#18: The End of My Lux-y Road

Hello everyone! I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who followed my posts here! As you may or may not know, I fly back to the United States on July 14th...(from the time I'm writing this, 6 days...) time sure does fly, doesn't it? It seems like it was only a few weeks ago that I first got here and was totally lost and hardly managed to find my way around. Now right when I've mastered getting around the country, it's time for me to return to my own.

I've shared a lot of stories on here, and trust me there are many that haven't made it. But it wouldn't have mattered if no one was reading them, I would have just been some girl talking to herself online. But thanks to all of you readers, I've been able to share stories and make people laugh and make people generally have a nice time. Sure, I appeared to have ruffled a few feathers along the way, but you can't please everyone, I suppose. To those of you who didn't take me too seriously, thank you.

I've been asked a few questions about my return home, though, that I thought I'd share with you. We'll do this Question (Q) and Answer (A) style.

Q: What's the first thing you're going to do when you get back?
A: Sleep...no but something I've really missed is going out and having a nice American style breakfast. So I'll hopefully be able to talk my mom into going out. I'm sure she won't mind. And then once my stomach is absolutely full, I'll probably sleep and sleep and sleep.

Q: Would you come back here?
A: Of course. Actually my supervisor at my internship asked me whether I would consider coming back to work in Europe. I would love the chance to. I really love the area, I love how easy it is to get around, and in general I really love the lifestyle. I'm studying International Business back home, and now that I've gotten international experience, I would love to continue it. As long as I can make trips back home.

Q: What do you miss the most about back home?
A: I miss a lot of things. I miss being able to understand the language, to start off. When my friends and I went to Spain for a few days, it was so nice to be able to kind of understand and speak with people. I'm only conversational in Spanish though. Also, I miss my friends and family more than anything. Sure, I've made so many great friends here and they've been a huge reason as to why this trip was such a success, but I can't forget my roots here. I miss my little sleepy town, but I'm sure I'll get over that pretty quickly. I also miss being able to drive. Taking buses and trains was fun, but it was nice to just be able to get in the car and drive to where ever I needed to be.


Q: What will you miss the most about Europe?
A: So many things, once again. Being able to travel, the night life, my friends here, the more laid back lifestyle, the food, I could go on and on. I really do love it here, it's been the best experience thus far in my life. I mean sure it will be nice to go home and get back into my routine there, but it won't compare to the adventures I've had here where I could get on a train or a plane and be in a different country in a few hours. Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but so be it, I don't mind.


Q: Do you have any advice for future students?
A: Try to learn some French before you come, even if it's just the basics, it will help a lot and make you feel more comfortable. But even if you don't manage to learn a little French, don't worry, I survived. Second, check the wattage on your devices, the electricity back home and here in Europe are very different, and you can accidentally kill your devices. Third, wear sunscreen! (Wanna hear that story? It was a hot mess, just ask me about it...not something the public wants to know about).

Q: Where was your favorite place to visit?
A: Well I was lucky enough to visit a few different countries while I was here: Turkey, Belgium, Germany, and Spain. In that aspect, I'd have to say Turkey was my favorite because not only did I get to explore a totally different place, but I got to do it with two of my best friends from back home (well one of them was from Turkey, but I met her back home). In respect to in Luxembourg, Little Switzerland was beautiful and worth hiking my butt off (once). I spent most of my time in Luxembourg City as well, so I gotta love it there. And of course there is Esch, strange strange Esch. We've had a love-hate relationship over these months, but it was all a part of the experience, so I wouldn't trade it away.

Hmm...it seems like that's all the questions I can think of at the moment. Again, I want to thank everyone who helped to make my stay here in Luxembourg so comfortable and enjoyable. I'd also like to thank those back home who made this trip possible. When you hear people talk about their experiences with study abroad programs they always use the cliche of "it was the best time of my life", and I'm here to tell you they're so right. If you get the chance to do it, do it, you won't regret it. I had so much fun! I'm at the worst part of my stay now, saying goodbye to everyone.

So, Luxembourg, I've loved everything you've had to offer, and I'm sure I'll be back someday to appreciate it all over again. And now, it's time to use my favorite word here, it will be misused but it's been the word of the semester...Moein! And to end this post, Addi. :)

#17: National Day

Hey everyone! It's been a while, and what better way to start up the blog again than to tell you about one of my craziest weekends? As you can imagine, those of us who aren't from Luxembourg don't always know much about festivals or traditions. But one that we've all known about for months is National Day, or as we called it The Duke's Birthday. We found out about it months ago and people were telling us "essentially the country shuts down for a day and everyone just parties". That sounds pretty amazing, right? So we all marked our calenders and patiently waited for the weekend to come. Months in advance, remember.

