MUDEC Prom!

Wednesday night we had MUDEC "Prom". The evening started out on a boat tour of the Moselle River and ended with dinner and dancing at Il Piccolo Mondo.

The weather was perfect! The boat tour lasted 2 hours and we all just hung out on the deck of the boat as it went down the river. We got dressed up but definitely not as dressed up as we did for high school prom. On the boat white wine and sandwiches were served. When the tour ended, we took a bus to a restaurant in the woods of Differdange called Il Piccolo Mondo.

For dinner we were served salad, lasagna, chocolate mousse and red wine. The lasagna was shady at best. For some reason Luxembourgers like to put tons and tons of ham in their lasagna and I'm most definitely not a fan. During the dinner banquet, a few teachers gave speeches and some awards were given.

After dinner, we moved downstairs and watched a slideshow featuring pictures and superlatives. When the slideshow ended, dancing began. The whole night ended around 1:30am and a bus took us home to Noertzange. I had an awesome time overall!

Today is the last day of class. I just finished political science and am about to have history. I have 2 exams Tuesday and 1 Wednesday and I'll be home Friday!

The Train Never Came...

We were supposed to go to Sweden this weekend, but the train never came so we missed our bus to the airport and therefore missed our flight. I'm looking forward to being able to drive a car again. Public transportation just isn't reliable.

The weather in Luxembourg was really, really nice so it was at least a good weekend to be here. On Friday we babysat Lynn and took Sam to school. We met Danie at the grocery and shopped with her. We stocked up on Cini-Minis which is my favorite cereal in all of Europe. According to Hannah it tastes like Cinnamon Toast Crunch but I don't think I've ever had Cinnamon Toast Crunch so I wouldn't know.

My debit card started to malfunction on Thursday and I later found out my bank cancelled my card. Apparently someone hacked into Fifth Third's system and compromised some of their numbers so they had to issue new cards to everyone effected. Of course mine was one of those cards. The bank sent me a new card to my house in the US and neglected to inform me of this situation. So, I'm currently moneyless until my new card arrives in Luxembourg sometime this week. Luckily Hannah gave me a loan.

On Saturday, Jenn, Han, and I took the train to Trier, Germany. It has a nice shopping district and it's a really pretty city. We walked around and listened to a few live bands, Han and Jenn did some shopping, and then we headed back to Lux. At night we went to a birthday barbeque for Carlo's two-year-old nephew.

On Sunday, we hung outside for the first half of the day. It was almost 80 degrees! Warmest weather so far. We ate more barbeque food for lunch, cleaned our room, and got out butts kicked by Pitt in poker. We bought the Kollers pizza for dinner and we ate outside.

I skyped Katelynn and then my family and then went to bed.

This week is the last week of classes. We have our end of the year banquet on Wednesday night. I can't believe the semester is coming to an end. I will be home in 11 days!!!

Wonderful Weekend in Luxembourg

Hannah and I decided to stay in Luxembourg this weekend in order to save money. And it's a very good thing we did. Due to a volcano erupting in Iceland, much of Europe is now covered in a large volcanic ash cloud. Because of the cloud, flights have been cancelled for the past 5 days and the airlines still have not received clearance to resume flying. I have friends who left last Wednesday or Thursday for the weekend and are now stranded in various European countries until they can find a way home. Jenn was supposed to fly to southern Italy on Friday, but her flight got cancelled so she stayed in Lux too.

Strangely enough, the weather in Luxembourg was amazing this weekend! From what I could tell (that could must be way, way in the sky) the skies looked completely clear and it was sunny and warm.

On Friday we went on a half-day school trip to Vianden, Luxembourg to visit the Vianden Castle. Honestly, I decided to tag along for the free lunch. I had already been to the castle once before but it's a pretty castle worth visiting twice (especially for free). When we got home from the trip, Hannah and I babysat Sam and Lynn.

On Saturday morning, Jenn, Han, Danie, Lynn, and I went to the street market in Lux city. There was a lot of fresh produce and many flowers being sold. Danie let us all pick out our own flower to plant in the backyard to remind her of us when we are gone. I picked out an impatient, planted it, and 24 hours later, it was dead. Typical.

We shopped around and Danie took us into a really unique store where she bought us all rings. She said she wanted us to have them as reminders of her when we're home in the US (a lot of reminding will be going on).

When we got home, we ate a delicious chicken meal and then hung outside for the rest of the afternoon. We helped Danie garden and planted our flowers. Danie made us burritos for dinner. They were SO good! I forgot how much I like tacos/burritos.

On Sunday Jenn, Han, Danie, the kids, and I took the train up north and went hiking. The plan was to get off at a stop, follow the trails to the next train station, and take that train back home. It was supposed to be about a 4 mile hike but after about 2 hours of hiking we began to get the sense that we had somehow made a wrong turn. Keep in mind this lovely hike was taken with a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old. Considering Lynn slept almost the entire time, that wasn't a huge issue (except for Danie who had to carry her), but Sam was pretty well spent. When we finally figured out where we were and where we wanted to be, we decided it would be quicker to just walk along the road back to the train station where we started. Without Sam, the walk back would have taken a little over half an hour and it would have been much longer with him. So, we flagged down a nice lady in a car (otherwise known as hitchhiking) and she agreed to take Same, Pitt, Pitt's friend, and Jenn to the train station. Danie/Lynn, Hannah, and I walked the rest of the way. We got to the station 5 minutes before the train came and then took it back home.

We ate baked potatoes and cooked asparagus for dinner. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it a lot! Danie made all of our meals for the weekend and we ate like queens. After dinner we played outside with the kids, I skyped my family, and at night we enjoyed chocolate fondue! Apples, strawberries and bananas in chocolate. Yum!

I'm supposed to go to Sweden this weekend but I have a feeling I'll be staying in Luxembourg again. I really wanted to go to Sweden, but I won't be too upset if I can't make it. I'll keep you updated.

London finally

After our very long bus ride, we took about a 15 minute walk with all our luggage to the hotel. We were in a 2 person room with 3 people so one of us had to be the mystery guest who snuck in and out of the hotel. I took on the challenge. Jenn and Han checked in as I waited in the lobby and later discretely went up to the room.

The next day when exiting the hotel, I took 2 sets of stairs and the elevator. Probably overkill but I made it into a game.

We walked to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. However, we couldn't see a whole lot because we got there a little late and there were so many people.

We then walked around St. James park, where we were able to see tons of beautiful flowers. I was surprised at how busy London was. There were so many tourists! I realized it would be a tourist destination but it was packed.

We walked around Westminister Abby, saw Parliament, Big Ben, and the Eye, and then went to lunch at a Tai place. I got chicken and broccoli and it pretty much tasted nothing like the kind I'm used to.

After lunch, we went to the National Gallery where they were putting on an outdoor play of the Passion of Jesus. We couldn't see because the crowd was so big so we left and walked around. We ended up finding cheap tickets to go see Chicago. Before the musical, we ate dinner at Pizza Hut and they had real Pepperonis! Everywhere else I've seen in Europe uses sausage and calls it pepperoni. More like pepperphony.

I really didn't know what to expect about Chicago since I hadn't seen the movie and pretty much know nothing about musicals, but I really enjoyed it. We sat in the nose bleed section but it worked out because we got to use some pretty stylish binoculars. When the show was over, we walked home in the rain, I snuck into the hotel, and we went to bed.

By Saturday we realized the hotel either didn't care or didn't notice we had 3 people in a 2 person room so the sneaking in and out pretty much stopped.

We got up in the morning and went to Portobello Market. There were so many shops and people! It was difficult to walk at times because the crowd was so massive. We stayed there for a few hours and then took the tube in an attempt to find Chipotle. We had heard rumors that a Chipotle was being built in London, so I researched it and found the address. I read online that it was supposed to open in late April but we thought we'd try our luck anyway. Fate betrayed us and all we found was a "coming soon" sign. So close, yet so far.

After our defeat, we took the tube to Kings Cross in honor of Harry Potter. We found platform 9 3/4 and the excitement on Jenn and Hannah's faces was that of kids in a candy store. We took many, many pictures.

Then we took the tube to the London bridge and the Millennium Bridge. I expected the London Bridge to be significant looking since it has it's own song and all, but it's actually pretty ordinary.

