Out of Loop, as usual

Mary's excited (so excited she's speaking in third person). Why, you may ask. Because I just bought tickets to this: http://www.hopfarmfestival.com/home.aspx#/home.aspx
I get to spend my last weekend in Europe at a farm on the English countryside listening to Bob Dylan. H to the Yeah. With the train/hotel/coach/tickets, it was pretty expensive. But I figure, I'm already over here! So, that's taken care of! And this is my birthday present to myself. Apparently I love myself a lot...
Just to get you as excited as I am, watch these. They'll all be there and then some:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fmFbzPjT-Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI-cuKKQrN0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HHnDEnsdno
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4uLG_bGsLU
ANYWAY,
Fun experience of the day: for work I always get off at the Shuman stop, which is where all the businessmen and businesswomen get off to be important and fancy. There are two directions you can get off at the stop. Both are in the same vicinity but the Justice-Lipsus direction is much closer to my office, so that's where I always exit. Well, this morning, my exit was closed. Weird. And then I saw a bunch of police with dogs sniffing the platform. So, I went through the only exit that was open and noticed that there were about A MILLION people outside and there were barricades everywhere and helicopters etc. Apparently today was the day that the European Council was meeting. And I work in the heart of their business area. Glad no one told me. Glad I felt like an idiot, standing on the sidewalk with my mouth gaping open, wondering what was going on. Luckily, I was working in a different building this week because of our expert group meetings. So, I turned around and took the metro to a different stop.
This week has been really interesting. I feel professional and important (ish). I sit in on these meetings full of people from all over Europe. Then they say brilliant things and I write them down.