! It was like having a little mini-Carnivale right there in Brussels. VERY fun.
I have to get up at 630a tomorrow because we are heading out to Mons and SHAPE headquarters. Thats the military wing of NATO, for those of you who arent INTA or army people. So for those of you who stay up late, I will get getting up before you are going to bed. Enjoy.
