I Love Brussels!!!!
We got to Brussels before dinner time, which was really nice. We got settled in our hostel, which was very nice, we even had a balcony! The hostel was also right in the middle of the city, which was very very convenient. We walked around a little to see what was near by. We found the Grand Place, which was huge and beautiful! This was also the same area as many of the chocolatiers. We made friends in one of them and they gave us lots of free samples, which was of course helpful to make our decisions on what to buy or not buy. There were also a lot of beer store in this area. We went into the 250 Beers store, and talked to the shop keeper. He told us which beers were very good, and which weren't what we were looking for. We asked for a suggestion, and he showed us the beer that has been voted the best in the world three times. Then we realized that we didnt have a bottle opener! haha we got it open eventually, and it was pretty good. We went to dinner in an allyway, which sounds shady, but the allyways there were all beautified with shops, and they were enclosed. It was called Grandma's Waffles, I got a waffel with chocolate and banana, yummmmm!
We got a few suveniers, and then walked back to our hostel before we went out for the night. We started out to find the bar "Delerium", because everyone has said it is the best one to go to. It was actually really easy to find compared to when we tried to find Escape in Amsterdam. Delerium was in another glorified allyway. The entire allyway was made up of bars, owned by delerium. Delerium was there, as well as the Tequila bar, the Absinthe Bar, and the Rum Bar. We started in the absinthe bar. We picked them out and ordered. The bartender gave us the shots and the sugar and the spoon, but none of us had ever done this before so we kind of sat there for a minute or two. Then I asked her how to do it? And she soaked the sugar cube in the alcohol, then got it out with the spoon, then set it on fire, blew it out, put the sugar back into the shot, and stirred it up. The shot tasted like death! It was absolutrely awful! However, I guess thats what you get with 70% alcohol and no chaser. It felt like my insides were burning. Anyways we went to look for some soda after that, because it was definitely necessary!
Then Eugene and I went to the Rum Bar for a little while, while Allie and Diana got another shot of absinthe. The rum bar was a lot of fun! It was designed so it looked like you were in a pirate ship. I stole a straw so I could taste other peoples beers later (because I'm sick.) Diana Allie and Kenny met us in the Rum bar soon, and we hung out there for a while. It was great.
Then we went into delerium! Delerium has over 2000 beers! It had three floors! We ended the night finding Frites, which are delicious french fries, yummmm.
Saturday during the day we went to the chocolate museum. They gave samples and it was delicious! We got to see a chocolatier make different type of chocolate. Then we stopped for lunch at a snack shop that had pitas. They had a good looking vegetarian option. I was talking to the owner for a little while, he asked where I'm from, I told him Philly, and he got really excited. All of the people working there have been watching the stanley cup games, and like the Flyers, they kept me updated! haha Lunch was delicious. Then we went to see the Atomium, which was built in 1958 for the world fair. It was pretty sick! The whole area was kind of like a festival, and amusement park, and museum all rolled into one. This is also where mini Europe was. We didn't go into mini Europe because it was expensive and it seemed like it was for children. It was reallly hot this day, but fortunately the moment one of us mentioned that slushies would be perfect, they appeared! haha by the way, Kenny is obsessed with Slushies!! He bought like 10 in the course of 2 days!
For dinner we went to a street restaurant with outdoor seating, it was pretty good, I got mussels and frites and beer. Then of course we went back to Delerium!
Saturday night was about the same. Over the entire weekend between all of our beers I tried: Cherry beer, apple beer, bananna beer, Delerium Tremens, Silly Siason, Pirat, Lucifer, Strawberry beer, rasberry beer, waterloo triple, DPA...? My favorites were the first 3 by far, but I really liked Delerium Tremens. I never got to try peach, or mango flavored, which was unfortunate.
Saturday night we also went in search for Pissing Boy, and Pissing Girl, which are two famous statues that people always try to find. We also got ice cream.
