Antwerp was an hour train ride from Brussels, a round trip ticket was about $20. The Antwerp train station was so beautiful (see photo). The architecture in the city was unique and impressive. It’s hard to grasp that there are buildings here that are older than the United States! There was so much shopping in the district we visited, and McDonald’s restaurants everywhere (that wasn’t such a welcome sight). Unfortunately, most all stores were closed by the time we arrived, as we were in class until 5:30pm. Though it was nice to explore a bit of the city by night light, we did not get to experience the diamond district in full operation, which is what Antwerp is known for internationally.

Donita and LaDonna are also MBA students at Belmont, and the three of us enjoyed a nice dinner and did some market research for our project by interviewing a helpful Belgian young man, Damein. All teams are gathering interesting findings for our projects, which will vary among countries, and is the reason why this will be ongoing and difficult to confirm our recommendation for presentation until the final research is done in Barcelona at the end of the month.

European Law was the topic of lectures all day today, presented by Professor Tim Birtwistle from the Leeds Law School at Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK. Professor Birtwistle was very knowledgeable and a great presenter. We covered an immense amount of material, international trade law, various EU treaties, competition policies, intellectual property rights, and more. I have now been assigned to a second group for a law case analysis that we are frantically preparing to present tomorrow. We also have a written evaluation of the EU learnings from the week, primarily focusing on the purpose and operations of the European Union.

Needless to say, I have much to get done before our last full day in Brussels tomorrow. Hope you’re enjoying the blog so far!