What does it mean to be a European? With rich history, diversity and social development, I believe most of the Europeans are proud of this identity. However, general public in Europe has started to contemplate the European identity recent immigration crisis and economic downturn. There are numerous Right-wing movements. General Public started to question the assumption of Europe: Is Muslim part of European culture? Is it better to stay together? House of European history can give you some insights to this question – and I believe this is the reason why we visited House of European history, and even have this EU excursion, in general. It uses interactive digital ways to illustrate all the critical event of Europe, such as industrial revolution, the First and Second World War and the Cold War. After learning the history in a longer time frame, we can learn that this is normal to have challenges during the integration. This has happened several times. I hope all the young people would manage to surf on this vigorous trend. Yes, the world is tearing into pieces. And we first has to be knowledgeable and get educated. (Sunny Wong)
Visiting the House of European history On Thursday the fourth day of our Brussels trip we visited the House of European history. The building is beautiful, and the exhibition was extremely interesting. The whole point of the place is to teach people about what has brought the people in Europe together across the centuries. And how the past history affects us all today. The way you follow and learn about the exhibition was made very easy. They gave us tablets and small head phones’ that we used to read and listen to the facts on the European history. (Eveliina Suutari)
What was the exhibition like? To be honest, at the beginning, the European History doesn’t seem very attractive to me as a student outside of Europe, it’s a little bit far away and seems not necessary to know. But at the time we were visiting the House of European history, I was totally shocked and overwhelmed by those abundant and integrated history. From the shaping of Europe, then to be ruined in shambles and then the rebuilding of Europe. Also, the history of the recent times, people were fighting for the rights, against injustice, struggling for the harmony and pursuing a better life. All that history influences our lives today and perhaps in the future. As in our own lives, something we want to remember, and something we are willing to forget. But remember the past and avoid repeating the same mistakes is a lesson that history has taught us!(Jinchao Zhang)