Sunday morning we went to get waffles for breakfast. We got them from a street vendor, I got chocolate on mine, and it was absolutely perfect. Then we headed back to the train station. This trip was much more relaxed than Paris was, it was really wonderful! Everyone we met was super nice.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Field Trip to Thionville and Saarlouis
Tuesday we went to Thionville, France, and today we went to Saarlouis, Germany!
Both trips we all day trips aka 9:30am to 2:30pm... haha I absolutely loved Thionville. It was a smaller town/city. People that heard us speaking English were confused as to why we were there because it's really not a touristy area. It was mostly a shopping district. I found a really pretty dress. There was a condom machine right in the center of town. I had a delicious crepe! We stopped by to see a castle on the way back to Mondorf. Later we went to the gym and spa, which was wonderful as usual. Then we got ready and went to the bar. Pretty much everyone from our trip was at the bar. The bartenders there love us, we see them sometimes in town and they usually say hi.
Today we went to Saarlouis. It is a German Religious holiday today, so almost the entire town was shut down. It was set up like a festival, and there were tons of street vendors, but they weren't starting until 5:30... One of them was a mexican food place with all different wonderful sounding beverages, I wanted a burrito SO bad! Oh well, what can you do? It was a super cool place, even though not many shops were open. We did see a religious procession, and for some reason there are these gates throughout the city and these ones were locked, so they couldn't start their parade! Those ladies were extremely upset! We just walked around for a while, found pictures for our papers, and had some fun! We went to lunch and then found a delicious gelatto place, yum yum yum!
When we got back to the Klouschter I went to the spa to sit by the pool. I'm starting to get a little sick, so I decided not to work out today :( I read poolside, my book is getting really good! Then I headed back because the Tour de Luxembourg for cycling was today and Lance Armstrong was supposed to be riding right past our very own Klouschter! It turns out that the route got changed so we had to walk to France, (ok that sounds super far but its about a 15 minute walk). We finally saw him (and all of the other bikers) IT WAS SPECTACULAR!!!!! haha I saw Lance Armstrong!!!!
Then I went back to the pool. Went to dinner, and had my meeting with Jaan. He said he thinks my paper will be about 25 pages single spaced, fml. I guess that does include pictures too though? AH Oh well at least it will be fun to right and I have all summer to do it?
Tomorrow we leave for Brussels Belgium! I cannot wait for this trip!
Both trips we all day trips aka 9:30am to 2:30pm... haha I absolutely loved Thionville. It was a smaller town/city. People that heard us speaking English were confused as to why we were there because it's really not a touristy area. It was mostly a shopping district. I found a really pretty dress. There was a condom machine right in the center of town. I had a delicious crepe! We stopped by to see a castle on the way back to Mondorf. Later we went to the gym and spa, which was wonderful as usual. Then we got ready and went to the bar. Pretty much everyone from our trip was at the bar. The bartenders there love us, we see them sometimes in town and they usually say hi.
Today we went to Saarlouis. It is a German Religious holiday today, so almost the entire town was shut down. It was set up like a festival, and there were tons of street vendors, but they weren't starting until 5:30... One of them was a mexican food place with all different wonderful sounding beverages, I wanted a burrito SO bad! Oh well, what can you do? It was a super cool place, even though not many shops were open. We did see a religious procession, and for some reason there are these gates throughout the city and these ones were locked, so they couldn't start their parade! Those ladies were extremely upset! We just walked around for a while, found pictures for our papers, and had some fun! We went to lunch and then found a delicious gelatto place, yum yum yum!
When we got back to the Klouschter I went to the spa to sit by the pool. I'm starting to get a little sick, so I decided not to work out today :( I read poolside, my book is getting really good! Then I headed back because the Tour de Luxembourg for cycling was today and Lance Armstrong was supposed to be riding right past our very own Klouschter! It turns out that the route got changed so we had to walk to France, (ok that sounds super far but its about a 15 minute walk). We finally saw him (and all of the other bikers) IT WAS SPECTACULAR!!!!! haha I saw Lance Armstrong!!!!
