Marcelo's Blocker Blog 2023

     Am Montag of this week, I got invited to play football thanks to my professor of Finance. I told him I was looking for a club or place to train while in Freiburg to have fun and not loose my touch. He connected me to one of his previous fellow colleagues and he invited me to play. The invitation was from 8 to 10pm so I arrived into a shared map location a little bit early and all I could see was a dark basketball court with some football goals in there. To my surprise, this wasn't the field we were going to play at.       When my acquaintance arrived he showed me the entrance of a high school building/athletic facility, "schule sporthalle". There were locker rooms, showers, and right next to it was the field we were going to play at. It was a high school multi-purpose field were kids do sports and play futsal or Hallenfußball. We were a group of 10 people and we played 5 vs 5 in this small field. Most of the guys that played were in their 30s...

           Last week I had the chance to go on a program trip to Brussels and Paris. I have never been to these cities before and I was super excited. I have to say I was more enthusiastic for Paris but Brussels surprised me by its really good gluten free food options and their amazing EU institutions buildings and environment. Coming from Chile, I never knew much about the European Union and its importance, and having taken specific classes about its history and organisation has taught me its relevance not only in the continent but worldwide. After the recent pandemic and the on-going Ukraine and Russian war, the EU plays a major role in political, economical, and social issues towards achieving peace.       We were fortunate to visit two of the most important institutions of the EU located in Brussels, die Europäische Kommission (executive arm) und die Ministerrat (represents the member states and coordinate - work on adopting law...