Moien!

Oh hey! Welcome to my blog and the first slightly awkward posting. I'll try to do some highlights of the past week and then update from here on out as I go.

I arrived on Wednesday around noon and my host mother was waiting for me at the arrivals (which I was not expecting, considering I had zero return contact from her beforehand) and greeted me with the typical three cheek kisses. She speaks very little English and my host father speaks even less, in addition to having poor French speaking skills. I suffered through the rest of the day until 6 pm with no sleep. By the time I went to bed I had been awake for around 32 hours straight.

Thursday we had orientation activities and we mainly spent the day getting lectured. My groups had the afternoon off, so I journeyed to the BiergerCenter in Luxembourg City to become a registered occupant of the city. My new friends and I met up with the full-year students and went to the Grunde (the lower section of the city in the bottom of the valley/fortress). Once there, we ate dinner of kebabs (called SNACKS here and which are essentially chicken versions of gyros) and went to the English Pub followed by a shots bar called Fire & Ice. We still managed to make it to bed around 9:30 and completely exhausted.

On Friday, we toured Luxembourg City with a guide and I learned everything you would never want to know about the banks, which are abundant in this country. Luxembourg, by the way, is about 999 square miles, a little smaller than Rhode Island. After touring the city we were transported to the WWII military cemeteries outside of town. There we saw the American and German graves. It was interesting to see the two and compare them. For instance, the American cemetery was much more grand and each soldier had his own marble gravestone. The German cemetery, on the hand, had four soldiers for each grave and a massive grave for 4,000 unknown soldiers at the center. After traversing the graveyards in the bitter cold we found the absolute best chocolaterie in Luxembourg across from the Grand Ducal Palace. We got hot chocolate that was to die for!

Saturday we woke up for more orientation activities and lectures. We ate lunch at an IB Luxembourgish High School in the town of Diekirch. Afterwards we went to a WWII museum and a Vesper service conducted by monks at a monastery on the top of a hillside in rural Luxembourg. Sunday was pretty lame because we were supposed to hang out with our host families but ours evacuated the house early in the day and left us there on our own. My housemate Sally and I ate brie and bread for two meals that day. Safe to say, we're pretty sick of it now.

We started classes yesterday and I still have two more this afternoon. So far so good, but we shall see what happens. On Thursday afternoon we have a field trip to Nancy, France. My friends and I are headed to Brugge, Belgium this weekend. I would love to hear from all of you who suffered through reading the entirety of this not so brief posting. I miss you and check out the pictures!