These past few days have been a whirlwind of food, people, tiredness, and of course Luxembourg. I think I'm just going to take it one day at a time and hopefully you guys won't get bored with the multiple blog posts in the next few days. It's been so crazy I can hardly keep the days from blending together. But here's a poorly written description of events that happened the day after we arrived.
Thursday, 28 August 2014
The day started early with Dean Leterre giving a short Welcome lecture to all the new students. It started out with this:
Thursday, 28 August 2014
The day started early with Dean Leterre giving a short Welcome lecture to all the new students. It started out with this:
"Scared? Good.
Jet lagged? That's normal.
Lost? Enjoy."
It took me less than a day to understand exactly what in the world our Dean was talking about.
We spent the first half of the day listening to lectures from our future professors and the second half doing a scavenger hunt all around Differdange. I was in a group of 4 other girls (the lone male in our group promptly disappeared after lunch). My group walked all around the city looking for a police station, butchers shop, flower ship, restaurant, and pool. Before we left, we were given a paper with a map filled with numbers on it and we were assigned numbers to go after and match with one of the 5 places listed above. So we walk out of the chateau, realized how hot it was, and began our journey.
We looked at the map, tried to figure out which way was north, and walked in the opposite direction of all the other MUDEC groups. After about 45 minutes of walking we began to think we were on a wild goose chase. Here we were -jet lagged Americans with a map and no sense of direction, looking for a pool in the middle of a cemetery. We finally gave up and just went back to the chateau half drenched in sweat.
Once we returned, I met up with Micayla and Andrew and we began to make our way home. Andrew got off at his stop, and Micayla and I continued on our way. After we passed our house, we realized we missed our stop. We thought that we could just go around in a circle, but realized that wasn't the case.
We ended up in a city called Esch, and as we got to the train station, the bus turned off and everyone got off. So that was our cue to leave.
Micayla and I decided to walk around instead of wait for the next bus and I'm so happy we did! Esch is the second most popular city in Luxembourg with a lot of great shops, cafes, restaurants and bars so Micayla and I had a lot to choose from!
We walked up and down a couple streets before deciding what to do, and Micayla got all excited because we ran into Casablanca Cafe (Casablanca is one of her favorite movies). We went in, ordered some wine, and sat on their patio. It was so nice to just sit and talk, enjoy the culture and people watch. Here's a picture of my fine wine:
We spent the first half of the day listening to lectures from our future professors and the second half doing a scavenger hunt all around Differdange. I was in a group of 4 other girls (the lone male in our group promptly disappeared after lunch). My group walked all around the city looking for a police station, butchers shop, flower ship, restaurant, and pool. Before we left, we were given a paper with a map filled with numbers on it and we were assigned numbers to go after and match with one of the 5 places listed above. So we walk out of the chateau, realized how hot it was, and began our journey.
We looked at the map, tried to figure out which way was north, and walked in the opposite direction of all the other MUDEC groups. After about 45 minutes of walking we began to think we were on a wild goose chase. Here we were -jet lagged Americans with a map and no sense of direction, looking for a pool in the middle of a cemetery. We finally gave up and just went back to the chateau half drenched in sweat.
Once we returned, I met up with Micayla and Andrew and we began to make our way home. Andrew got off at his stop, and Micayla and I continued on our way. After we passed our house, we realized we missed our stop. We thought that we could just go around in a circle, but realized that wasn't the case.
We ended up in a city called Esch, and as we got to the train station, the bus turned off and everyone got off. So that was our cue to leave.
Micayla and I decided to walk around instead of wait for the next bus and I'm so happy we did! Esch is the second most popular city in Luxembourg with a lot of great shops, cafes, restaurants and bars so Micayla and I had a lot to choose from!
We walked up and down a couple streets before deciding what to do, and Micayla got all excited because we ran into Casablanca Cafe (Casablanca is one of her favorite movies). We went in, ordered some wine, and sat on their patio. It was so nice to just sit and talk, enjoy the culture and people watch. Here's a picture of my fine wine:
After we finished, we stopped at a bakery and bought a Nutella filled croissant (which was magical, by the way) and started to head home.
We found our stop on the way back (thank heavens) and we didn't lay down for more than 30 minutes before Andrew messaged us and wanted to get some food.
So we met up and made our way to the bus stop. We all decided to just get on the next bus and see where it takes us since it worked so well for Micayla and I earlier.
We got on a random bus, and chose the stop which looked like it had the most interesting stuff going on. Turns out, it was Esch again.
I never really realized how hard it is to find an open restaurant at 8 o'clock on a Thursday night. We walked all over and could only seem to find bars that only served alcohol.
After a few failed attempts at finding food, we found this small pub that had some appetizers to choose from. This place looked family owned since about three kids under the age of 12 ran in and went behind the bar about 10 minutes after we got in. Anyway, Uncle Joe, this is a shout-out to you - I got my first Bofferding here and I liked it! Thanks!
When we finished, we heard that a bunch of MUDECers made their way over to Esch for a night out. We couldn't find the place they were at, so we began our walk back to the bus station.
Lucky for us, we ran into all of them before we reached the station!!! We didn't stay long, but it was a pretty fun place. They played all American music and I believe the owner was from Iowa. He had a sign reading: "Iowan by chance, Luxembourger by God's good grace!"
I had to laugh.
Anywho, today was all about getting lost, and lost is exactly what we were.
But I absolutely loved it.
We found our stop on the way back (thank heavens) and we didn't lay down for more than 30 minutes before Andrew messaged us and wanted to get some food.
So we met up and made our way to the bus stop. We all decided to just get on the next bus and see where it takes us since it worked so well for Micayla and I earlier.
We got on a random bus, and chose the stop which looked like it had the most interesting stuff going on. Turns out, it was Esch again.
I never really realized how hard it is to find an open restaurant at 8 o'clock on a Thursday night. We walked all over and could only seem to find bars that only served alcohol.
After a few failed attempts at finding food, we found this small pub that had some appetizers to choose from. This place looked family owned since about three kids under the age of 12 ran in and went behind the bar about 10 minutes after we got in. Anyway, Uncle Joe, this is a shout-out to you - I got my first Bofferding here and I liked it! Thanks!
When we finished, we heard that a bunch of MUDECers made their way over to Esch for a night out. We couldn't find the place they were at, so we began our walk back to the bus station.
Lucky for us, we ran into all of them before we reached the station!!! We didn't stay long, but it was a pretty fun place. They played all American music and I believe the owner was from Iowa. He had a sign reading: "Iowan by chance, Luxembourger by God's good grace!"
I had to laugh.
Anywho, today was all about getting lost, and lost is exactly what we were.
But I absolutely loved it.