Mr. MEP

The European Parliament: the chrome-leafed behemoth where I work.
Herbert Dorfmann, MEP from Italy and member of the European People's Party. Mr. Dorfmann serves on the Committee for Agriculture and Rural Development, so I hope to learn a full lot about the EU agriculture system.
Sudtirol or South Tyrol, the region whence Mr. Dorfmann and his assistant come. Originally part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Tyrol was split between Italy and Austria after WWI. South Tyrol, and in particular Dorfmann's Italian SVP party, fought for autonomy within Italy for some timeThough the map does not give context, Tyrol is in the top left corner of Italy.

A more pleasing glimpse of the South Tyrol region (and legal, unlike the last one I posted here).

A selection of 23 languages streaming through the earpieces, hot coffee at my seat while surrounded by hundreds of MEPs and their assistants at the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development's first session of the year, and an audience with the EU Commissioner for Agriculture, Mariann Fischer Boel, all on day one. A good day, a very good day.

A note about South Tyrol: because the region was previously Austro-Hungarian, German and Italian are spoken concurrently in the region. Thus, Mr. Dorfmann and his assistant, Giovanni, alternate between the two rather seemlessly and leave me to communicate in English with Mr. Dorfmann and French with Giovanni.