Panic on the streets of Brussels

I hate leaving. Especially when you've spent five months in a city that has proved to be at least an experience dozen times better than you had expected; or when you've met the most active, greatest and friendliest people Europe has to offer. In short someone is applying and wondering: should you come for a traineeship at the European Commission in Brussels? Yes, you should.

Work-wise I was lucky to be in a unit that was less about procedures and more about the content: the quality of aid. I had the possibility to see how the European Commission cooperates - or at least tries to coordinate - with other international donors or UN agencies. I was also lucky to have enough time besides my duties to participate in events and trainings that were often more useful for me personally than for my unit, strictly speaking.

During the five months I created, edited and read countless of excel sheets both for work and traineeship activities, organized half a dozen of cakesales and three speed-dating events with my fellow stagiaires for our/their trip to Ethiopia. Although temporal and financial restrictions finally prevented me from joining the 10 EuropeAid trainees going for a study trip to Ethiopia for two weeks in the beginning of March, I enjoyed enormously taking part in the big hassle and observing the shifting group dynamics.

Group work in general is something I really learned a lot on. Doing your own stuff, independently from others is not really possible at the European Commission. Everything you write, from minutes to draft papers is read by several people (a strange thought after leaving university where most of the time maximum 2 people read your work); it is scrutinized and often commented with track changes in the word document. Everything seems to be about revising, drafting, brainstorming and collaborating, meaning meetings after meetings, and e-mail rounds with 40 people in CC, everybody commenting their own bit of the text.

All this sounds time-consuming, and my colleagues tell me that it is. While wholly understanding the purpose - sharing the workload and not having the responsibility only on the shoulders of one person, thus ensuring the diversity of views - it does seem like a heavy exercice, coming from a Nordic administrative culture which is more decentralised and where bosses in general trust their subordinates to be independent and responsible enough to make their own decisions. Perhaps I'm a bit too idealistic and far from reality here, as I have never properly worked in the Finnish government administration...

Enough about work and working cultures: there's the rest of the day which begins after-work, normally from 6pm -> ! I have rarely come home before 10pm, often not before midnight. Especially recently there has not been much to do at home: internet was off for three weeks, and the only activities left were eating some quick 5-minute pasta (and I've had plenty of those!), or reading (less tempting after browsing through documents and studies for 8 hours). And well, more importantly the world of Belgian culture with 800 different beers, free cafe-concerts, old movie screenings, breweries and beer museums, or trainee pub quizzes await outside.

Now, before going to bed and waking up for my last working day at the European Commission (for now), I wonder to myself: will I ever see Cafe Belga, Bonnefooi, Bar du Matin, Brasserie de L'Union, le Chat-Pitre, Wild Geese, Botanique, L'Archiduc, Matonge district, L-41 canteen or any of the other trainees ever again? I sincerely hope so.

And, strangely enough, I will come here at least for one night on my way to Senegal if everything goes well. Alors, a tout a l'heure, Bruxelles!