Last Thursday 3rd June, after my first day at my new temp job in telemarketing and finally finding a new apartment for August with my partner, I had to dash to London King’s Cross and catch a Eurostar train to Brussels in order to get to Maastricht, where my parents have been living for the past 3 years. I have days like that when my success relies on everything working as it should and me being really on the ball: in other words, there’s really a bit of luck in success, always. I prefer taking the chance and I find it usually works.

The reason I am posting about this trip is because this is my last trip to Maastricht before my parents move to Paris and I have come to learn that this is far from your usual city. My father is in the French navy, currently working for NATO (located in Brunssum, nearby). One thing that struck me about this city, which is southernmost in the Netherlands and the capital of the province of Limburg, is that there is always some huge event going on. Other than being a city of historical richness attracting a lot of tourism, the many shops and cafes everywhere, the beautiful setting and the current fervor of its football supporters, I find that this city is the liveliest I have ever been to.

The history of this town has its controversies: Maastricht is possibly the oldest city in the Netherlands. It has a wealth of old buildings especially from the Middle Ages, such as its fantastic 13th c. city gates called the Hell gates. The St Servaas Church and St Jan’s Cathedral are simply beautiful and though I decided to see what a mass is like there I admit I ran away after 30 minutes when I realized that the pace of the mass was a lot slower than the average and also more dramatic. To my embarrassment I had a close encounter with the fabulous and huge doors of the Church, which, once shut, are much harder to reopen than you can imagine.

Nowadays, on a hill on the outskirts lives a very rich and very loved man locally, Andr? Rieu, who plays in the beautiful Vrijthof, the town center and whose music I can hear from my parents’ house. I am not a fan of his but it certainly is nice to hear his music everywhere in town, you can hear what I heard if you look up Rieu/Maastricht on Youtube. As I write right now, out of nowhere tambourine resounds from that same place and I have no idea why. The house is really 2 minutes away from the Vrijthof so we can hear everything. During the famous carnival days in February/March everyone goes past the house in costumes and it becomes very difficult to live your daily life. Some inhabitants prefer to take time away from the city when it happens. They go on most of the night and throughout the day.

Other events such as the New year celebrations particularly are also unmissable: I was celebrating the New Year here two years ago and it was incredibly fun although also incredibly dangerous: I have never seen or heard so many firework displays anywhere, not even under the Eiffel Tower (somehow Maastricht struck me more!!). Everyone in town brings their own in huge quantities and as the weather was good that day, it went on all night. Walking through the town felt like walking through a war zone, some even take pleasure in randomly throwing the fireworks at you. It was all really beautiful but I admit I was scared.

I have been to the Winterland each year though and the amount of preparation and effort put into it is phenomenal. The city changes quite a lot and offers an impressive array of activities for all ages, cuisine of varying quality and games and shows and anything you could ask for. Another great outing is to go check the markets, but you might be surprised to see people swallowing raw fish whole so early in the morning…

Although the Maastricht calendar is confusing to its visitors, finding out what events are going on is actually achievable: Most events are advertised around the Vrijtof and are also available online at Crossroads, in English. The budding university which offers courses in English is also a great source of events and activities around the city and while it is full of older inhabitants enjoying their retirement, there is also a fair share of youth looking for parties.

Strangely though, what I will most remember is that I have also had the luck to be granted access to the NATO bases where, until recently, families of those working for NATO were allowed to use facilities and indulged in some duty free shopping of all sorts. I think I really just liked being able to do it and especially driving through the bases. The diversity of people working there is striking of course but one thing I always noticed was how no language really seems to survive this hostile multi cultural and expatriate environment. English is not English anymore and appears in barely recognizable forms, heavily impregnated with the user’s own dialect. It makes for very funny situations when, to everyone’s embarrassment perhaps, say, a French person might end up telling an Englishman that he speaks English very badly (surprisingly I didn’t do it). One thing is for sure, I would not rely on either my French or my English being understood there and I have been actively discouraged from learning Dutch by a Dutch friend because ‘I can never say it right’, which seems the common opinion. To enjoy this beautiful city and the kindness of its inhabitants you have to just let all that is alien to you rain on you, jump in and admire the sights with as little prejudice as possible. You also need to be keen to party…too bad I only ever visited when my batteries were flat. Also, by the standard of Netherlands visitors I’m no fun because I am against any form of smoking. I hope to have shown that there is much else to do in Maastricht.