In the evening, we grabbed our computers and began a search for free wifi. We walked for about a mile before finding it at McDonald's. When we went back to our hotel, we found out we had free wifi in our room the whole time.

On Easter Sunday, we got up and got ready for church. We walked to Holy Trinity Brompton which is the church that started the Alpha series. We accidently attended a family service so some of the songs involved hand motions. The strange thing about this service was that there was no sermon or a mention of the bible. Those seem like key items in a church service.

We went to a pancake house for brunch. I forgot that in Europe, pancake actually means crepe. So by American standards, we ate crepes. Mine had apples, bananas, and nutella in it. Yum!

It was a really nice day, so we walked around the gardens in Hyde Park and saw the Peter Pan statue. I also saw people paddle boating in the lake and it made me miss the times my family and I used to go paddle boating when we'd visit my grandparents.

Since the Easter Bunny didn't come to London (at least not to us), we stopped in a convenience store and bought candy for each other. We probably bought a little too much. For dinner, we ate our Easter Candy. I skyped for a long time, fell into a food coma and went to bed.

On Monday, we walked to Harrod's to do some window shopping. The place is expensive! I saw a purse for $12,500. Must have been some purse.

We went to the Albert and Victoria Museum, but instead of looking at the art, we ended up sitting on a bench and people watching instead. I think we're all a little arted-out. People watching was entertaining, though.

For lunch we went to a pub and ate fish and chips. Considering I don't like fish, I wasn't really looking forward to this meal, but it was so much better than I expected.

In the evening, we walked around Oxford St, watched the Hang Over, and went to a night club called The Zoo.

On Tuesday we checked out of our hotel and walked over to Buckingham Palace to catch the changing of the guards. We soon realized it wasn't a guard changing day.

We walked way too long with all of our bags, grabbed lunch at subway, and then stored our luggage at the train station.

Danie, Carlo, and the kids arrived for a family vacation so we met them outside Westminster Abby and hung out with them for about an hour and a half. It was really good to see them!

After we said goodbye, we got our luggage, took a bus to the airport, arranged the weight perfectly, and got on our flight.

We arrived in Prague for our base course trip around 11. We were picked up at the airport, got to our hotel around midnight, and went to bed.

Letter to the Reader

To My Dear, Dear Fans;
Sorry I have neglected to post anything in over a week. I promise to write about London, Prague, Auschwitz, and Cracow shortly. Anticipate a lengthy post.
Best Regards,
Meredith Maureen.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Written on Thursday April 1, 2010

I’m currently on a bus from Edinburgh to London. I’ve been sitting in the same seat for 9 hours and we’ve stopped for 2 bathroom breaks. I haven’t eaten any real meals, just snacking on chips so I’m feeling pretty gross and hungry. I started and finished reading The Last Song but Nicholas Sparks. I loved it. We should be getting to London in about an hour.

For the past two days I was in Edinburgh, Scotland. It’s a really neat city because it still has a very old look to it but there’s a lot to do.

It was snowing when our plane landed Tuesday night and it continued to snow until Wednesday afternoon when it turned into rain. We packed as much as we could into Wednesday since it was our only full day in the city even though it was freezing.

When we first got up we enjoyed an incredible hotel breakfast. To those of you who experience an “American” breakfast daily, this breakfast wouldn’t have seemed too extraordinary but since I’ve become accustomed to a couple slices of bread with spreads, I was thrilled to see pancakes.

After enjoying a delicious meal, we walked to the Edinburgh castle. We didn’t go in, but it was still pretty from the outside. After seeing the castle we walked around to many different shops. I saw more plaid than I ever thought possible.

We went to a park on Calton Hill when there was a great view of the city and the lake.

We ate lunch at a place that served 3 course meals for 8pounds. I kind of figured the food would be gross since you usually get what you pay for, but I was pleasantly surprised. I got mushroom soup, a warm chicken sandwich, and chocolate ice cream.

After lunch we went in a museum (I don’t even know what it’s called, all art looks the same to me these days) and we went to the Scottish National Library.

Jenn was given a box of cookies at one of the stores we went in, so we decided to give them to two homeless men and their “singing” dog. They insisted upon shaking our hands and one of them looked at my ring and told me my fiancé is cheap. Offended, I told him I’m not engaged. We quickly left and washed our hands.

At night we walked around the University of Edinburgh and listened to live music at a pub.

I would love to get off this bus now. The girl behind me keeps pulling my hair and it’s making me feel sick to type while the bus is moving so I’m going to stop now.

Dublin, Ireland

Hannah, Jenn, and I left for Dublin after school on Friday afternoon. We first had to go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luxembourg to pick up our visas because our initial visas expire in the beginning of April. I really like the visa stickers they put in our passports. They make our passports look so well traveled.

I should preface this story by telling you about RyanAir's ridiculous weight restrictions. Checked bags are only allowed to weigh 15 kg (33 lbs) and carry on luggage can only weigh 10kg (22 lbs). Also, purses, laptops, etc. must fit into your carry on luggage and are included in the weight. If you go over the weight for either bag, you have to pay a fee (somewhere between 35-50 euro). And it costs 15 to 35 euro to check a bag (depending on when you do it). For our two week trip, we decided to each bring our backpacks and fill them with clothes and then share one checked bag. We figured that if we all put clothes in our backpacks and the rest of the stuff in the checked bags we would be fine with the weight restrictions. Wrong. Each of our backpacks were either exactly at the allowed weight, or slightly over, and our checked bag weighed a good 10lbs over what is allowed so we were faced with the dilemma of whether we should pay for another checked bag, or try to eliminate weight. Being poor college students, we chose the latter. I stuffed as much as I could into my pockets, including my bible, journal, chargers, camera, ipod, wallet, and few other small things. My coat probably weighed at least 7 lbs. Hannah filled her pockets as well, and Jenn got creative with hiding her purse under her shirt. It sort of started out as a joke, but when we realized it was actually possible to eliminate the weight, we went for it. In the end, our checked bag ended up being .3kg over, but the nice lady working the baggage counter let it slide. Today when we fly to Edinburgh, we'll take the same measures plus tiny foot Jenn is wearing her Sperry's inside my large tennis shoes, i'll probably stick the straightener in my sleeve, and we're all planning on wearing multiple belts. Should be a fun time going through security.

After our flight landed, it was a huge pain carrying the checked bag through Dublin as we tried to find our hostel. We definitely should have packed lighter. When we finally did get to our hostel, for some reason they weren't expecting us until April. Since the hostel worker felt bad about the mix up, he gave us a 6 person room all to ourselves, and he took 25 euro off the total price. Love when that happens! Besides smelling extremely strange, our hostel was pretty decent.

Saturday morning we got up with the intention of sightseeing but we really just ended up walking around and shopping. Dublin has some incredibly cheap stores. My favorite part about walking around the city was just hearing the accents. Irish accents are awesome. Also, everything is in English! It's almost strange to see signs I can actually understand. Oh, and they drive on the left side of the road here. It's funny because you can tell who isn't from this area by the way they look when they start to cross the street. All of us used to driving on the right, look the wrong way before trying to cross. Dublin must have had problems with this in the past because they now have directional cues on ground saying "look right" or "look left". Very helpful.

For lunch, we went to a bagel shop-- first time i've had a bagel in 3 months. It was delicious and we met a really nice Polish lady who joined us for lunch. She has been living in Dublin for 3 years so she gave us advice on where to go and what to see.

Saturday evening we went to a pub and had fish and chips for dinner. Considering I don't usually like fish, the meal was better than I expected. Later we went to a different pub and listened to live music.

Sunday we got up at 6am and took a PaddyWagon tour to the Cliffs of Moher. The bus left at 7am and we didn't return until 7pm. We made a few stops along the way and finally got to the cliffs around 1pm. They were absolutely amazing! I would say they're my favorite thing I've seen since I've been in Europe. I'll post pictures on Facebook so you can see them. After we spent about an hour and a half at the cliffs, we left and went to lunch. They took us to Fitzsimon's bar that had a nice buffet. I got turkey and veggies. Then we stopped in Burren, which is a city in Ireland where there is literally no soil. Because of some scientific reason I didn't understand (Jena, maybe you know?) there is something going on with the tectonic plates in the area and the ground looks very different than the rest of Ireland. It pretty much all looked like rock. Also, where they dropped us off, there was just a herd of cows hanging out. I originally thought they were wild cows, but they had tags so I'm going to say someone probably owns them. I don't know why they were there or why there wasn't a fence or something. I actually saw a lot of animals while looking out the bus window including cows, sheep, little baby lambs (so so cute), and an unidentifiable animal I've deemed as half sheep half dog. It looked a lot like a white Rory, so mom and dad, you may want to check into this. The only bad part about the trip was that Hannah, Jenn, and I sat in the very back of the bus. The seats didn't recline and it was a very long ride through many bumpy and winding roads. I thought I was going to puke numerous times, but luckily I held it together.