Then I went back to the pool. Went to dinner, and had my meeting with Jaan. He said he thinks my paper will be about 25 pages single spaced, fml. I guess that does include pictures too though? AH Oh well at least it will be fun to right and I have all summer to do it?
Tomorrow we leave for Brussels Belgium! I cannot wait for this trip!
Monday, May 31, 2010
Cave Spelunking!
Today I chose to go on an optional field trip with the history and english class to a French fortress during the wold wars. It was pretty cool. We spent the time in underground tunnels learning about history from a french woman with a german accent trying to speak english on a huge tour, so she was kind of yelling. She did a wonderful job, but I couldn't really understand her... haha I took sooo many pictures for dad because I'm sure he wishes he could have been there haha.
Kenny told us that the field trip was to go cave spelunking, however thats not really what it was. haha Oh well! Diana and Eugene also went, we had a really great time! Although we got quite lost on the way there which was pretty funny. On the way back there was huge tour bus coming down a very tiny road at us, which was quite the predicament. No body was injured in the process of that mess though. On the way back History Man, aka Professor Green took us past "what is rumored to be one of the most beautiful towns in all of France". It was quite beautiful, and I took some pictures of that as well.
I just got back from the gym/spa. I did pilates taught by a French speaking woman, that loved the three of us, and spoke to us quite a bit although we never actually said a word because we can't speak french...haha Then sprints and lifted. Then the thermal pool, aka huge hot tub :D It was a good day..
Tomorrow we are going to Thionville, France for an all day field trip with Jaan...YEY! Then we have another one on Thursday, its a crazy week, but I'm pumped! :D
Kenny told us that the field trip was to go cave spelunking, however thats not really what it was. haha Oh well! Diana and Eugene also went, we had a really great time! Although we got quite lost on the way there which was pretty funny. On the way back there was huge tour bus coming down a very tiny road at us, which was quite the predicament. No body was injured in the process of that mess though. On the way back History Man, aka Professor Green took us past "what is rumored to be one of the most beautiful towns in all of France". It was quite beautiful, and I took some pictures of that as well.
I just got back from the gym/spa. I did pilates taught by a French speaking woman, that loved the three of us, and spoke to us quite a bit although we never actually said a word because we can't speak french...haha Then sprints and lifted. Then the thermal pool, aka huge hot tub :D It was a good day..
Tomorrow we are going to Thionville, France for an all day field trip with Jaan...YEY! Then we have another one on Thursday, its a crazy week, but I'm pumped! :D
Paris
Paris! Where to begin?
Well when we were traveling to Paris our train ticket had us stopping in Metz France to switch trains to get the rest of the way to Paris. When we tried to get onto our connecting train, we had an awkward encounter with a few French people that couldn't speak english that were in our seats. As it turns out when we bought all of our train tickets for the weekends in Luxembourg the person messed up the dates, our tickets were for the previous weekend. We had to get off the train. We could not exchange our tickets because the date had already passed. We had to buy new tickets to get the rest of the way to Paris, and then back home. The next train wasn't for 2 hours. Needless to say we got to Paris much much later than expected, and had to leave a lot earlier than expected (7am Sunday morning). So while that totally sucked a lot and was extremely expensive...The rest of the trip was absolutely amazing!
We left our hostel for the Eifel Tower, which was a long journey through the metro system, and cracked open a bottle of wine. When we were in the city we came accross a bergade of rollerbladers. There were like 1000! They were looping the streets around the Eiffel Tower. Then we finally saw it! It was already lit up, and magnificent! It made the entire trip worth it to see the tower! We walked around here for a while and took lots of pictures. There were soo many souviner venders selling mini towers, they were all exactly the same. It was fun to haggle with them though! On our way back to the metro, which closes at 1am (and it was already 12:10!) we grabbed some Crepes from street vendors. IT was the most delicious treat I've ever had! And I don't think I had eaten since probably 2pm... If you ever get the chance definitely definitely get crepes from a vendor in Paris! So then we were trying to catch the metro. We ended up running throught the tunnels when we had to switch to a different line. We thought we had missed the last one, but we stayed for a few minutes to see. Sure enough there was one more! We made it back to our hostel :D and then passed out!
