Traveling Naomi: Merci Beaucoup

Day Three
On Friday, we dressed in our business attire and headed to the European Parliament for a tour and a lecture, both of which were fantastic! The building is a beautiful glass structure with an open central courtyard and trees planted on the top to create urban green space. Using glass represents the parliament's transparency, since all the debates are open to the public. It is located on the Rhine River next to the buildings for the Court of Human Rights and the Council of Europe. The inside of the ground floor is lined with smooth rocks and green vines stretch from them up to the ceiling. The main staircase is a double helix and is called the Staircase of Honor and its design is based on a staircase in Chambord Castle designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Our group was able to sit in the main chamber of Parliament and had a guest speaker who worked for the EU Parliament as an administrator.

Interesting Facts About EU Parliament:

With 27 member states and 751 seats (including the president) it is the largest chamber in Europe.
The members sit by political party, not by nationality.
Romania and Bulgaria were the last two countries to join in 2007.
Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia, and Iceland are current pending applicants.
The parliament rotates between Brussels, Strasbourg, and Luxembourg (administrative).
There are two official parliament languages: English and French.
Twenty-three different languages are spoken by members and each is allowed to speak in their native tongue.
This requires 500 translators, which make up 1/3 of the organization's employees

After touring the Parliament, we headed across the river to Germany to do a company visit at the Rhine Center for Dow Chemical Company. We were given a presentation about the vision regarding environmental and community goals by a speaker who was in charge of community relations for Europe and specifically Germany. Afterwords, we were given a tour of the plant, which produced liquid latex. I thought the tour was interesting, but there was not much to be learned about government policy there. I asked the speaker how much waste was produced by the company per year and she responded that she didn't have that statistic. I wasn't surprised but was slightly disappointed that she wasn't forthcoming about the impact that a chemical production company has on the landscape.

Some Interesting Facts About Dow Chemical Company:

It is the #1 chemical company in the United States and #2 worldwide behind BASF in Germany.
They produce 5,000 products at 185 sites in 35 different countries.
Dow offers students a paid apprenticeship where they prepare young people for a career while they are still in school.
It was founded in 1897 in Midland, MI.
In 2010 they saw $53.7 billion of sales.
Each chemical production company has a signature color and Dow's is light blue.

After returning to the Chateau, Sven planned a movie night and we watched the film L'Auberge Espagnole about a student doing a study abroad program called Erasmus in Barcelona and living in an apartment with six other students, all from different countries with different languages. Of course, while we watched indulged in bread, cheese, and wine. We are in France after all!

Peace, Love, and Strasbourg ~ Naomi

Pictures of the Day