Slowly Adjusting

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Wow, I've done soooo much the past few days so I'll try to not get too detailed. On Friday we had orientation in the morning and after lunch we got on a bus and visited two cemetaries from WWII, one American and one German one. Then we went to Luxembourg City and did a walking tour. It was an hour and a half long, so needless to say we were all freezing by the end. THe City is beautiful and I definitely want to go back so I can walk around on my own and go in the shops and everything. After the tour me and some girls caught a train back to Differdange. We almost missed the train, and then for about 15 minutes we were sitting in first class (we have a second class pass). No wonder we were being stared at! Back in Differdange we ate at a cafe and then went back to the chateau to see if our bags had arrived. THey hadn't so we stayed there for a little while and checked our e-mail..we were definitely having internet-withdrawl. On the way back home I realized that I liuve pretty close to two of the girls that I was with that day. THese girls were also on the cancled flight with me.
Yesterday We had a little more orientation in the morning. Then we got a little walking tour of Differdange, which so far has been the most practical thing we've done in orientation (for the people who live in Diff at least). Now I now how to read the train schedule, where the post office is, and some other shops I could possibly need. After the tour we loaded onto busses and went to Diekirch, which is a town up North. Everywhere in Diff. (and Diekirch too) are Diekirch signs because they make beer there, but thats not why we went there. We stopped at this new high school where we had to speakers. THeir speeches were about the Medieval time period and WWII. Then we saw this momument for the American soldiers who died in Diekirch in WWII. This man said that these types of monuments are all over Luxembourg. Next we went to a WWII museum which was packed full of weapons, uniforms, tools, and anything else you could think of from the war. IT was very surprising how everything was kinda thrown together...there was so much stuff that it seemed like there wasn't enough room for it all. It was very cool, though, and the man who gave the speech on the war gave us a tour of the museum. He was informative and had interesting/fun facts.
Next we traveled to Clervaux, another town somewhere...I honestly don't know where. It was the cutest town in the mountains with huge castle shaped buildings. We went to this beautiful church that sat up on top of a cliff overlooking the town. At the church we attended a vesper service (a Catholic service with Monks). It was "sung/chanted" in Latin...and let me say that anyone who is not Catholic can't complain about how much we sit, stand, and kneel until they attend one of these services!
Once we got back to Diff. a group of us went to dinner at a local pizzeria. It was delicious thin crust pizza made with very fresh ingredients. Then we went to a bar down the street. This was the first bar I'd been into in Europe. There was this 2 or 3 year old boy in there with his family...very strange. They were playing connect four...also very strange.
Today I dinally got to sleep in. I slept better than the previous nights, but I still heard the church bells every fifteen minutes from 8am on...gotta love it. I met some of the girls I was with last night and we went grocery shopping. This was actually really funny because I had no idea what brands were better than others, or really if the listed price was considered expensive or not. I came back home and ate lunch with my host family. They had a lunch like at the Melting Pot with lots of raw meet and you put whatever you want on a skewer and stick it in the hot oil to cook it. IT was sooo delicious. I relaxed and hung out with the family for a while. THey were teaching me some French and quizing me on it. Mid afternoon they took me with them to a park one town away and there my host mom's sister and her two young daughters met us. THere we went on hike through the park. It was so refreshing and you could see much of the town from the high up view. After the hike the aunt and her kids came back to the house and we chatted for a while. She speaks good English so she was asking me lots of questions and translating for Nadine (my host mom). The young girls are 4 and 6 months...and they are sooo cute! I played UNO with Yon (my host brother who's 10) and then watched him play Xbox and watched a little of the Mask in some foreign language. The aunt's husband came over and we all had dinner (the same thing we had or lunch).
Today was really fun because I've gotten to know my host family much better! Communicating is getting easier, also. I found out that Robert (my host mom's partner) speaks a little Spanish. When we couldn't figure out how to say something we would just say it in Spanish. This was really cool do to despite the fact that my skills are really rusty...
Tomorrow I start classes and I know I'll be pretty busy. I'll try to keep this updated as much as possible!

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Comments

[Patty]

wow
You've already seen and done alot! Thanks for all the details. You'll appreciate that you wrote all this down and can print/save it. Looking forward to hearing about this week's adventures and classes starting. Love, Mom

[Katherine Wernet]

Spanish?!
Senora would be so proud!