Saturday:
We got up early in order to get to as many parts of the city as possible in this short amount of time. First we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral area and walked around a little. We found a pasterie shop. Everything looked absolutely delicious! I got a Raisen Swirl, yum! Everyone else got Crossiant type pastries. The we walked over to where our boat tour would begin. It was very cold. On the boat tour we went past Notre Dame, The National Library of France, Hotel de Ville, La Congrion, The Institute of France, Le Musee d'Orsay, Le Louve, Le Grand Palais, Les Invalides, Le Palais de Chaillot, and Lat Tour Eiffel. We were supposed to see the statue of liberty's sister, but I did not see it.
After the boat tour we traveled to see the Moulin Rouge Theater, and the surrounding area. We also went to the Erotic Mueseum for our class projects. We went to a fabulous street vendor and got baguett sandwiches! YUM! After walking around here for a little while we headed to the Arc De Triumph, which was created during the time of Napoleon to remember the soldiers lost during the war. Here we saw an awesome famous street performer that was breakdancing. Then we went to the shops in this area, champs elyese, which were extremely nice places that none of us could possibly afford haha maybe some day though? Then we went to see Jim Morrisons grave in a famous cemetary for the best writers in the world. Then we went to the Louve to walk around, becaue it was hard to see from the boat tour. We wend to a restaurant for dinner in this area, it was called the Traditional French Restaurant, it was delicious! We shared a bottle of wine, and they gave us water and bread. Generally in Europe water is very expensive an they charge for bread. Needless to say we were very excited to see the bill in which they didn't charge for water or bread, and only for 1 glass of wine rather than a whole bottle! That was our lucky break for the trip!
After dinner we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to hang out. In line we got offered umbrellas about a million times by the souvenier vendors haha. We went up to the top in the elevator! IT was AMAZING! It was also very very cold, windy, and rainy... Afterwards we went to our favorite crepe vendor and went back to our hostel because we were absolutely freeezing! The crepes were again the best I've ever had, nuetella, caramel, and banana, yummmmy!
Sunday:
We woke up at 6:45, and left our hostel at 7am to catch the metro to the train station because our new train ticket specified leaving at 8:39am, womp! We were back to Mondorf-les-Bains by 12:45pm. And then it was NAPTIME!
After waking up from my nap, Eugene and I went to an upscale chineese food restaurant in town. It was very good. They were so nice, they personally greeted everyone that came in and then said by as they left, and sometimes sat down at tables after the meal was finished to chat. They also gave complimentary after lunch drink of Orange Liquor / Champagne? It was freaking delicious! Then I napped some more.
Well when we were traveling to Paris our train ticket had us stopping in Metz France to switch trains to get the rest of the way to Paris. When we tried to get onto our connecting train, we had an awkward encounter with a few French people that couldn't speak english that were in our seats. As it turns out when we bought all of our train tickets for the weekends in Luxembourg the person messed up the dates, our tickets were for the previous weekend. We had to get off the train. We could not exchange our tickets because the date had already passed. We had to buy new tickets to get the rest of the way to Paris, and then back home. The next train wasn't for 2 hours. Needless to say we got to Paris much much later than expected, and had to leave a lot earlier than expected (7am Sunday morning). So while that totally sucked a lot and was extremely expensive...The rest of the trip was absolutely amazing!
We left our hostel for the Eifel Tower, which was a long journey through the metro system, and cracked open a bottle of wine. When we were in the city we came accross a bergade of rollerbladers. There were like 1000! They were looping the streets around the Eiffel Tower. Then we finally saw it! It was already lit up, and magnificent! It made the entire trip worth it to see the tower! We walked around here for a while and took lots of pictures. There were soo many souviner venders selling mini towers, they were all exactly the same. It was fun to haggle with them though! On our way back to the metro, which closes at 1am (and it was already 12:10!) we grabbed some Crepes from street vendors. IT was the most delicious treat I've ever had! And I don't think I had eaten since probably 2pm... If you ever get the chance definitely definitely get crepes from a vendor in Paris! So then we were trying to catch the metro. We ended up running throught the tunnels when we had to switch to a different line. We thought we had missed the last one, but we stayed for a few minutes to see. Sure enough there was one more! We made it back to our hostel :D and then passed out!