Monday the whether was pretty much terrible. It was cold, rainy, and windy. For some reason we thought it would be a good idea to go to the seaside. We took a 30 minute train ride to Howth, and when we got off the train and attempted to walk to the sea, it was nearly impossible to keep our umbrellas up. We were using them as shields from the wind and it was hard to walk. We eventually gave up the battle, put our umbrellas down, and got soaked. We went to the tourism office, learned there was pretty much nothing we could do in Howth under the current weather conditions, so we headed back towards the train station. We did get to see a few seals in the water and we enjoyed a soup lunch before going back to Dublin.

Since the rain continued, we decided to see a movie. We saw Bounty Hunter with Jennifer Aniston and Gerald Butler. It was pretty cute.

The rest of our time in Dublin was really just a lot of walking around. We didn't actually see a whole lot of famous sights. Today is scheduling day for fall semester classes so we're hanging out in the hostel until after we schedule because we need to use their internet. When we leave here, we'll go get lunch, and then probably walk around the Trinity College area. Our flight to Scotland leaves around 8 tonight so we'll take a 6pm bus to the airport. We will then stuff our pockets and board the plane.

Je suis allé à Paris!

Since I have been slacking a little on my posts, I'll try to make up for it now. This could be long, so brace yourselves.

Hannah, Jenn, and I left for Paris Thursday afternoon. We took the high speed TGV train from Luxembourg City to Paris. The TGV is more expensive than normal trains and it's talked about a lot so I expected it to be really nice, but it's was kind of a let down. The TGV has nothing on Spain high speed trains. The train ride was 3 hours so it allowed me some quality time to read. I recently started reading John Grisham's The Pelican Brief and I'm really enjoying it. I realize this is a old book but it's new to me.

Anyway, enough about trains and books. When we got to Paris, we got on the metro and took it to the stop where we were supposed to meet Hannah's family. Although I nearly got trapped in the metro doors, we made it without complications. We took an escalator up to ground level and Hannah's family was supposed to be waiting at a cafe by the exit. We looked around to find them and then I heard Mrs. Griebner yell, "There they are! Girls! Hannah!" She was jumping up and down and waving her arms. Hannah tried to run to her but she had to cross a busy street to get there and needed to wait for the light to turn red. Meanwhile, she starting crying because she was so happy, then I realized the whole Griebner family was crying, and Jenn and I were teary eyed as well. The light changed, Hannah ran across the street, hugged her family, and successfully completed the most precious reunion I have ever witnessed. Luckily Mr. Griebner filmed the whole thing. On May 7th, the airport could be a very emotional place.

We then headed to our apartments, which were conveniently located in the Eiffel Tower district. Hannah's family stayed in one apartment and Jenn, Hannah, and I stayed in a studio around the block. We could see the Eiffel Tower from our window! When we all got settled in, we walked to the Eiffel Tower, got asked to buy 1 euro tower keychains about 100 times, and took many pictures.

We then took a long walk to the Arc de Triomphe. We saw the eternal flame for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. We waited around a little while because many former military men and women came to the flame and we thought they were going to do something similar to laying the wreath on the grave as we do in the US, but nothing really happened so we left.

We walked down Champs des Elysees, did a little window shopping, and decided to eat dinner. We ate in a small Italian restaurant where I got tortellini. After dinner we walked over to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up. It's much prettier at night!

The next day, we got up early and got breakfast at a French bakery. We actually ate breakfast each morning at different French bakeries. Great, great decision. After breakfast, we took a train to the Palace of Versailles. We were given an audio guide headset so I learned a little about each room. There are really only 2 facts I can remember though-- 1. to prove the legitimacy of her children, the queen was required to give birth in public. icky. And 2. in the bed where Marie Therese slept, 19 royal children were born. If you would like to know more about the Palace, you should probably google it. I'm all out of facts.

We left the Palace, grabbed sandwiches for lunch, took the train back into the city. We got off the metro at the Opera House and walked around the building, then started walking towards the Louvre. When we realized it would be cheaper to get in if we came back later, we decided to go to Notre Dame first. Hannah, Jenn, and I climbed to the top. It was cool to see a different view of the Eiffel tower. Also, I can tell I'm getting used to climbing things because it now only burns my legs a little. We went up to the bell tower, looked for Quasimodo, and came back down sad. He must have been in hiding.

After Notre Dame, we went to another Italian Restaurant and I got Gnocci Poulet. It was a super tasty chicken and potato dish. The Italians served my stomach well in France.

When dinner was over, we headed to the Louvre where we stayed for 2 or 3 hours. I saw enough artwork to last a lifetime (or until the next day when I saw more). It was cool to see the Mona Lisa, who is teeny by the way, and other pieces I recognized from my art class. We were all exhausted when we finished at the museum so we walked to the metro and let it carry us home.

Saturday morning, we walked around the district by our apartment and did a little window shopping. We went into a North American store where we hoped to buy some of the comforts of home, but we were quickly discouraged when we checked prices. A box of Mac & Cheese was 7euro ($11), cake mix was 6.50euro ($10), a tiny jar of peanut butter was 7.50 euro ($12), and cereal was 12euro ($17)! As much as I wanted pretty much everything in the store, I couldn't bring myself to pay the ridiculous prices. Luckily my mom sent a box of Mac & Cheese over with the Griebners. We decided to split the price of chocolate chip cookies so we didn't leave empty handed.

We later met up with Hannah's family and toured the Luxembourg Gardens. I'm not sure why the Luxembourg Gardens are in France, but they are. We walked around for awhile trying to find "the biggest flee market in Europe" but we were unsuccessful. We also tried to go into the Picasso Museum but it's closed until 2012. After so much walking, we were all tired so we went back to our respective apartments and relaxed for a couple hours. We got dinner at a restaurant by the Eiffel Tower. I got chicken and fries.

We walked to the Eiffel Tower after dinner and we were able to see the light show. We were told it would last for 15 minutes and it actually only lasted for 5, but it was a beautiful 5 minutes.

On Sunday morning, we had to check out. We moved all our stuff into the Griebner's apartment and got breakfast at another bakery. Hannah, Jenn, and I visted the Eiffel tower one last time and then went back to the apartment because the weather was colder than we expected. We ate lunch with Hannah's family in the apartment and hung out there for a little until they had to catch their train to Belgium. We said our goodbyes, and since our train didn't leave until a few hours later, we visit Museun d'Orsey and Orangerie. D'Orsey mostly had impressionist paintings and Orangerie has a room filled with Monet's Water Lillies. Looking at artwork wears me out. By the end of our time in the museums, I was more than ready to jump on the train and head back to Lux.

No one was assigned to the seat next to mine which was really nice. I had a relaxing ride back and read more of my book. When I got home, I skyped my family, which I always enjoy. Yesterday I got to skype with Kelly and Jena! Jena woke up at 5:30am New Zealand time to join us which was awesome of her to do! And Im obviously glad she sacrificed sleep for us. What a sweetheart.

I have 2 more days of class this week, 2 weeks off for spring break and base course tour, then only 12 days of class and 3 exam days. I will be home in Ohio in 45 days. Time flies!

Pescara, Italy

Going to Pescara was slightly random. Lauren, Hannah, and I found cheap RyanAir flights and we found out it was on the beach, so we booked the trip. It ended up being a great decision! The weather in Pescara was pretty nice but not exactly beach weather. It was around 60 degrees and sunny but the wind on the beach made it feel colder than it actually was. That didn't stop us from laying on the beach...even if we were wrapped on our winter coats. We pretty much just spent the entire time walking around the city (it was small), shopping, and hanging out on the beach.