Well my friend Rita who is studying in Germany had been wanting to visit for a while, and so naturally I told her she needed to come this particular weekend. I couldn't think of a better time to first visit a country than when it's getting ready for the biggest party of the year. Her trip here had a few hiccups, and she ended up waiting/trying to find me at the Esch train station for close to an hour. I felt awful, but I think I was quickly forgiven after some food and time to relax. My apartment then initiated her into Esch life by taking her to Pitcher. We had to do it right, of course.

The next day we explored pretty much all of Luxembourg City. Wandering from the Grund to the Golden Lady and stopping at the Chocolate House in between. But Sunday was when the real party started. We went to the deer park in Esch, you know starting off the day light, then met up with my apartment mates to...partake in the spirits. And let's just say a lot of spirits were partaken in, but it's all in the spirit of fun. When we made it to the city, it was already pretty full of people, more people than I'd seen my whole time here! As more spirits were taken and the sun went down, it was like the whole country was packed into this particular city. For me, it was a pretty amazing feeling.

This is an actual picture from National Day 2014. This was over by the Golden Lady though, I was on a different side of the city, but just imagine this all over. Oy vey!

Then we saw fireworks starting. So we tried to wander down to get a better view. Well, so did the other thousand people there. For all of the 10 minute show (what kind of fireworks show only lasts for 10 minutes?) we were lodged between strangers and were unable to move. Rita was not a fan, to say the least. Eventually though we found a little crevice to sneak through and managed to find our group of friends again. By this point the streets were turned in a giant club. There were lights going, DJs spinning, people dancing, and beach balls flying through the air. It was just crazy!

Next we wandered into a little bar to watch the U.S. game. Well this game, if you don't remember, was against Portugal. Also, if you don't know, there are a lot of Portuguese people in Luxembourg. So this bar had about 6 people cheering for the U.S. and the rest rooting for Portugal. It was a pretty crazy atmosphere! We ended in a draw and got out of there peacefully. A portion of our group was taking the draw pretty hard, but I was still focused on the giant party going on around us. So we danced for a while until we realized how exhausted we were then took a special 3 am train home. Side note: I wish this train always existed...it would make my life so much easier lol.

After an interesting trip home (filled with drunk people having a blast, and others being less than friendly) we made it back to my place around 4:30. Rita and I then feasted on left overs and ice cream cake. It was a pretty good end to a night full of adventures.The next day we got up a tad late, wandered into Luxembourg City to explore and then spent a bit of time in Remich to relax by the river.

It was a great weekend, and if you're in Luxembourg around the time of National Day, do not pass up the opportunity, it's a totally different world. I had a great time and got to share it with a friend from back home, what more could I ask for?

#16: A Saturday Away - Brussels, Belgium

Here’s a story I’ve been forgetting to write about, my trip to Brussels! As I said in my last ‘Saturday Away’ post, one of my flat mates and I have been coming to the realization that we’re going to be leaving soon. So the answer to this problem is to get the most out of our remaining time as possible. To solve this we planned a few trips to keep the excitement flowing and to see more and more of Europe. For this day trip we decided to make a trip to Brussels, Belgium. 

We had to get up earlier this time because the trip to Belgium was about 3 hours. So we figured to get to most bang for our buck, we should get up early and head out as soon as possible. So after a quick run to the train station, we were off. The train to Belgium was so comfortable, which was great because all we wanted to do was sleep the whole way there. That plan worked like a charm and soon enough we were making our way out of the train station and onto the street.

The first thing we saw when we began our walk was a huge church, and as you may or may not remember my flat mate loves churches, so off we went. It was so lovely, and it was a nice way to start the day. As we walked around the front an older couple asked us to take their picture, and we ran into a bit of a language standoff. First the woman asked us Spanish, then my flat mate answered in English, I responded in Spanish, and her husband thanked us in French. So many languages, so little time.

Our strategy for this trip was to just wander and see what we found (though we did have a list of popular places at our disposal). The city was so stunning, it really was a beautiful place. As you probably already know, Belgium is famous for its chocolate, so both of us were bound and determined to get chocolates for our families, and get some waffles. We were told to go to one area to buy chocolates, and on our search we found a cool place that sold all kinds of chocolates. As we continued walking, we realized that the place we found before was the right place and we were on a bit of a wild goose chase. It was alright though because we found a thrift store that was selling clothes based on their weight. That would have been so cool, but it was mostly jean jackets, acid washed jeans, and 90’s windbreakers. Sadly, I wasn’t going to be able to pull any of those things off. Also on our journey we met a guy who'd been to Wisconsin and knew the Green Bay Packers, now that's what I'm talking about!