Saturday:
We got up early in order to get to as many parts of the city as possible in this short amount of time. First we went to the Notre Dame Cathedral area and walked around a little. We found a pasterie shop. Everything looked absolutely delicious! I got a Raisen Swirl, yum! Everyone else got Crossiant type pastries. The we walked over to where our boat tour would begin. It was very cold. On the boat tour we went past Notre Dame, The National Library of France, Hotel de Ville, La Congrion, The Institute of France, Le Musee d'Orsay, Le Louve, Le Grand Palais, Les Invalides, Le Palais de Chaillot, and Lat Tour Eiffel. We were supposed to see the statue of liberty's sister, but I did not see it.
After the boat tour we traveled to see the Moulin Rouge Theater, and the surrounding area. We also went to the Erotic Mueseum for our class projects. We went to a fabulous street vendor and got baguett sandwiches! YUM! After walking around here for a little while we headed to the Arc De Triumph, which was created during the time of Napoleon to remember the soldiers lost during the war. Here we saw an awesome famous street performer that was breakdancing. Then we went to the shops in this area, champs elyese, which were extremely nice places that none of us could possibly afford haha maybe some day though? Then we went to see Jim Morrisons grave in a famous cemetary for the best writers in the world. Then we went to the Louve to walk around, becaue it was hard to see from the boat tour. We wend to a restaurant for dinner in this area, it was called the Traditional French Restaurant, it was delicious! We shared a bottle of wine, and they gave us water and bread. Generally in Europe water is very expensive an they charge for bread. Needless to say we were very excited to see the bill in which they didn't charge for water or bread, and only for 1 glass of wine rather than a whole bottle! That was our lucky break for the trip!
After dinner we headed over to the Eiffel Tower to hang out. In line we got offered umbrellas about a million times by the souvenier vendors haha. We went up to the top in the elevator! IT was AMAZING! It was also very very cold, windy, and rainy... Afterwards we went to our favorite crepe vendor and went back to our hostel because we were absolutely freeezing! The crepes were again the best I've ever had, nuetella, caramel, and banana, yummmmy!
Sunday:
We woke up at 6:45, and left our hostel at 7am to catch the metro to the train station because our new train ticket specified leaving at 8:39am, womp! We were back to Mondorf-les-Bains by 12:45pm. And then it was NAPTIME!
After waking up from my nap, Eugene and I went to an upscale chineese food restaurant in town. It was very good. They were so nice, they personally greeted everyone that came in and then said by as they left, and sometimes sat down at tables after the meal was finished to chat. They also gave complimentary after lunch drink of Orange Liquor / Champagne? It was freaking delicious! Then I napped some more.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Field Trips this week
Hiii!
So this week we went on lots of adventures! I love our class! Its so much fun! And the leaders of the trip are super cool as well. We have one leader that is a student that went on this trip last year who is kind of like a liason, his name is Mikal. Uwe is an older man that has led the trip and program for many years. Professor Green is the history professor and has gone on the May term trip every year since it began (a long time ago!) Professor Levin is the English professor, hes younger and kenny says hes cool. Professor Jaan is the man, we all love him! He's super nice, and wants us to all experience the best parts of Europe. He know the best places to take us on field trips, and is very helpful for our projects, and hes always on the look out for things that will help our individual work and sends us those pictures.
