Nothing as exciting to report this weekend. We basically stayed around in Brussels. Brussels is starting to scare me a bit. In this past weekend I personally witnessed or knew people who witnessed at least three relatively major crimes. One girl's purse was stolen, along with pretty much everything she has that's important. Another girl who works at CEPS, and who was already attacked in a park earlier in the spring, had her car literally attacked while she was driving it. They smashed the window stole her stuff, realised that she was alone, and then ransacked and vandalized the car. I can't help but feel that is something you would expect from Mexico City or Mogadishu, not so much the supposed show case of the European Union. Her car had Italian plates, and they apparently often target foreign plates. The other incident was just outside our house, and was some sort of fight, we couldn't quite tell what, but it involved a lot of foul language, smashed bottles, and squad cars eventually showing up. This brings the number of violent incidents we have witnessed up toward double digits.

Other than all of that, I went to a conference at CEPS on Friday... good change of pace from work. This week I'm more or less alone in the office, while the rest of the staff decamps to Strasbourg. I think it will be fun.

On the weekend we had curry dinner on Friday, and there was big stagiere football party thing at a stadium in Etterbeek, which was actually much more fun than it sounds. We all had to wear jerseys to get in, so I'm now the proud owner of a knock off Barcelona jersey, which was good for making friends.

Sunday was actually sunny, and we went to the park. Then S had a goodbye, since she's leaving already.