Last Thursday our Political Science class were invited to dinner at our Professor's house. The British ambassador to Luxembourg came and spoke with us. He taught us a lot about the political structure of the UK which helped to clear up a few questions I had. For the most part he was a pretty interesting speaker. When the Ambassador left, our professor told us stories about his life, mostly from his WWII experience. I loved listening to him. His life should probably be made into a movie.

Today is my host brother, Sam's 4th birthday. We're actually celebrating tomorrow though. I'm not exactly sure what that means in Europe but I have heard rumors of a cake. Danie's birthday was last Wednesday and we had delicious cake for that.

Classes this week are kind of a joke. I only had 1 on Monday, 3 today (yuck..), 1 tomorrow, none Thursday, and I'm skipping class Friday to go to Paris. We're leaving Thursday afternoon and meeting Hannah's family is Paris! I'm really excited to see them and to go to Paris. I just counted and I only have 18 days of real class left. This is because we have two weeks off of school for spring break and our base course trip and I no longer have class on Thursdays. Time is flying!

Ladies Night at the Movie Theater

I went to go see Dear John tonight at the movie theater in Luxembourg City. It was ladies night so I figured they would have a special deal on prices or something, but we actually got a cheaper price and we were all given a free mini bottle of champagne as well as a goodie bag. The Luxembourgers know how to take care of their ladies. The movie was sad but really good. I liked it better than all of the other Nicholas Sparks movies. It was a big deal that Dear John was playing because it wasn't supposed to make its way to Luxembourg until this coming summer but they played it for ladies night and then I think they're bringing it back in the summer.
Also, we got off at the wrong bus stop on our way to the movie, but it actually turned out to be a good thing because we stumbled upon a really nice mall with a huge grocery store. Rumor has it, the grocery has an American aisle with American food. I will definitely be going back there to check it out.

Roma!

I spent this past weekend with Hannah in Rome! We had a late flight on Friday and and early flight on Sunday so we were really only in Rome for one day. It was a little rushed but definitely worth it. The weather on Saturday was perfect! It was close to 60 degrees and very sunny, which is heavenly compared to today in Lux where the temperature is a mere 28 degrees.
We woke up early on Saturday and went to the Vatican first. We went in St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Museum. Both places had some art that I've learned about in my art history class. The Vatican wasn't exactly what I was expected it to be but it was still cool to see it.
After the Vatican we went to the Trevi Fountain where you're supposed to wish for true love. You put a coin in your right hand and throw it into the fountain over your left shoulder. Apparently it guarantees you'll find true love. I did it twice to secure results, obviously. We actually saw the fountain the night before and then went back to the fountain Saturday night. I'd say it was one of my favorite places in Rome.
When we left the fountain, we went to the Spanish Steps where we met up with Amy Wheaton. It's nice to see people from home while in Europe! The steps pretty much looked like normal steps but there was a nice view from the top. We got lunch together and ate it at the Trevi Fountain. From there we went to the fountain that's in Angels and Demons....I'm not sure what it's called. We also went to the Parthenon and saw where Raphael is buried.
One of my favorite places we went was the church at Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, which has a door with a keyhole that frames St. Peter's Basilica. The view is gorgeous! It's surrounded by several gardens with orange and lemon trees so we walked through those as well. From there we walked to the Coliseum. It seemed almost unreal to actually see it in real life. We didn't get to go in, so I now have an excuse to go back to Rome.
We walked around, did some shopping, ate dinner at a small italian place where I got tortellini, got gelato, then headed back to the Trevi Fountain. FYI the gelato in Rome isn't as good as the gelato in Florence. The Trevi Fountain was an interesting place for people watching, which we did a lot of.
Sorry this isn't a very detailed post. If you want to know more, just ask me.

Discovery Tour in Reims, France

This week was much more relaxed than last week. I had a political science midterm on Friday but it was pretty easy and didn't require much preparation at all. I got some of my tests/papers back and I did well on those so I'm happy about that.
On Monday night Hannah and I ate at Pizza Hut with Josh and Luke in the City. Other than having the same name and selling pizza, this Pizza Hut pretty much had nothing in common with the ones at home. It was a really nice sit down restaurant and the food was awesome! It tasted somewhat like Pizza Hut pizza but also different. It was nice to eat there because the pizza Europe has pretty much has no sauce on it and it's really thin, and this actually had sauce and was a lot thicker. It was one of the best meals I've had since being in Europe.
The rest of the week nights, we came back home pretty early and played with the kids. We babysat Sam and Lynn on Tuesday night which was really fun! I love hanging out with them! They've become a lot more comfortable with us and now whenever we come downstairs Lynn stops what she's doing to come over to us and grab our hands and take us to the marbles to play with her. She's adorable. Also, Sam said Hannah and Meredith for the first time. He totally butchered my name but it was really cute. I think he's shy about speaking in English because he definitely knows some words but it's like pulling teeth to get him to say them. He is talking more though. Lynn pretty much shamelessly repeats whatever you ask her to say.
On Wednesday night we had our mandatory orientation meeting and this week it was a lecture from the mayor of Differdange. It was pretty boring and slightly awkward because he threw us all off by asking for suggestions on how to improve relations between Miami and Differdange. No one except a couple teachers said anything .
On Thursday, Hannah and I played in a euchre tournament. We lost in the final four 9-10. I'm convinced the team we were playing was cheating, but I'm over it. I left my cards at the tournament so I hope I can get those back. Also, I annoyingly left my umbrella on the train and realized right when it was too late to go get it. I'm using one of Danie and Carlo's but it's pretty sucky and I want my old one back. Oh well, what can you do?
Friday we left for a trip planned by the school to Reims, France. We first stopped in Verdun, France and went to a WWI battle site. It was a little erie because you could still see the trenches and some of the ground was still considered unsafe. Also, the base of one of the memorial buildings at the cemetery was filled with the bones of over 130,000 unidentified soldiers. It was really sad to see all of them. And yes, we could see the bones. There were windows looking into where the bones were placed. After Verdun we left and went to Reims. Reims is a decently small, cute French town. I really like towns in France. All the ones I've been to have been great. We got to our hotel (yes, I said HOTEL) and settled in and went to dinner. We ate at a really slow italian restaurant but the food was good. After dinner we all went to some French local bar hang out. There really wasn't anything special about it, and there were many creepy French guys, so we turned in kind of early.
In the morning, we all got up and went to a Champagne cave. I forgot to tell you Reims is Champagne Country. Our student activities coordinator couldn't get the tour at a later time, so we had a champagne tasting at 10am. Oh well, it was 5 o'clock somewhere. Actually, in Europe, they don't have a time rule. Everyone pretty much drinks all the time. Most people drink wine with lunch and it's perfectly acceptable. After the champagne tour, we went to the Reims cathedral. It was gorgeous, like most European cathedrals are. We walked around Reims, did some window shopping, ate lunch, and got back on the bus.
We went to Chimay, Belgium for a beer and cheese tasting (the school loves organizing alcohol tastings apparently). All the guys really talked up Chimay beer but I thought a lot of it was pretty gross.
We got back to Lux around dinner time, came home and made food, played some games, did some skyping, and went to bed. Today Danie and Carlo are making us a traditional Luxembourg meal for lunch. This includes Cow Tongue, Blood Sausage, and Kidney. Yikes. I'll let you know how that works out.

Buergbrennen

This past Saturday and Sunday we went to two different Buergbrennen festivals with our host family. Translated into english, Buergbrennen means "castle burning". However, it's not a festival to burn castles, but rather crosses. Sounds sac religious and a little like the KKK, right? That's what I originally thought also. However, it has nothing to do with religion and certainly nothing to do with the KKK. In Luxembourg, Buergbrennen is held during the first Sunday of lent as a symbol of burning away winter and welcoming in spring. Still hung up on the idea of burning crosses? So was I, until I actually saw the festival in action.
Basically what happens is people from each village gather in one location to light their torches. Then, they all walk together to where the fire scene has been built. The fire is build out of brush, and sticks collected from the community, but also from Christmas trees the city has collected after people throw them away when the Christmas season ends. The cross is the biggest part, and it's made of wood and Christmas trees. People throw their torches into the fire when they get there. When everyone has thrown their torch, there is usually some cheering and then people leave the fire to go eat. At the festival, they serve various types of sausages, soup, and drinks. And there is usually a band that plays music- Danie and Carlo played.
You're probably still picturing a large mob of people parading towards a cross, setting it on fire, and then cheering when it's ablaze. Which is kind of what happens, but our American mindset tends to get in the way of what this event is really about. For Luxembourgers, its a tradition that brings the community together, in a fun attempt to make winter go away. I guess it's kind of like their version of Ground Hog's Day (except PETA supports Buergbrennen). And--it's working! It has been sunny several days this week, which is a whole lot of sunshine for Luxembourg.
So, before you start thinking I've gone off the deep end for participating in setting crosses on fire, consider looking at Buergbrennen from a European angle.

