It’s looking like a busy week already! As you can tell by the headline, it’s a bit of an eclectic mix as well. First off, Brussels.
Brussels, you ask? It’s for a Copenhagen History assignment. We’ve been asked to take one of the cities we visited during the travel break and write a quick one to two page analysis of the development of the city, from the middle ages until about the year 1900. I, always looking for a challenge and not wanting to pick something predictable (e.g. Paris, London, Rome, etc.), decided to choose Brussels, especially since I enjoyed my visit so much. Turns out, the city has some interesting history.
Brussels, c. 1819
Like most European cities, it’s old. It was settled in the 500s, founded in the 900s, and expanded primarily from the 14th century on. Geographically, the main downtown part of the city hasn’t actually changed much since it’s second expansion (a second ring of walled fortifications–the most advanced fortifications the city ever really built). In fact, the roads surrounding the main part of the city are still in the same pentagonal shape that the second wall line was (see right).
Another interesting tidbit about the city: the river Senne–which has always run almost straight through the downtown area–became so polluted that in the 1860s it was declared a health hazard (not to mention it was so incredibly polluted it was impossible for boats to navigate). How’d they solve the problem? They built over it.
Yup, they decided to build the entire downtown development right on top of the river, just allowing the river to flow around the city and ignoring the messy, polluted part. In 2007 they finally finished installing water purification systems at the river, enabling it as a main water source, but the parts of the river going downtown remain covered up by significant development.
Anyway, enough about Brussels.
What else is on the docket for this week? Tomorrow, my paper is due, I’m skipping my advertising class for a climate demonstration (bad, I know, but the subject isn’t terribly interesting and there’s no final… anyway, I’m saving the world!), and I’ve got a meeting for the DIScoverCPH newsletter, which unfortunately has a long way to go before completion… due next Monday. Ah well, it’ll get done.
Wednesday will be a work day as my marketing group and I plan to spend the entire evening finalizing our marketing paper and slapping together a quick presentation so we’ve got it done and ready to present the week after. Finally, the rest of the week will be a mish-mash of work on DIScoverCPH, my advertising portfolio (focus: climate awareness and transit branding in Europe–should be interesting, actually), and a friends’ birthday party on Saturday. To wrap up the weekend we may have our “American Day” Sunday afternoon. I just mentioned it to a Dane on my hall, too, and she seemed really excited about the prospect–hopefully it’ll be a lot of fun (and not too much work)!
Anyway, that’s all for now, more later, including backlogged pictures, at some point.
