Sir! Visit to the N.A.T.O. Headquarters, Sir!

You know how it's always quite beneficial to know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody?
Well, the students in our Government class "Politics of the Middle East" are lucky enough to have a professor with connections to the Spanish Ministry of Defense. Pretty nice! So, not only do we get to learn fresh and interesting viewpoints when discussing international politics in class, but we also get to go on quite remarkable field trips. Today, we went to visit the N.A.T.O. headquarters for "Chain of Command - Land" (if that means anything to you?!), which are located about 30 minutes outside of Madrid (the headquarters for Air and Maritime are in Turkey and Italy!).
We were allowed to sit in the conference room on one of these giant U-shaped tables with microphones in front of each seat. I don't know about the others, but I definitely felt like a president!
After the Commander welcomed us with a short speech (and our professor with a kiss on each cheek, of course), we got to listen to three really interesting presentations about the Madrid Headquarters and the current political issues N.A.T.O. is dealing with (you know... Somalia, Darfur, Georgia, Afghanistan, and so forth). In between we had some coffee and some cake, and took a group picture with the Commander at the end. Everyone around us was wearing military outfits and all kinds of hats. It was really an interesting environment, and a great way to finish our Politics class for this semester!