Two weeks of my life. Sorry about the Delay.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post! I've been avoiding it because I figured it would take awhile to catch you up on the past two weeks but now that I'm bored in class, it seems like the perfect time.

After coming back from Italy, I had a week of classes. It was a very crazy week academically because I had a french quiz, an art Midterm, a political science paper, and a History midterm. All of these went seemingly smooth but I'm glad that week is over. Coming up in the next week, I have a political science midterm and an international studies midterm. It's strange that it's nearly the middle of the semester. As far as actual class goes, I think I have like 29 real days of class left. Starting March 12, I no longer have class on Thursday and I have school off from March 27-April 12 for Spring Break and our base course tour, so that's why the number of real classes is so low. For the most part, school isn't very challenging. The only class that could potentially be difficult is my History class, but we can write an optional paper at the end to raise our grade up to 20% so I'm not worried. Actually, all this grade adjusting that goes on here at MUDEC, really suppresses motivation. Oh well.

Ok,I'm sure you're more interested in Spain than my classes. Sorry If I bored you. We left for Spain late Friday night/Saturday Morning. Our flight left at 6am on Saturday and the Airport is a two hour bus ride away, so we took the train into Lux city around 1:30 and got a bus at 2:30. We we stepped off the bus at Frankfurt-Hahn Airport at 4:30am, we were rudely awaken by the coldest weather I have ever experienced. We had to grab our bags and walk about 10 minutes to the airport from the bus station. I was walking as fast as humanly possible (excluding Kelsey Gross pace) and by the time I got inside, there were tears streaming down my face and my whole body stung. Yet another reason Germany isn't exactly my favorite country. By the time our plane took off at 6, I was dead tired. Actually, I was dead asleep. I fell asleep on the runway and don't even remember the plane getting off the ground.

When we landed in Barcelona, our plane was late so we didn't get to hear the celebratory music Ryanair loves to play. Sad day. Also, no one clapped this time. I blame it on tiredness. The whole clapping for a safe landing thing kinda freaks me out. I'm not sure you should fly on an airline that praises landing. Shouldn't that be the norm? Ryanair is a breed of its own.

We got to our hostel a couple hours later. We booked a room for 8 only to find out they split us up 6 and 2 and put us in 8 person rooms with random people. Not a big problem this round, but I'll come back to this later.

We walked to Las Ramblas street where there are street performers and a lot of shopping. The performers pretty much consisted of people decorating themselves to look like statues and then curious people walking by would stare and the performers usually did something funny. Las Ramblas also had several street pet stores. I use the term pet pretty loosely simply because I don't consider a Turkey Vulture to be a pet. They were selling rabbits, ferrets, and other birds also. We ate at a tapas place for lunch which was tasty. Tapas, if you were wondering, is pretty much the Spanish term for small portion. It might mean something more to other people but to me, it's Spain way of tricking you into buying an appetizer for a meal.

Also, we walked to La Sagrada Familia which is a cathedral designed by Gaudi and is still being built today. We took an elevator to the top, took some great pictures, and then walked down. I absolutely hated the walk down because about halfway from the top, the stairs became spiral with a railing on the wall side but no railing or wall or anything on the side that showed to straight down drop to the bottom. I was convinced I was going to trip and fall to my death so I gripped the railing with both hands. I probably looked like an idiot, but 'd rather be safe than dead.

The next day, we took the subway to Park Guell. The weather was nice and sunny which made the park beautiful. It's a large park that highlights awesome views of the city and hosts live music. Also, there are several Gaudi buildings in the park which kind of give it the feel of Willy Wonka. Maybe that's just me? Anyway, the park was one of my highlights of the trip. I put some pictures of the park on facebook, so you can check it out there.

After visiting the park, we took the subway to the Espanyol vs. Deportivo soccer game. It was a ton of fun! The stadium was pretty much packed and the fans were pretty rowdy which was cool to be a part of. Espanyol (home team) won, which apparently doesn't happen too often so I'm glad they brought their A game for us. At the end of the game they played the Espanyol anthem, which we had stuck in our heads the rest of the week and continued to break out in song at random times. It's a very catchy tune. We went to the Dow Jones Bar after the game. It's an interesting bar because it's designed like the stock market and prices go up and down depending on what people buy but the coolest part is when the market crashes and everything is cheap. Well, somewhat cheap. It was a pretty expensive place.

The next day we left for Madrid. We rode the nicest train I've ever been on. Very conducive to sleeping, which I took full advantage of. The weather in Madrid was colder and it rained literally the whole time we were there. I don't have a whole lot to say about Madrid because I liked Barcelona much better but we did spend day at the Prado Museum, which I enjoyed. It's a massive museum with over 100 rooms. It was mentally exhausting, but I saw a lot of paintings that I just learned about in my Art History class, and it was nice to see them somewhere other than in a textbook.

Our hostel in Madrid was very unique. We kept joking that we felt like we were on a reality tv show because it seemed like the Real World or Brother and Sisters or something. It only had a few rooms and everyone hung out together in the common room and some people cooked together. Also, there were two people who were living in the hostel and renting it as an apartment, so that was a bit strange.

We took a day trip to Segovia, which was a cheap hour bur ride away. It's a really old city with a lot of beautiful buildings. Also, there is a first century aqua-duct that went though the city.I don't think I've ever seen anything that old before. It's weird to think that it could have been around when Jesus walked the Earth. Although I'm pretty positive Jesus never came to Spain. Segovia also had a beautiful castle and cathedral. Seems to be the theme of many European cities.

The following day we left Madrid and headed to Toledo. Toledo in Spanish is pronounced TolAdo, sidenote for all you Ohioans out there. It was a small, quaint town. I honestly don't have a lot to say about it.

The last day of our trip we went back to Barcelona and the weather was decent again. It was Hannah's birthday so we went to the beach. It was maybe 60 degrees (and that's a generous guess) and tons of people were surfing. Seems insane to me. I was a little cold on land, I'm sure they were cold in the water. I did however touch the water just to say I've touched the Mediterranean Sea.

After hanging out on the beach, we were all pretty hungry so we walked for 40ish minutes on a wild goose chase for a taco restaurant our hostel worker recommended. We never found it. I'm convinced it doesn't exist. We ended up eating at some random restaurant and I ordered homemade pizza that may or may not have been homemade. My best guess says no. After dinner we just walked around and went into random stores. We found one selling unique art and jewelry that we stayed in for awhile. We wanted to eat gelato for dessert, but Spain's Gelato has nothing on Italy's. I got mint chip and it tasted strangely similar to listerine.

It started to rain a little but we wanted to see the fountain light show so we braved the rain, took the subway, and headed to the fountain. When we got off at the stop, we could see the lit fountain in the distance but because of construction we had to take a round about way to the fountain and by the time we got there it not only started to downpour, but the fountain turned off. We took refuge under a bridge to wait for the rain to subside. It didn't. So after half an hour or so, we walked back to the subway in the rain. Of course, this was the only day I didn't bring my umbrella. If you were wondering, a down jacket soaked from the rain smells a little like cat urine. It has pretty much aired out by now, thankfully.

We went back to our hostel at night, which I forgot to mention, was the same one we stayed at in the beginning of the week, and they split us up again. They split us into groups of 4 and 4 in two 8 person rooms with 4 random people in each. Dear Mediterranean Youth Hostel, the only reason we booked with you was because we thought we were paying for 8 people to stay together. Maybe you're wondering why I'm making such a big deal about being split up? Well, we had to get up at 5am to catch our flight, so we went to be somewhere between 12 and 1. Around 3:30 one of our random roommates came into the room, completely drunk, and thought it would be cool to throw up in our bathroom for 20 minutes with the door open. He also repeatedly turned the sink on and off to wash his pants which he apparently got something on. Maybe vomit? Anyway, no one wants to be woken up to the sound of someone puking. After he finished his charades and climbed into bed around 4, he passed out in 2 minutes top and was snoring ridiculously loud. I've never heard someone snore that loud in my life (and I live with some crazy snorers back at home). When it was time to get up at 5, we were all pretty angry.