And don't you go thinking we didn't get those waffles. We actually ended up getting waffles twice that day, at a fancy place, and at a street shop that was recommended to us. Both were great, but the street shop was the best place ever. But I ended up accidentally dropping that waffles on my shirt. So there I stood with a hand covered in chocolate and my shirt covered in chocolate, gah! Luckily though I had a tank top underneath...which I spilled on as well. But ah-ha! I had a scarf in my purse, problem solved.   

My flat mate and I traveled all over the city visiting all kinds of tourist attractions, from Manneken Pis (I’m not sure why everyone loves it, but you have to go see it, you just have to) to the Atomium. We spent our last moments in the Square Royal listening to the jazz festival. On the train ride home, we even met some Americans who were traveling around to see WWII memorials. It wasn’t until we got home that we were told we committed a deadly sin by not trying Belgian beer, but I guess that’s just one more reason to go back.

#15: Odd Groceries

One of the oddest things that I’ve gotten used to around here is the grocery store. Not that I usually find grocery stores confusing, but there are a few things here that are just a bit strange to me. And for your entertainment I would love to talk about it and bring you into my world.

First of all, milk is not quite the same here. Milk is sold near the refrigerated section, note that I said near not in. Milk isn’t refrigerated in the stores. That was the first thing that was so weird to me. How doesn’t your milk spoil, Europe? I guess its processed in a different way…and it tastes different, which is sad. I can’t wait to get home and have a giant glass of milk. It’s also sold in little square cartons, whereas I’m used to large plastic jugs. I suppose that part is fine, I’m just not over the taste. Eggs are also sold near the refrigerated section, not in it. So odd.

Second on my list of shocking things in packaged beverages. If you’ve been to Europe then you’ve seen drinks are sold in liter sizes, and that’s pretty big. It was a little shocking to see for me, but I adapted to that change pretty quickly. The one thing that is still odd to me is being able to take a drink out of the plastic package. Ok so in the U.S. packages of bottled water come in packs of 6 or 12 and so on. That means if you want to buy it, you have to buy the whole pack or go to the front of the store and buy a single one out of the cooler. Here that’s not the case, if you want a drink you can open up the plastic casing and take a soda and pay for it individually. That’s a big no-no back home, I would get in trouble for that. The first time I saw this happen I was a bit shocked, and I had to ask and make sure it was ok for me to take a single drink. Again, so odd.

Lastly, what is American sauce? In the grocery stores there is this sauce sold near the ketchup and mayo (by the way, Europeans seem to really like mayo. Like when you buy fries you’re asked if you want mayo for them…ick). “American sauce” is orange and its pretty good, but I have no idea what it is. I’ve never seen it in America, I’ve never had it served on a burger (like I have here), and I have no idea who determined that this was an American thing. I’m sorry Europe, but you are being lied to! I don’t know the origins of this sauce, but from an American, I’m a bit suspicious.

(Here's a picture for you fellow Americans. Can you please confirm that you've never seen this sold back home? I'm not losing my mind, right?)

But it's not all so strange. One thing I really love is that croissants are sold in grocery stores. Every European would yell at me for buying them in grocery stores instead of going to a bakery, and I would agree, but its just so convenient and they are so good. Also, there is a small "American" section in a few grocery stores that are kind of nice. They usually just contain a few things like peanut butter and maple syrup. The peanut butter here isn't as sweet as the stuff you buy back home, but it has helped me with my cravings for PB&J's so I don't mind. I haven't tried the syrup yet, but just the thought of it makes me pancakes. Someone take me out for breakfast when I get home!

Side note: waffles are considered desserts here, I'm not complaining though. A chocolate covered waffle is such a good treat.

#14: A Saturday Away - Trier, Germany

Hello again everyone! I’ve come to a bit of a sad realization lately…that soon I’ll have to go back home…so to make most of this time, one of my flat mates and I have made a bit more effort to explore Europe before we head back home to the U.S. (Although she’ll be coming back to study in Europe for one more semester…)

So our little trips started last weekend. While talking with some friends I realized how cheap it is to go to Trier, Germany from Luxembourg. I had recently been to Germany, where I stayed with one of my roommate's family, explored Koln, and visited Rita in Bonn. But my flat mate had never been to Germany and really wanted to go, and because Trier was so easy to get to we decided that’s where we would head off to first. So we got up early on Saturday and headed into Luxembourg City to buy some train tickets. And sure enough, it was pretty cheap! It was 7 Euro for round trip tickets and we didn’t even have a set time when we had to use the tickets. That meant we could come back whenever we felt fit (or at least in time to catch the train home to Esch). 

