Thursday, May 17, 2007
Today, was a Belgium public holiday called Ascention Day. As the result of the
holiday many public facilities and businesses were closed for the day
or the weekend and many take this opportunity to spend time with their
families and friends. In addition, it was our first “free” day to learn
about the history and culture of Belgium instead of corporate visits
and lectures. We had the opportunity to wear casual clothing and to
travel to Brugge and Ieper. Brugge is about a two-hour drive away from
our current lodging location of Lueven. It is a very old city of
Belgium with a maintained medieval atmosphere. This walled European
city had exotic rivers and moats, cathedrals, cobblestone streets,
small boutiques, and Begijihof—an active nunnery. While there, we
climbed 366 stairs to the top of the Bellfry, a city-centered tower, to
experience an amazing view of Brugge After catching a quick lunch, we
had time to shop local stores and take an exquisite boat tour through
the city’s many rivers. Brugge is considered the ‘Venice of the North’
and the boat tour wound throughout portions of the city, giving each of
us a guided tour.
After Brugge we took a detour to a cemetery dedicated to World War I
commonwealth soldiers. There we noticed that many who fought in World
War I were of British Commonwealth decent such as India, New Zealand,
and Australia. These soldiers gave their lives for a country and a
cause that was so far from them and their livelihood. Although there
were names engraved on the walls and tombstones there were thousands
who were found to be unknown or never found.
Then the group traveled to Ieper, Belgium for further European history.
Ieper is the third largest city of Flanders and was carefully
reconstructed after its destruction during World War I. To honor all
those lost in World War I, Ieper also contains the Flanders Field
Museum. We had the opportunity to walk through the museum and learn
about the horrors of the war by following the life of an individual
soldier. After the museum visit, we walked around Ieper’s outer wall
that is still standing. After a dinner on the main square, the group
was able to witness the nightly tradition of “Last Post” to honor the
fallen 500,000 from the World War I.
Although the day was not dedicated to corporate visits it still gave us the
opportunity to immerse ourselves into complex issues and gave us
background knowledge necessary to operate cross functionally and cross
culturally in today’s global business environment.
Molly Werner
Nikki Schatzman
Amanda Thornton
Martina Rodriguez