Luxembourg oh Luxembourg

Friday- We (meaning all 120 students) took a train to lux city and then followed a 5 foot 4 woman for about 8 blocks, some where lost along the way, but all were recovered by our destination was reached, the ministry. I officially have a visa to stay in Luxembourg and study here...kind of scary i know. Then Miranda(my roommate), Sara, Carl, and I went to lunch in Luxembourg city, and then we went window shopping.....Carl being the only boy complained the whole time of course about the window shopping. Later we went back to Noertzange and packed our bags because Miranda and I were spending the night at Sarah's host parents house, who happens to be Carlo (my host father's parents house) That night we went to the Grune, the old city in the valley of luxembourg for dinner, and we wanted around and enjoyed the relaxing evening.
Saturday- All four of us headed to Esh for more shopping and we hoped a movie...little did we know that there was only one movie theatre in Esh and it was only playing Chicken Little in german. So we played on the playground at the school and had a lamb kebab...it was different....Miranda and I went back to our house and got ready for our host parents concert. They play in a all brass band, local musicians of luxembourg. We met Danie, my host mom's family, including her brother of 21 who she thinks one of us is going to marry. After the concert we headed back to Noertzange for raw salmon (tried some didnt like it but i tried it) there was about 10 other people besides carlo's family there. We toasted to "us" which is the traditional luxembourg toast "poste"
Sunday- We took the train to Carlo's parents house in luxembourg city, the house he grew up in. It was his sister-in laws birthday. We had an amazing traditional luxembourg lunch, soup, salad, pork, noodles, corn, roasted chestnuts, and followed by rum ice cream and a honey cake. The whole meal took about 3 hours. We went on a walk after lunch which is also what a lot of luxembourg people due after lunch everyday. On our walk I found out that Carlo's great grandfather owned quite a lot of land, a steel factory, and a villa. We saw his house from the walk, and the monument built in honor of Carlo's great grandfather who died in a concentration camp, he was jewish and taken away late in world war II. Around 7:30 Miranda, Danie, Sarah, Marie Rose(Carlo's Mother) and I went to see "the Family Stone"

All in All it was a very relaxing worthwhile stay in Luxembourg........

i posted some new pictures all so!!!


Love You!!!

It is All Flemish to Me

The weekend was amazing and completely sucessful......
where is the break down.......
Friday- We left right after classes let out around 12:30, and headed for the Luxembourg Train Station. We (Me, Savannah, Mirshia, Audrey, and Ausha) quickly grabbed lunched (I mean bread and cheese) and asked for directions for train changes in Brussels. After six hours of travel time, two coca-lights and two snickers bars we arrived in Bruges. We took bus #16 to our hostel, Bauhaus. The Bauhaus is also a restaurant/bar, which made things interesting later on that evening, considering that Black Eyes Peas was pumping through our walls until 3ish. But anyways after we checked in and placed our bags down and claimed beds we were off for a night on the city. Considering it was our first successful trip we decided to treat ourselves to a fancy dinner. I had amazing soup and yummy yummy ice cream. After that we walked around for 2-2 and ½ hours we got our bearing around the town. Then we headed back around 11:30 because we had a full day ahead of us.
Saturday- We started the day with breakfast at 9:00, the we were off to a museum of Flemish artist. Then we went to The Church of Our Lady where there is a Madonna by Michelangelo and the tombstones of Mary of Burgundy and her father Charles the Bold. Then we grabbed sandwhiches and went on a canal boat ride. After getting a full view of the city from water, we headed to the Chocolate Museum. Later that night we went to dinner at the Bauhaus and have pizza and waffles. Next we went to RickaRok a famous bar in Bruges.
Sunday- we went to St John's Hospital, a hospital in the medival ages.

*in case any one was wondering in Belgium they speak Flemish, so we used a lot of french and a lot of english to try to get around.....I didnt learn any flemish during my weekend travels, and i am ok with that lol

Pictures

I am going to slowly add pictures to my webshots.....today is a little crazy since we are leaving for the first weekend trip on our own...but here is my webshot link http://community.webshots.com/user/anniebug1986


Until Monday!!!!!!!!! I love you!!!

First Week of School

Monday was the first day of classes, and they were classes. the teaching styles are very different, in almost all of my classes i have two test, a midterm and a final. it is lots of reading, and lots of interesting stuff, sometimes a little overwhelming, but i will live. it is strange to think that instead of going to colerain for a trip on the weekend i am going to go to Bruges, Belgium this weekend. I am going with a group of five girls, we are staying in a youth hostel. We really dont know what we are going to do, but we know that we want to eat waffles and chocolate. The six hour time difference makes things difficult to stay in touch with people. Last night we had a host family reception, Dr. Stiller, the dean made a speech in Luxembourgiese and then in English and then we gave his typically ending three cheers.....and the crowd follows with the hipp-hipp-horray!! After wine and cookies, my host mother, danie, and my roommates, abby and miranda, my host dad, carlo, and his mother and her student from MUDEC endulged ourselves in chocolate fondue. Yummy!!!

FOP

FOP- fresh off the plane, this is a loving term that many of us gave ourself, as we wondered around in awe of luxembourg city. It has been amazing!!!

My day starts with a 8:04 train ride, i have to leave my house at 8:03 in order to cross the railroad tracks in time. My house is directly across from the train tracks. After a 20 min train ride i get off at the differdange stop and i have a 4 min walk to school. for those of you who do not know my school is an old castle, part of which burnt down in WWI, and has been turned into a miami campus. It is beautiful.

So far i have been to an abby in luxembourg, trier in german, and also to a medival castle in northern diekirh. I have also seen the american world war two burial site. it was a place of beauty, honor, and respect. The battle of the bulge occured in luxembourg 61 years ago, almost exactly to last week. It was breathe taking to walk around the grave site and see the exact day on the tomb stone. The Luxembourg people are very thankful for all american blood that was shed for their freedom. I have also been to a war memorial met to show the horror in war. It was very moving. The dean of the campus gave a personal tour and shared very personal stories.

My host family is amazing. There are two boys, 6 and 8. Max the 6 year old is so loving, and he is trying so hard to speak english to us. We played "pick up sticks" with him. Pitt is very independent he made lunch for us on the first day. They are very caring and they want us to be comfortable in their house. The other night me and my roommate played sets and a german game called "zux au zux" maybe. Danie, my host mother, is 7 months pregnant and i am looking forward to seeing the new baby, Sam! Another boy!!!


All i can say is that i miss home but i wouldnt change my geological location for anything at this point in time

much love!!