We had some minor traveling issues, aka we missed our bus, but it all worked out in the end. When we got back to Lux, we just relaxed at home until it was time to go to the Buergbrennen. I'll blog about that later.

Italia!

Danie made ma a journal for my birthday. I like it a lot! I woke up and came downstairs and she had pancakes made and she and the kids and Hannah and Jenn sang happy birthday to me. I even had a candle in my pancakes. The rest of the day was spent traveling to Florence. I had my first Ryanair experience which was pretty much like any other airline except they attempted to sell us tons of stuff including but not limited to food and drinks, perfume, cologne, lottery tickets, and cigarettes which were not to be smoked on the plane so they sold nicotine patches as well. Also, when the plane landed they played celebratory music which really can't be a positive sign. I don't think you should be celebrating the fact that you landed. Makes me wonder how often their planes don't land.
When we got to Italy we checked into our hostel which was awesome by the way, and we went to get gelato. I got half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate. It was amazing. Embarrassing fact- from wednesday to sunday Hannah and I got gelato 6 times...
On Thursday morning we got up early and went to museums. It was cool to actually see what we have been learning about in class. We got lunch on our own at a small cafe and I got pizza. After lunch we met back with the group and we went to two beautiful churches. Then we got free time and Lauren, Hannah, and I went shopping. I bought black boots from a flee market. It was kind of a sketchy operation...the man who sold them to me disappeared to some secret location to get my size and the shoes he gave me are a different size than the ones I tried on even though they're both labeled the same. Oh well, they were cheap and I like them a lot.
Later we climbed 463 stairs to the top of the Duomo ad the views were absolutely breathtaking. It was totally worth the hike up. We met these asian guys who took our picture and wanted pictures with us. I guess the whole American girls thing excited them. It sounds like they were creepy people but I didn't really get that vibe. The view from the top of the Duomo was so gorgeous and I must have taken over 50 pictures from the top.
The whole group ate dinner together and then we went to a bar. The whole drinking wine provided by your professors thing still feels like a strange concept. Some of us walked back to the hostel early and got more gelato and we stopped to listen to live music along the way. The musician was singing Beatles songs.
On Friday we woke up really early to go to a few museums and churches. We went to a monastery to see Fra Angelico's Frescoes. They told different bible stories and it was interesting to look at them and interpret them. All of the churches we saw were beautiful, especially the Santa Maria Novella. Most of them don't allow you to take pictures though so that's kind of a bummer. I obviously took a few illegal shots so I could remember what they looked like when I'm old and gray. When we went into the churches, I really liked looking at the ceilings because they're so detailed and I know they must have been incredibly hard to make back in the day.
For lunch we went to some lame Italian restaurant owned by Portuguese men. The food and service both sucked. After lunch, Hannah, Lauren, and I explored by walking up some steep, narrow road for about half an hour, hoping we'd get to the top and find a good view of the city. We ended up at some gardens you needed to pay 7 euro to see so instead we turned around and found a path leading to a stone wall. We climbed the wall and sat on top and looked at an amazing city scene. The wall had barbed wire so we we were careful but I'm thinking we weren't supposed to be up there. I got my jeans really dirty and it looked like someone puked on them so I guess that's what you get for not paying.
We all ate dinner together again and then came back to the hostel and played euchre. Hannah and I were partners and dominated as usual.
On Saturday we went on a tour of tuscany. First we went to Siena then San Gimignano and finally Pisa. For lunch we stopped at an organic farm and winery just outside of San Gimignano. The food was delicious and the views of tuscany were incredible! We saw the leaning tower in Pisa as well as a Cathedral and Baptistry. The weather in Pisa was perfect. It was actually pretty warm (probably upper 50's) and the sun came out! We got to see a beautiful Italian sunset.
On the flight home, we flew over the Swiss Alps. It was so pretty it looked fake. It made me really want to go to Switzerland, but I think we're going there in May. I have a really busy week with school (2 midterms, a paper, and a quiz) but Friday starts Carnival break and we have a week off. I'm going to Spain! We just booked tickets for a soccer game which should be really fun since soccer is so big in Europe especially in Spain. I don't have class until 2pm tomorrow but I'm exhausted so I'm going to bed.

An Update

Sorry that it has been so long since I've updated. I'll try to catch you up on what i've been doing.
After getting back from Strasbourg, I had a full week of classes. They went by pretty quick but I did have a quiz in French and Art. Neither test was hard though. I have another French quiz today, actually.
On Wednesday nights everyone in the MUDEC program is required to attend an orientation session. Each week the session is different but in the past they have had a bunch of lectures. We played large group Spoons which was really fun. It got pretty competitive and maybe a little dangerous but no one got seriously injured. Afterward we got dinner at Fast Food Diff, which was delicious. It's one of only a few places where you can get chicken in Luxembourg.
Over the weekend I went to Cologne, Germany with seven other people. We decided to only spend one night there to try to save money so we took the train right after school on Friday, stayed the night, and then same back to Lux Saturday afternoon. Our hostel was the shadiest I have stayed in so far. They didn't provide sheets, and no one wanted to pay for them, so we all ended up sleeping straight on a mattress. I was grossed out so I laid down my coat and slept on that instead. Also, the walls had weird stains on them. I tried not to investigate those too close.
We ate dinner in some cheap steak house that was pretty good except for the water. They only had mineral water which pretty much tasted like dirt. It was cold though, so that's a plus. Carnival festivities are starting so the restaurant had clowns all over it. Carnival is the festival that starts before lent and it's basically just like a really extended Mardi Gras. I think the point of it is to get all the "sin" out of your system so you can be holy during lent. Seems like a pretty strange concept to me. Most cities get really into it- they all have festivals and take on a certain theme and the people dress up in costumes and paint their faces. Although I think it's weird, I'm not complaining because we get a full week off of school. We're going to Spain, so that will be awesome!
On Saturday morning, we went to a chocolate museum. It was really neat to see the evolution of chocolate and how it's made. Also, the samples were great as well. We got their early because we were told if you arrive early there is a chance they'll pick you to help make chocolate and you get to keep all your "mistakes", unfortunately we weren't chosen. Some little girl was having a birthday party so they got to help, lame.
For lunch we went to a German restaurant. I ordered Weinersnitchel. Much more authentic than my usually hamburger with ketchup only. Weinersnitchel is just breaded pork with a cool name. But I'd never eaten it before, so I'm proud of myself for trying something new. It also came with delicious potatoes. This time, I stayed on the safe side and ordered a coke. I'm not taking anymore chances with German water. If you were wondering, the coke in Europe is pretty much the same as the coke in the US except is has a little less flavor and a little less carbonation. It basically tastes like coke in a 2 liter bottle that has been left open for a few hours. Yum....
After lunch we walked to the Dom, which is really a cathedral. It was beautiful and huge. We didn't get to climb to the top because we planned our time horribly and had to catch a train. Four of us made it on one train and the other three had to catch a later train. It was a bit stressful, but we all made it home eventually.
It was nice to be home all day Sunday. Hannah, Jenn, and I went to the grocery with Danie and she helped us find things and read us the Luxembourgish labels. We bought a few essentials and the materials to make chocolate chip cookies. By the way, they don't have chocolate chips in Europe...or baking soda, or vanilla. We had to improvise but they turned out tasting pretty good. For the chips, we just chopped up a block of chocolate. I don't think our host family had ever eaten chocolate chip cookies before, but as far as I can tell, they liked them. We also got our laundry done and cleaned our room and just hung out with our family. At night I skyped with family and friends from home which was really fun just to catch up.
It has been snowing like crazy here. I feel like I'm living in a snow globe. It's not that there is a ton of snow on the ground (probably 5 inches), but the flakes are really big and so they're pretty and all the snow has been sticking to the trees. It looks like a winter wonderland. However, I am flying to Florence, Italy with my class tomorrow so I hope our flight doesn't get delayed or cancelled. Because of the snow, my professor is late to class. It was supposed to start ten minutes ago. It's a great day!

