How to Throw a Dinner Party

This is how my day usually goes:

wake up early (8:00 or before most days) so I can get to work at FEDMA on time
pack a lunch (assuming there is time)
take the metro to work at FEDMA or to go to classes
eat lunch
more class/work
get home around 6 pm
Gino gets home between 6-7 pm
eat dinner for 3 hours (not joking)
be exhausted
fall asleep thinking about what I have to do before I can go to sleep

FEDMA stands for Federation of European direct and interactive marketing. There are lots of things that FEDMA does, but it mainly lobbies the EU on direct marketing issues (junk mail, e-mail, spam, telemarketing, etc. FEDMA also informs member companies including American Express, Citigroup, Reader's Digest, Newsweek, etc. about important legal issues for doing business in the EU. There are a lot of FEDMA position papers on things like data protection and consumer protection laws.

The 8 person (including me) company office is in a huge house on a street with some embassies and other companies. I think we kicked a soccer ball into the Chinese embassy's garden last week. My co-workers are young and come from Norway, Germany, Netherlands, UK, and of course one from Belgium. English is the language of the office, but you'll occasionally here some French, Dutch, German, and Norwegian.

I work Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays for a total of 15 hours or so a week. So far I have been redesigning the membership directory, which is pretty sad looking right now. At the end of February I'm going to the EU Parliament to sit in on some committee meetings to report on anything that will impact our members. It should be pretty interesting to see how things are done in the EU. If I were an actual employee (not an intern) I think my favorite part of the job would be the cocktail events and the business lunches at tasty restaurants.

So that's all I have to report about FEDMA. Feel free to ask questions.

After I get back from work and class, I usually get an hour to unwind while Gino cooks dinner. The long dinners are great, but they mean that I'm not really getting much accomplished in the apartment in terms of schoolwork, etc. But it's also hard to complain when I get to help throw dinner parties like the one we had last Monday night.

Jill, Jean-Pierre, and Marc were our guests. Jean-Pierre and Marc are a couple who own a flower/interiordesign/curtain shop in our neighborhood. Jill is a South Korean who was adopted by a Belgian family. She lives above Jean-Pierre and Marc and works in television.

Languages:
Jean-Pierre: French, Dutch, English
Jill: French, Dutch, English, German
Marc: French

Luckily Marc doesn't speak English, so that they couldn't use English the whole dinner. I got to hear and learn a lot of French when anecdotes were translated for Marc or me.

The conversation was fun, especially when I tried to explain that Swarthmore is a dry town. Jean-Pierre had trouble understanding the concept of a place where alcohol isn't sold. I think I heard him say "crazy" three times when he translated for Marc: "So there is this crazy town where he goes to school where you can't buy wine or beer or anything. Not even in their crazy restaurants. Isn't that crazy?"

I want to start visiting their shop regularly. Who wouldn't want to hang out with fun people and learn French in a place that smells like fresh flowers every day?

There is a lot more I could say about the dinner and the guests, but I'm short on time. Just wanted to write something for the people pestering me to post.

By the way, I might post more if we get more comments. Come on people!


All I have to say about Bruge and Binche is that they were fun. And I ate confetti by accident.