After buying the tickets we walked out to see when the next train was leaving to the last stop in Luxembourg. And sure enough, there was one leaving in 3 minutes! There is nothing like sprinting to the train when you’ve only been awake for about an hour. A short train ride later, we were at the last stop, Wasserbillig. From there we got on a bus that took us to the Trier bus station. After wandering over a few streets we found Porta Negra, which is so beautiful! After a round of pictures, we began scouting out the churches, my flat mate has a thing for churches and I had no problem indulging her!

We then spent the day wondering around all the big tourist attractions, and what was so cool is that they are all so close and within walking distance. Then as we were walking we saw a guy ahead of us who turned and waved. We’re in Germany though, so how could this be someone we knew? Sure enough, it was an Erasmus student who had come back for the day to submit his vote for the European elections. Go figure that we go to a different country and see someone we knew. This world is seriously smaller than I ever thought possible.

From there we decided it would be a nice time to get some food. Well, us and everyone else. As we wandered around the streets, every single restaurant with outdoor seating was full. And with it being such a beautiful day, we really wanted to sit outside. Unfortunately for us, no matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t find anything. We ended up going into a small café where I tried schnitzel for the first time. It was pretty good! I did accidently buy carbonated water instead of flat water though…Europeans really love carbonation; but shaking my water bottle for a few minutes made it a little easier on me.

After a few hours of shopping, and having spent a lot of money, we decided it was time to head back to good old Luxembourg. When we headed back to the bus station, we found it surrounded by about 30-40 police officers and a small group of protestors, maybe 6 or 7 people in total. They were holding up a banner and one was yelling something into a megaphone (sorry, it was in German so all I could do was watch for craziness). Then he finished yelling and began blasting the German national anthem, which just confused me more. When I looked around behind them, I found a store that was called “U.S. Army Store” so I can only assume it had something to do with that.

The next problem we faced was figuring out which bus to take us home…because neither my flat mate nor I had really paid attention to the number of the bus we took here. We tried reading the bus schedules, but we still got nothing out of it. Eventually we went up the one of the bus station workers and showed him our ticket. But he took a brief look, gave us an annoyed look, and just kind of pointed us in a vague direction. Thank you. Eventually though we found a bus driver who responded with “Moein” so we knew he had the right guy. Shortly thereafter, we were headed back to Luxembourg. It was such a nice day, but it was at that point that I remembered I have red hair and I didn’t put on any sunscreen. That’s a rookie ginger mistake. That’s right everyone, I got my first sunburn of the year! Thanks for the great day Trier!

#13: Familiar faces in Not-So-Strange Places

So as you might have been able to tell from the tone of these blogs, I've just about got a hold on how Luxemburg works. I'm not aware of everything, but I know how to get around and haven't gotten lost in a long, long time. I'm having so much more fun now that the worry has worn off. Well this week I had a bit of a treat as Lakeland College's basketball team came to Luxembourg and played a few games.

Now before they arrived, I'd been given news that they would be here. I was sent a very vague itinerary that gave me the basic ideas of where they would be traveling during the week.  So I worked it out to where I would be able to make it to two of their games and attend a little going away dinner on Friday night.

So Monday afternoon I had just gotten off work at my internship and was waiting in Limpertsberg campus for my one class of the day to start. I was playing around on my iPod when suddenly a large group of people begins to fill the hallway. Not just that, but there was a stream of Wisconsin shirts flowing past me! So I began searching the crowd for someone I recognized and happened to catch the president of my college, Dan (he saw a girl waving, said a short hello that you would to a stranger, then realized who I was!). So we stopped and talked for a few minutes so they could get a very general idea of how my stay had been going so far. And who happens to be trailing behind the group but my intern boss back home, Kevin. He also didn't expect me and greeted me with a warm hug, and also temptation to skip my class...but I didn't...my studies are just too important for these shenanigans!

I ended up going to the game with one of my flatmates and a friend from class. The game was nice, but it wasn't a win. It was a bit strange to be cheering on my home team across the world, though. But, this scene was missing two characters. Firstly, where was my other intern boss, Sara? And where was Pol? Both were successfully avoiding me! So rude.. :P and of course they went to the Tuesday game that I couldn't make...