The week began more relaxed in order to recover from the weekend trips. We generally just napped after class. There was a festival and flee market similar to Super Sunday in Media on Monday. We got really cool jeans for 12 euros! Tuesday was another nap day. Then we went to the gym / Spa. Oh my goodness, it is absolutely the greatest thing in the world, and the US needs to up its game! There is more workout equiptement than you can imagine! I could literally work out and go to the spa all day everyday! The spa has thermal pools with jets and hot tubs, and tons of other stuff! Its so relaxing. If you ever get the change, go to this spa! Its within walking distance of the Klouschter, which is where we are living. Apparently people in Europe view medical issues differently than we do in the US. They doing have many over the counter drugs like Advil, they have herbal remedies and such. The one super cool thing about this is that people can get perscriptions from their doctor to go to this spa. There are also psychologists at the spa you can go see. If I am ever on the verge of a mental breakdown, this is definitely where I will be heading :D
Wednesday:
It was pouring rain! But we decided to take our field trip anyways. This was a program fieldtrip so all the classes went. We headed to Trier. We spend a shorter time there becuse the weather was bad, but I would like to go back if I ever get the chance to spend more time there! It was so cool! But we only got to explore the main part of the city. Allie Diana and I went on the guided tour with some other Clarkies, but most people didn't want to do the tour. It was nice to get a historical background. Trier is a German city that was taken over by the Romans, it has history dating back to 17 B.C.! There is a ruin in the main part of the city which is the Roman city gate, it was huge!!!! There was also a Roman Bishops Palace with 9 foot thick walls that we went to see! It has been converted into a church now. But the cool thing about that is that it can withstand an earthquake. Karl Marx was born and raised in Trier, there's a museum there in his dedication. Kenny bought the communist manifesto. We got ice cream before leaving, it was delicious! Right before leaving we talked to professor Jaan for a few minutes. He had a bag with chocolates on it, so I asked him what he got. He said he bought a Laptop. We all laughed because he bought a laptop in this city, and was carrying it in a chocolate bag. He then said he also bought chocolate. Needless to say we were all confused. He then asked me if I knew anyone that was pretty good with computers, and I told him Eugene is. SO the next day in class he gets out his laptop, and asks Eugene to set it up for him (which isn't unusual because we often view photos for our projects during class). Eugene opens up the laptop, and theres chocolate inside! The keys were chocolate! haha it was in a box that looked like a laptop! He's such a jokester :D
We went to the "Cafe de Paris", which is the only bar in Mondorf-les-bains, it is very close, and always a good time!
Thursday:
We had a class field trip to Saarburg, Germany, and then Remich, Luxembourg. Saarburg was a smaller city in a more rural area. It was totally surrounded by vineyards. Needless to say they made a lot of wine. It was a very cute area with a little river running through and lots of birdges. We walked around and found some nice suveniers. Then we got ice cream. Then we decided to walk around more, and we ran into Jaan. He was sitting at a little cafe. He wanted to order Apple Strudel for all of us (again hes soo nice!) He also showed us that he finally found the infamous "Blood Sausage". EW haha Kenny, Eugene, and Allie tried it at dinner. It looked really gross.
We are going to the gym and spa as much as humanly possible in order to get the most bang for our buck, because it was pretty expensive.
So this week we went on lots of adventures! I love our class! Its so much fun! And the leaders of the trip are super cool as well. We have one leader that is a student that went on this trip last year who is kind of like a liason, his name is Mikal. Uwe is an older man that has led the trip and program for many years. Professor Green is the history professor and has gone on the May term trip every year since it began (a long time ago!) Professor Levin is the English professor, hes younger and kenny says hes cool. Professor Jaan is the man, we all love him! He's super nice, and wants us to all experience the best parts of Europe. He know the best places to take us on field trips, and is very helpful for our projects, and hes always on the look out for things that will help our individual work and sends us those pictures.