Finally, during the three years my parents lived there, as I said, what marked me was how very lively and busy Maastricht always seems to be. I made it my personal quest to find a time when it is empty, and one day last winter, the 1st January when everyone is exhausted and nothing is open, rather early I finally found all streets I went to empty, allowing me the most exclusive excursion into town almost anyone can experience there. No more of all those extremely tempting shops, cafes and terraces and events around, just for an hour or so. I took this opportunity to appreciate its beauty even more and to take a few pictures:

First of all Wow, what a fantastic week I have had in St Gallen, attending both the pre-conference programme, then the conference itself and finally the after-the-conference celebrations. All of it was enriching on a personal and professional level and has definitely been a worthy challenge in my life. I had the opportunity to meet a huge variety of people from many places around the world, all of whom were very interesting and remarkably enterprising people.

To me above all, for once, I was not the only one who had traveled a lot and did not especially feel like I belong somewhere in particular in this world – I met others who are citizens of the world. I am French by birth and Canadian through my mother but I have moved to different places all my life and although even my closest family sometimes does not understand it, I have a different view on nationality and I have a rather nomadic lifestyle. I often think it would be great someday if this notion that one human being can detach him or herself from a specific national identity and adopt a wider one (edit: although I am not saying that I am not French or not Canadian) existed when it is not only about living on Earth but also on other planets – should it happen someday, who knows there might also be another way of doing things-. You might then hear someone like me say that they are a universal or cosmic citizen, doesn’t that sounds particularly nice in terms of adventure potential? Nowadays universal and cosmic are words that tend to avoid defining a sense of limitations. But surely someday – if we don’t destroy the human existence prematurely- we will need bigger words to explain what other unknown but expected challenges lie beyond our next geographical milieu and then cosmic and universal (although I believe the word universal has already become a slightly more limited word) will be in usage in the same limited way than worldly now is. Who and what will create this change? But enough on this divergence.

Many things made this an exceptional experience so I will discuss them in parts:

1) The participants themselves: The event was organized by a huge panel of students from St Gallen University and their work, organization and execution was breath-taking. It clearly defies any assumption that students cannot possibly be put in charge of world-class events and do as well if not better than most others. The organizers were all very friendly and I think they can really be proud of themselves. The helpers were also all very interesting people doing an excellent job and I had great discussions with some of them. There were 100 students including me selected for the essays they submitted for the Wings of Excellence Awards, with 3 winners of the competition who had the great opportunity to present their work in front of the audience of the symposium on the last day. There were also another 100 people, usually also students, who were selected by the organizers as knowledge pool for the symposium. Finally there were hundreds more of important business men and women, politicians, journalists, researchers and academics from all over the world some of whom were speakers at the Symposium. Everyone was someone who is actively trying to do something out of the ordinary and challenging. Their backgrounds were extremely diverse and I enjoyed talking to each person I was able to talk with. The networking opportunities alone were incredible and I look forward to hearing what the people I met will accomplish and tap into the possibilities to create more opportunities together.

2) The location: St Gallen itself was beautiful. The university was great too. As a medieval history student, I was thrilled to go to such a richly historical place. The Abbey library contains hundreds of fabulous manuscripts. I was recently researching music and sound in medieval magic and discovered, for example, that the first form of musical notes in Europe, called neumes, were partly developed in St Gallen by the monks and can be found in 9th century manuscripts there. All manuscripts can be found online [LINK], but it was really awesome to experience being there.