Strasbourg: Strawesome

I spent the weekend in Strasbourg with Hannah, Jenn, and Luke. Our hostel was huge and actually really nice. As far as I can tell I there were no bed bugs and I haven't developed scabbies. We spent most of the time just walking around the city. The main part is surrounded by a canal so we walked all around canal and it was really pretty. The buildings is Strasbourg has amazing architecture and they were all different colors. My favorite building was the Cathedral. It was a 16th century gothic style cathedral. We climbed to the top of it where we could seen an amazing view of the entire city. This was my favorite part of the trip. I will put up facebook pictures tomorrow. Another pretty part of Strasbourg is petite France. I don't know how to explain this part of Strasbourg other than to say it was just really scenic. The buildings looked like something out of a fairy tale. We left this afternoon and got back to LUX around 5. For some reason, the police have been making an appearance more frequently. On the train ride home they walked through all the cars and made everyone show their IDs or passports. I've also been seeing them on the LUX trains. Just thought I'd let you all know. I'm exhausted and going to bed. Goodnight

Fondue and Weekend Plans

Today after class I had to go into LUX city to get an xray as part of registering with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As far as I know, Im TB free and will be allowed to stay in the country. After my xray I went go buy a train ticket for the weekend. Hannah, Jenn, Luke, and I are going to Strasbourg, France after class tomorrow and we'll be back Sunday.
Tonight I watched Grey's in french with english subtitles. I don't think I learned much from it though because I just read the subtitles instead of trying to listen to the French. Danie made us chocolate fondue and we dipped fruit in it. It was absolutely delicious! We also watched a french comedian but I obviously didn't understand any of the jokes.

Train troubles

Last night I spent over 2 hours trying to get home from the Chateau (it usually take 20 min). I went to catch the 9pm train and it never showed so I waited for the 930 and around 935 an announcement came on, in french of course, that said something about the train not working and that all people waiting for it should find a bus. As we were leaving to find a bus, the train came, so we got on. It went 3 stops and then turned around. Apparently the train before ours had no electricity and was stuck on the track so no more trains could use the track. We got dropped off in some rogue town, had to walk to the bus station, took a bus to Lux city, and then did a little backtracking and took the train from Lux city to Noertzange where I live. Complicated but I made it home.

Brussels and the Beginning of the Week

On Saturday afternoon, we left Bruges and took a bus to Brussels. Hannah, Jenn, and I checked into The Moon Hotel. It sounds like a pretty sketch place but it was actually pretty decent. Definitely better than our hostel the night before, and I didn't get bed bugs so I'm happy. We spent the rest of the night on Saturday walking around Brussels, visiting different monuments. Brussels has one main square called "The Grand Place" that is absolutely beautiful. All the buildings were made with tons and tons of details during the Medieval period. I took lots of pictures so I will put those of facebook ASAP.
Brussels is known for their statue of a peeing boy. People come from all around the world to see it so I was expecting it to be some phenomenal piece of art but I was totally wrong. It's literally maybe 2 feet tall. When I saw a crowd gathering around it, I thought it was a joke. I'm not really sure how it become so famous.
Friday night we ate dinner at some overpriced restaurant that tricked us into thinking we were getting a deal. We walked down a street that was really narrow and had probably 20 restaurants on it. Since there's so much competition, the restaurants have trouble filling their dining rooms so they have workers who stand outside and try to lure you inside. They brought down the price of our meal and gave us a free drink but the food wasn't very good. I had chicken for the first time since I've been here though.
At night all the Miami students went to Delirium Cafe.It's one of the bigger pubs in Brussels. It's fun going places with a bunch of Miami people but I'd rather only travel in smaller groups because it makes things a lot easier.
On Sunday morning we toured around Brussels some more, ate another Belgian waffle, and headed home. The train ride was 3 hours but it actually went really fast. When we got home we ate Chinese with our host family. Chinese food is a little bit different in Europe (the rice is a lot smaller) but it was very tasty. At night I skyped with my Parents for awhile. It was really good to talk with them.
On Monday I had Art History, International Studies, and French. All of my classes are becoming more interesting. After class I had to go to the doctor as part of the process of registering with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It was incredibly awkward and luckily only lasted 10 minutes. Hannah, Luke and I got out of the doctor 3 minutes before out train was due to arrive so we decided to run to try to catch it. This involved us running down an alley we assumed was a shortcut only to find out it was a dead end. So, we jumped over the wall ("them tains, they don't wait") which was higher that I originally thought. By the time we got to the station, Hannah and I could barely breath, but we made it.
At night, we went to a Philharmonic concert in LUX city. I honestly usually don't enjoy concert but this one was pretty good. They had a guest percussionist who made unique sounds with his instruments. He was my favorite. If you were wondering they don't do standing ovations in Europe. At least not in Luxembourg. Instead, they just clap forever. We honestly clapped for 10 minutes. And the main violinist kept leaving the stage and coming back for more applause. I'm pretty sure that doesn't happen in the US.

Belgium: Part 1.

I planned on blogging everyday, but as you can see it hasn't exactly happened. I started so strong and fell hard. I'll try to be better this week.
Last time I blogged, I was about to have bible study. Study went really well! There were about 15 people there which is a lot considering there are only 130 people in the MUDEC program. We're studying Joshua for now, so that should be good. We are planning on having study every Tuesday night, so I'll let you know how that goes.
The rest of the school week went well. Classes seem really long and pretty boring, but I'm hoping they'll pick up as time goes on. In 2.5 weeks I'll be in Italy for my Art History class trip. It still hasn't sunk in that I'm in Europe yet, I'm counting on Italy to make it feel real.
This weekend I want to Bruges and Brussels. The school planned the trip for Friday and Saturday so we took buses to Bruges on Friday. They planned for us to stop at a brewery along the way and I assumed we would get a tour and then a taste but basically I was wrong. We went in and sat down, the brewery owners brought us beer, practically forced us to drink it, then we left. They gave us 3 different types. The first was white beer which was actually pretty good and the other two were thicker which I didn't really like. The brewery is really new and the owner just created her own brand of beer that is made with herbs so it doesn't cause headaches. Interesting fact.
When we left the Brewery, we got on the bus and drove an hour to Bruges. I stayed in a hostel room with Jenn. The hostel wasn't too bad. It was pretty much what I expected a hostel to be. I didn't get bed bugs, so I'm happy. At night, we went out to eat, and then went to some random pub. When we got back to the Hostel, the hostel worker (who is from the US and only a couple years older) took a big group of us to one of his favorite pubs. It was pretty much just like all the other pubs in Europe. I hate the fact that it's legal to smoke pretty much anywhere here. No matter where I go, I always leave smelling like an ash tray. I took a shower tonight and my hair still smells.
The next morning, we took a walking tour of Bruges. It's a very cute place. There are lots of cobblestone roads and buildings inspired by medieval times. I'll put pictures on facebook soon. It was frigid out that made the tour slightly painful but it was still fun. Remember in my last post when I said we were going to tour a chocolate factory? Lies. We walked in to two chocolate factories and had a taste of a small piece, but there was no tour. It wasn't what I was expecting.
Before leaving Bruges, we ate the most delicious Belgian Waffles with warm chocolate syrup and powdered sugar. Probably one of my favorite foods. Then we walked around a little bit more, window shopped, then headed back to the buses.
I'm very tired so I'm going to go to bed, and I'll post about Brussels tomorrow. Goodnight.

First Day of Classes

I survived the first day of all of my classes. Art history is going to be hard to get through. My professor is from Belgium and has a thick accent and the material is dry so I will be fighting to stay awake. The only good part is our class is taking a trip to Florence and a few other cities in Italy. After art history I had International Studies which seems like it's going to be really good. My professor is nice and seems fun and the class as a whole will be interesting. I'm taking beginning French which should be a cake walk since I've already taken 3 years in high school. This morning I had my History class about the rise and fall of Hitler. The course material is really heavy but I'm excited because we will be taking a trip to Cracow, Prague, and Auschwitz. I also had Political science today. I can't really get a good gage for how that will be.
I just finished lunch and now I'm in the basment of the chateau planning some trips. I'm going to Bruges and Brussels this weekend (in Belgium). The school planned a trip to Bruges and then they're dropping people off in Brussels. We're going on a tour of a chocolate factory. Obviously that's what I'm most excited for.
I'll be at the chateau late tonight because some of us are starting a bible study so we're going out to dinner at 6 then having bible study afterward.

