Saturday was the EU Parliament open house, in which you could go in all the EU buildings and view the cubicle of your local representative and get a bunch of informative handouts on just about any topic. This year's theme was "mobility" and the featured countries that were battling full-out for the right to join the EU were Romania and Bulgaria (mostly using hand-to-hand combat, but also free wine tastings, beauty pageants and bribery (all culturally correct means of garnering votes in those countries, mind you)). There were also people sauntering around in traditional garb of various nationalities, booths for regional foods, music, art, tourism, kids' activities, etc. The whole thing was huge and spread out over many parks and city streets. Most of it was unintelligible, although I did get a sticker protesting GMOs (which is OGM in French, but I was cleverly able to figure out what it meant). I had been making jokes about why the US hasn't yet joined the EU, and then we passed a booth for the special delegation from the province of Quebec, so maybe those guys are angling to be the first Western Hemispherians to be admitted. I think we Americans need to consider giving them a run for their money--we are, after all, number one.

We got a sausage sandwich from one vendor of Italian goods, and then went back for some churros, which are apparently a regional specialty of Catalonia. Thank god for the Catalonians and their deep fried delicacies! I thought Taco Bell had invented those things. There was a coot in a nest in the middle of the pond in Leopold Park (in case you were wondering, about 1/2 of the places here have some Leopold association) where we ate lunch. It was like a mini beaver dam that didn't hold any water back. While we were eating, the male came to relieve the female on the nest, and she went off to find some food or stretch her legs or something. It was a very touching scene of the division of domestic labor, although the male could be heard muttering under his breath about maybe not coming back AT ALL the next time he went out for a pack of smokes.

After lunch there was more fair to visit. There was one section that was devoted to the handicrafts of the Belgians. Many were similar to vendors everywhere at these types of events, with chunky jewelry, scarves, etched glass, turned wood shaped like toadstools, etc., etc. However, one booth featured taxidermy, and I was morally obligated to get a photo of this lovely naturalistic scene. In case you were wondering, the bunny is NOT riding the deer. Who's ever heard of such a thing occurring in the wild?

-s