Last weekend, I slept on a short flight from Copenhagen to Brussels. By the way, Copenhagen is an expensive place to fly out of. Airline tickets to the rest of Europe–barring the UK and Scotland–are so inflated here for some reason. Eh, I digress. So I landed in Brussels and was unconscious until the kind woman beside me woke me up. The first thing I feel? Extreme cold. Brussels is as cold as Copenhagen in February. No difference. I exit the airport, and…the city looks like an older (by five years) Copenhagen. I feel right at home.
Okay, I will not tell you what I did in Belgium: okay, fine, I will quickly. I had a lot of Belgian chocolate and waffles, walked a lot, and stood under this lovely bridge:
Now to the more exciting part. As many of you don’t know, I am doing a research project comparing the Danish and American healthcare systems. You see, the American healthcare system comprises a pluralistic insurance landsca—HA got you; I won’t bore you with the details, but I wanted to point out quickly that when I talked to Belgians about their healthcare system, they, like the Danes, were delighted with it. Both nations, unlike America, have a certain sense of collective social initiative that mandates the moral assistance of those less fortunate. That, my friends, was a fancy way of saying that they like to help people. Although, I noticed that the system in Belgium was a little less social (in that it has more copayments for inpatient care, etc) than in Denmark. Looking at broader Europe, a trend develops. As you approach Denmark the more social the healthcare system is and the further you get the less social it is. Think of the U.K. (with the highly social NHS) versus Russia (with the god-knows-what). Okay, back to Belgium. Anyway, Belgium was beautiful, definitely more chaotic (relax, I meant it in the good way) than Copenhagen. I saw a lot, and I mean a lot of wind turbines and I saw cute little building that reminded me on Copenhagen’s Nyhavn (have you noticed that I love Nyhavn yet?).
I also saw a statue and had to take a picture with it. To be honest I don’t know what the statue represents, but it is of a woman who is holding a mini-man like a puppet so I thought it was really cool.
At last I was on the airplace again ready to go back to Copenahgen. I took this picture and I sletp immediately. I woke up feeling cold again, telling me I was at home.
American In Europe 