SAM

Oh PS: This is Sam

A Day with Our Host Family

This morning we were able to sleep in since orientation is finished and classes don't start until Monday. We told Carlo and Danie that if we weren't up by 10 they could send the kids in to wake us up for breakfast. Mistake. Pitt and Sam came in and tried their best to get us up. They used the scream-loud-shake-the-sleeper-rip-the-covers-off tactic. It worked on Hannah and Jenn, but not me. I slept through breakfast and got up at 11.
Later in the day Pitt, Max, Sam, Lynn, Hannah, Jenn, and I went sledding. There isn't even an inch of snow on the ground so sledding didn't work too well but it was still fun.
After sledding, Carlo, Jenn, and I went to see Avatar. I was pleasantly surprised. I actually really liked it. The only bad part was that the movie was in English with German and French subtitles so when the Na'vi spoke in their native language the only subtitles we had were in French and German. In the US that part would have had English subtitles. I understood the gist of what they were saying because I picked up on some of the French, but I want to watch it again in English.
Something strange about the bathroom at the movie theater was that there is awkwardly a window from the women's bathroom to the men's bathroom. When I walked out from where the stalls were to go wash my hands, I looked into what I thought was a full length mirror and saw Carlo. Naturally I had a slight panic as I wondered if I was accidentally in the men's restroom. I mean it is Europe, the signs are different, I could have gotten confused? Anyway, I did a double take and realized it was actually a window into the men's restroom. Weird? Yes, I should say so.
On that note, classes start tomorrow so it's time for me to go to bed. Over and out.

Medieval Castle and a Winery

Last night I tried to upload pictures for over 2 hours but the connection was slow and it never finished uploading so I'll try again today. Hopefully you'll be able to see those soon. They're pretty much all scenery and I know you'd rather see pictures with people in them but I haven't taken many of those so you'll just have to wait and be happy with scenery for now.
Yesterday was our last day of orientation (YAY!) so that means no more strange lectures. When our lectures were finished we broke up into groups and my group went to see a Medieval castle. It was beautiful! Hopefully you'll be seeing those pictures on facebook very soon. The castle was high up on a mountain/hill so the view from the top was also beautiful. However, if there was a fire in the castle I'm pretty sure everyone would die because 1. it was huge and had confusing winding hallways, 2. there were a very limited number of exits, and 3. the majority of the building is made of wood. Anyway, that's just a side note. One of the neat things about the view from the top is that you could see that the city is still being built around the castle's moat.
After we left the castle, we took an hour bus ride to a winery. Yes, everyone fell asleep on the bus again. The winery was the biggest and oldest in Europe (I believe that's what the man in charge told us) They make mostly white wine because in Luxembourg only 9% of the wine is red. Apparently the climate is better for white wine. We went on a long, cold tour of the wine cellar but it was interesting to see the whole wine making process. I didn't realize how much work and precision goes into making one bottle of wine. At the end we had a taste of some kind of white wine and some kind of sparking wine. Both were very good. I thought about buying a bottle and bringing it home for the parents (you're welcome mom and dad) but I realized I won't be able to carry it on and it'll probably break in my suitcase. So, if you'd like some European wine, help me come up with a returning home plan and it'll be all yours.
I ate dinner in LUX city with some people I just met....not even sure I know their names (Oops). But I know they go to Miami and are in the MUDEC program. Our dinner was actually really gross. We ate Kabobs which is basically a gyro if you've ever been to the gyro shop in Columbus. I don't like gyros therefore I didn't like kabobs. I of couse got the Kabob American which from the picture looked like a humburger and fries in a wrap but when the server brought it to me I was unpleasantly surprised. I probably should have been weary of the food, the restaurant was called "Snack Istanbul". Not exactly my cup of tea, but you have to give me props for trying it.
When I got home I got to skye with Jacquie and Jared and then my host family invited Hannah, Jenn, and I for tea. Tea quickly turned into ice cream when they found out none of us are too fond of tea. I was happy about the switch. It was delicious ice cream. I slept in this morning (obviously a plus) and I'm about to go eat lunch.
A Bientôt

Tour of the city

We spent the morning in the chateau hearing more lectures. They weren't as boring today so that's good. We "ate" some unidentifiable soup for lunch. It was sick nasty. I will not be eating that again. After lunch we split in to groups and got on buses to tour the city. We visited the American Battle of the Bulge cemetery and the German cemetery as well. I saw General Patton's grave as well as many unknown soldiers' graves. We then took a bus tour of the city but I fell asleep so I don't remember much of it. When the bus tour finished we were forced to do a walking tour. It was maybe 20 degrees and we were outside for 2 hours. My fingers are still thawing out. For dinner tonight I ate in Differdange at another Italian restaurant and then hung out at Das Boot with a lot of Miami students. All in all it was a fun day but I'm exhausted. Tomorrow we're doing more touring and visiting a winery.

First day in the city

This morning we rode the train in to Differdange to the Chateau (the castle where classes are held). There are only two other guys with the program who are staying in Noertzange (where Jenn, Hannah, and I are living) so we'll ride the train with them everyday.
When we got to the chateau we had a welcome session followed by 2 long lectures. By the end, I was literally holding my ele lids open so I wouldn't fall asleep. We had lunch all together and it wasn't exactly delicious but it got the job done. We had a few more lectures then we were able to explore the chateau and walk around differdange. The Chateau is really nice but it's smaller than I pictured. Differdange is really pretty. I took a couple pictures but not many so I'll talk more tomorrow then post them either on here or on facebook.
We had to go to the town hall today to petition our stay. Good news, they're letting everyone live here. Really all they did was copy our passports and make us sign a paper.
We went into Lux city for the first time today. It was absolutely freezing but still fun to walk around. They still had all of their Christmas lights up so it was really pretty and the buildings are beautiful. We ate dinner and some Italian restaurant...I got pizza. I'm really branching out, I know. After we walked around some more, we got back on the train and headed home.
We hung out with our host family and played cards with the kids. They have kept a book with stories and pictures from all the students who have lived here. It was neat to look at it and see what the students had to say. Basically the consensus is the family is great and the time flies. I'm sure I'll be signing the book in no time.
For whomever may be reading this: I hope your week is going well and I miss you very much! I love you all!


PS- The theme verse for the trip is (decided by Hannah and me) Joshua 1:9- "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you WHEREVER you go."

Also sidenote: Kelsey if you are reading this, sam and lynn eat bologna in the shape of a panda. It even has panda spots. Try not to cry.

And so it begins...

Hannah and I boarded our plane in Columbus on Tuesday around 6pm. We sat on the runway for ah hour and a half as the plane got deiced over and over again. When we landed in Philadelphia we had 15 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Amsterdam and we passed a sign that that it would be 20 minutes to walk to our gate. I figured we wouldn't make it, but we ended up being the lase two people who boarded the plane. By the time we got on, there was no room to store our carry-ons in the overhead bins so they stayed shoved under our legs the whole trip. I only slept for 30 or so minutes but the plane ride seemed to go surprisingly fast. The one time I did doze off, I woke up to someone screaming "NO! NO! NO!"- naturally I thought the plane was being hijacked. Turns out it was some kid having a bad dream.
We got to Amsterdam at 10:30am European time, 4:30am Ohio time. Of course we decided it would be a good time for a McDonald's lunch. Little fyi, chicken nuggets don't taste the same in Europe. I'm thinking they probably use better meat-not so sure I appreciate them. Also, they charge you for ketchup. The rest of Amsterdam was pretty uneventful.
We got to Lux at 6pm and our host mom, Danie, picked us up at the airport. She and her family are really nice. The rest of the family includes Carlo (host dad), Pitt (13), Max (10), Sam (3) and Lynn (1). All of the kids are adorable. Carlo and Danie cooked us dinner. We ate quiche which doesn't sound like something I would like but it was actually pretty tasty. We spent the rest of the night unpacking and organizing our room. Hannah, Jenn, and I live on the third floor, sharing a bathroom and bedroom. The house is really nice and our room is very cozy. Our host family has really taken the extra steps to make us feel at home.
I'm exhausted so I'm going to be now. Tomorrow we're going to the chateau and touring the city. Tell you more later. It's only 5:10pm at home...never thought I could be tired this early.