When Wednesday rolled around, I managed to get one of my roommates excited about going to the game, so he came with me this time. Boy, was he excited. He became Lakeland's head cheerleader, and all the Lakeland parents were truly feeding off of his energy. Everyone was having a great time laughing, and I'll credit part of our win that night to him. In fact, his spirit got him invited to dinner on Friday. So lesson of the night, cheer your heart out and good things will come your way.

Well when Wednesday's game came, Sara was still missing...She was apparently too tired to come see me. (I shall have to remember this when I go back to work for her!). But I did finally meet Pol! I have to give him a little shout out because he's been great and has helped me out so much since I've been here in Luxembourg, from answering my questions to interpreting the bus schedule for me!And this was the first time I actually met him, and good news is that we're equally sarcastic, pending BFF status lol =]

Friday's dinner came and my roommate and I strutted into the hotel where the Lakeland tour was staying, holding a small pound cake decorated Lakeland-style to show appreciation. This is finally where Sara appeared. That little social butterfly just had no time, I'm sure I'll forgive her eventually! Dinner was lovely and it was great to sit around and talk with everyone. Also, everyone was really excited to see my roommate. "Oh! You brought your friend!!" and they all laughed about the basketball game and had a great time. It was so nice seeing people from back home and catching up, it reminds me that my time here is so limited and I really need to get to most of it. It also made me a tad homesick, I can't wait to see everyone back home...but couldn't they just come here??

#12: Mannerisms

This is a topic I think is really interesting, because its just cool to see how the world works. I've been talking about this with my friends and roommates so I thought it might make an interesting post as well. One of the many things I've noticed while I'm here is that different cultures go about things differently.

Well duh, Paige, of course they do. What I mean is that we have different mannerisms and my American mannerisms don't always match European's. Now each European country is different, of course, but in general I've seen a few main things. The biggest point is that Europeans prefer to get right to the point. They prefer to be up front and slightly more blunt, not in a bad way of course, I'll explain.

I never really noticed it before, but since coming here I've noticed that Americans like to work around things. For example, when my roommate offers me something I don't like, I don't say I don't like it. Instead I say something like "I don't care for it" or "it's not my favorite". That's my way of saying no, trying to say it gently and politely. But it tends to drive people crazy here, they would rather just hear no than listening to you beat around the bush. And when nature calls, Americans will say "I need to use the restroom" or "I need to go to the bathroom". This way we stay light, don't tell you what's going on, its our way. Here, you'll often here "I need to use the toilet" now that's not considered rude in the U.S. but it would shock someone if you said it to them. To an American, toilet is just associated with all the mess that takes place there, so we just prefer to clean it up with a nicer word. It's beating around the bush again, but 'restroom' just sounds more glamorous than 'toilet'...But it's not like restrooms are meant for glamorous things anyways. I remember asking my mom when I was younger why it was called a 'restroom' because it's not like you're actually resting in there. But with this idea that we like to keep things clean and pristine, I think I understand.

One more observation I've seen along these lines is fashion. When you walk into stores here in Luxembourg, and I'm sure around Europe as trends seem to travel, you'll find a lot of clothes that say "I don't care" or "F*ck Off". For me that was super shocking! You would rarely see someone in the U.S. walking around wearing this stuff because I think the majority of us try to avoid offending others. I'm not sure if this counts as being straight forward, or maybe it's just the thrill of young people wearing edgy English clothes, but this isn't really a style I could see myself getting into any time soon.

Americans also seem to have a code of social cues that hasn't yet made it to Europe. For example, Americans really don't like to tell people no, instead we will come up with some kind of hint to let you down gently. Like if someone asks to attend a party they know you will be at, an American might say something to the effect of "it's just a small get together". That means, it's just my friends and I getting together, I'm sorry you're not invited. But we are so used to these cues that we have learned to decode each other all the time. One topic I talked about with Rita (aka An American in Bonn (http://brenemaninbonn.blogspot.de/) check her out!) is that the dating world in the U.S. is very casual. Before you are officially dating it can be a bit confusing because we don't come outright and say it. We will offer to hang out, or say something about a party on the weekend, but we won't really come out and tell you "hey, let's go on a date".

Thinking of this topic just seems really funny to me, it seems that Americans love to make things complicated to avoid hurting feelings or avoid going to far whereas Europeans like to keep things simple and clear. Cheers!