The week began more relaxed in order to recover from the weekend trips. We generally just napped after class. There was a festival and flee market similar to Super Sunday in Media on Monday. We got really cool jeans for 12 euros! Tuesday was another nap day. Then we went to the gym / Spa. Oh my goodness, it is absolutely the greatest thing in the world, and the US needs to up its game! There is more workout equiptement than you can imagine! I could literally work out and go to the spa all day everyday! The spa has thermal pools with jets and hot tubs, and tons of other stuff! Its so relaxing. If you ever get the change, go to this spa! Its within walking distance of the Klouschter, which is where we are living. Apparently people in Europe view medical issues differently than we do in the US. They doing have many over the counter drugs like Advil, they have herbal remedies and such. The one super cool thing about this is that people can get perscriptions from their doctor to go to this spa. There are also psychologists at the spa you can go see. If I am ever on the verge of a mental breakdown, this is definitely where I will be heading :D
Wednesday:
It was pouring rain! But we decided to take our field trip anyways. This was a program fieldtrip so all the classes went. We headed to Trier. We spend a shorter time there becuse the weather was bad, but I would like to go back if I ever get the chance to spend more time there! It was so cool! But we only got to explore the main part of the city. Allie Diana and I went on the guided tour with some other Clarkies, but most people didn't want to do the tour. It was nice to get a historical background. Trier is a German city that was taken over by the Romans, it has history dating back to 17 B.C.! There is a ruin in the main part of the city which is the Roman city gate, it was huge!!!! There was also a Roman Bishops Palace with 9 foot thick walls that we went to see! It has been converted into a church now. But the cool thing about that is that it can withstand an earthquake. Karl Marx was born and raised in Trier, there's a museum there in his dedication. Kenny bought the communist manifesto. We got ice cream before leaving, it was delicious! Right before leaving we talked to professor Jaan for a few minutes. He had a bag with chocolates on it, so I asked him what he got. He said he bought a Laptop. We all laughed because he bought a laptop in this city, and was carrying it in a chocolate bag. He then said he also bought chocolate. Needless to say we were all confused. He then asked me if I knew anyone that was pretty good with computers, and I told him Eugene is. SO the next day in class he gets out his laptop, and asks Eugene to set it up for him (which isn't unusual because we often view photos for our projects during class). Eugene opens up the laptop, and theres chocolate inside! The keys were chocolate! haha it was in a box that looked like a laptop! He's such a jokester :D
We went to the "Cafe de Paris", which is the only bar in Mondorf-les-bains, it is very close, and always a good time!
Thursday:
We had a class field trip to Saarburg, Germany, and then Remich, Luxembourg. Saarburg was a smaller city in a more rural area. It was totally surrounded by vineyards. Needless to say they made a lot of wine. It was a very cute area with a little river running through and lots of birdges. We walked around and found some nice suveniers. Then we got ice cream. Then we decided to walk around more, and we ran into Jaan. He was sitting at a little cafe. He wanted to order Apple Strudel for all of us (again hes soo nice!) He also showed us that he finally found the infamous "Blood Sausage". EW haha Kenny, Eugene, and Allie tried it at dinner. It looked really gross.
We are going to the gym and spa as much as humanly possible in order to get the most bang for our buck, because it was pretty expensive.
Amsterdam!
Heyo!!
Thus far our trip has been absolutely wonderful! I can't even explain how amazing and wonderful everything is! We went to Amsterdam last weekend, but this week has been so busy I haven't had time to post until now! haha
Amsterdam: It was about a 6 hour train ride from Luxembourg City to Amsterdam. We first had to take the bus to Luxembourg city, and then a train to Brussels Midi, and then to Amsterdam. It was fun though, we played Eco Flux, and also Rummy 500! We got to our hostel around 8:30pm. It was actually very nice, after reading the hostel reviews I was a little worried it would be really dirty, but it was totally fine. We made friend on the may term with us that was also going to Amsterdam the same weekend, who stayed in our extra bed in our hostel, he's very nice! Also Alisa and Felicia joined us for the weekend, they're studying abroad in Scotland now, it was awesome to see them again!
After we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and changed we went out! (it was already after 9) We went into the city to party :D It was hoppin! Everyone was around and going out. There was a huge coverband festival that lasted the entire weekend on this huge stage in one of the city squares. There were outdoor bars set up around the stage, but there were tons of bars and coffee shops surrounding that area as well. We could drink on the street, it was pretty cool. We ended up going to a grocery store for wine because the bars were pretty expensive.