3) 100 years of Swiss Aviation: This year was not only an anniversary Symposium, 40 years, but also an anniversary for the Swiss aviation, celebrating its 100th year. For this occasion, both days of the Symposium we had the privilege to see a flight show by the Patrouille Suisse and on Thursday evening I attended the anniversary dinner. All of it was truly fantastic.

4) I challenged myself: One of my mottos is that if you feel fear, you must figure out why and face the object of that fear as soon as you know it. Well I had never experienced anything like this before, my business experience is limited because I am only just starting, I had never spoken in front of such a wide audience nor had I ever received such form of acknowledgment of belonging to a group of people, deserving to be there. I know this sounds strange, but I am actually more used to going against expectations, and although I was the only medieval historian and was often asked ‘so why are you interested in this symposium?’ (answer: ‘I have many interests and projects’) or even the always difficult to answer ‘where are you from?’ (to which I tend to reply, ‘I move a lot’), I felt very welcome. The symposium overall was a strange yet amazing mix of challenging and stimulating situations in a very formal context and a very inclusive type of -exclusive- event however confusing that may sound. For example: I asked a question at one of the plenary sessions. I was afraid of doing it, I rarely ask questions in public in general, I have the curiosity to think of a great many but I usually wait for more private conversations. It was great to try it. It sounds a small step but if you think about the audience there which was exceptionally big and filled with very important people, then how easy it is to ask a silly question and regret it, I’m glad I tried and I am happy with what I asked although I wish I had spelled it out more eloquently and clearly because I might have received better answers.

There is so much more to think of and as I start assimilating it all I shall post more but I believe these were the main things. I must thank the ISC team for the great opportunity, the students I became friends with there for making this an even more incredible experience, and my host who really welcomed me and helped me. I plan to do a Phd at some point later and accumulate experiences and projects in the meantime and I have this nagging feeling that it is a shame I will not be a student next year to participate again. I will try to become knowledgeable enough to come back in another category otherwise!

You can find all info on the symposium, photos and videos etc at the following link: http://www.stgallen-symposium.org/

As my first post on this brand new blog I have decided to discuss one of my latest projects. I study at King’s College London. It’s a brilliant university where I have been offered many great opportunities. Last term I received an intriguing email about the St Gallen Wings of Excellence awards, inviting students to participate and decided that the opportunity was too great to miss. I sent my contribution and recently received news that my paper was selected as one of the 100 best contributions. I simply cannot wait to go to the Symposium.

The topic of the 40th Symposium is ‘Entrepreneurs – Agents of Change’. Any post graduate student in the world is invited to send in their contribution and out of all the contributions they receive a panel of judges selects the best 100. The lucky ones are then invited to the Symposium, free of any charge, which takes place in St Gallen, Switzerland, in May. In addition, the best 3 pieces out of those 100 selected contributions receive the award and a prize money. This is the best opportunity as a student to participate in discussions about the world around yourself, politics, business and any major current topic that you may be interested in. Many leaders of today from all around the globe participate in this event each year and it is a real privilege to be invited.

My contribution is titled ‘Entrepreneurs – Craftsmen of a more sustainable global economy’. In this work I felt it was important to discuss the future challenges entrepreneurs are going to face and I suggest news tracks to look for opportunities. I am not certain whether or not I am allowed to publish it here for now so I will not. Should I be able to publish it here I will edit.

I am interested in hearing from anyone who is also going to the Symposium this May or if you have gone to past symposiums.

Now I’m off to make myself a nice new business card and print many copies of it! Actually, I was planning on opening this blog anyway but later. This and a few other opportunities I am lucky to get at the moment have made me speed up the process of building the blog: I want to use it partly as a way to promote my cv and work and do some business networking. I am interested in any opportunity that presents itself. Giving a business card with the address of this blog on it seems to me the most efficient and interesting way to do this!