Our quest for the evening was to find the night club called "Escape", but we had absolutely no idea where it was. Somehow I was leading us there, and of course I wasn't really in the best state of mind for that...ha Anyways eventually we did actually find it, which was amazing because the city is HUGE! We ended up not going in because the cover charge was really high, and we had already been to an expensive bar. So we walked around forever, and went to a few bars. Eventually we started heading back towards the hostel, which was like miles and miles away by this point, and a few of us were wearing high heels, (not me tho :D). We ended up going to a pancake house? And one of the waitresses gave us directions back to our hostel, which was very very helpful! We ended up going to bed around 4am?
On Saturday we walked around the city and did a ton of site seeing. Our hostel was pretty close to the Museum district, so we started at the Van Gogh Museum. It was absolutely AMAZING! I think that he is my favorite artist for sure now! There were lots of other artists work within the museum, but Van Goghs were just absolutely superior (in my opinion). We walked to the red light district and went through, it was very interesting how open everyone was about the prostitution. We got a few pictures that will be helpful for my and Allie's projects for class. After we went to the sex museum. Then we went to the Ann Frank House, I only knew the basics of the story before, so I'm glad we went to the house. We were going to try to do a canal cruise, but they ended at 5pm so we missed out on that. Everything we saw was very beautiful. We went back to the hostel to change. Then we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, it was delicious! Then we went to the grocery store and then some bars. It was super fun! We didn't stay out as late because we had to get up early the next day to check out of our hostel.
Sunday: We got up and got breakfast at the hostel. Then we went back to the redlight district, and then shopped a little bit. After we headed to the train station to head back to Luxembourg.
There are lots of pictures on facebook from the trip so far, check them out! Hopefully I'll figure out how to post them here soon!
Thus far our trip has been absolutely wonderful! I can't even explain how amazing and wonderful everything is! We went to Amsterdam last weekend, but this week has been so busy I haven't had time to post until now! haha
Amsterdam: It was about a 6 hour train ride from Luxembourg City to Amsterdam. We first had to take the bus to Luxembourg city, and then a train to Brussels Midi, and then to Amsterdam. It was fun though, we played Eco Flux, and also Rummy 500! We got to our hostel around 8:30pm. It was actually very nice, after reading the hostel reviews I was a little worried it would be really dirty, but it was totally fine. We made friend on the may term with us that was also going to Amsterdam the same weekend, who stayed in our extra bed in our hostel, he's very nice! Also Alisa and Felicia joined us for the weekend, they're studying abroad in Scotland now, it was awesome to see them again!
After we dropped off our stuff at the hostel and changed we went out! (it was already after 9) We went into the city to party :D It was hoppin! Everyone was around and going out. There was a huge coverband festival that lasted the entire weekend on this huge stage in one of the city squares. There were outdoor bars set up around the stage, but there were tons of bars and coffee shops surrounding that area as well. We could drink on the street, it was pretty cool. We ended up going to a grocery store for wine because the bars were pretty expensive.
Our quest for the evening was to find the night club called "Escape", but we had absolutely no idea where it was. Somehow I was leading us there, and of course I wasn't really in the best state of mind for that...ha Anyways eventually we did actually find it, which was amazing because the city is HUGE! We ended up not going in because the cover charge was really high, and we had already been to an expensive bar. So we walked around forever, and went to a few bars. Eventually we started heading back towards the hostel, which was like miles and miles away by this point, and a few of us were wearing high heels, (not me tho :D). We ended up going to a pancake house? And one of the waitresses gave us directions back to our hostel, which was very very helpful! We ended up going to bed around 4am?
On Saturday we walked around the city and did a ton of site seeing. Our hostel was pretty close to the Museum district, so we started at the Van Gogh Museum. It was absolutely AMAZING! I think that he is my favorite artist for sure now! There were lots of other artists work within the museum, but Van Goghs were just absolutely superior (in my opinion). We walked to the red light district and went through, it was very interesting how open everyone was about the prostitution. We got a few pictures that will be helpful for my and Allie's projects for class. After we went to the sex museum. Then we went to the Ann Frank House, I only knew the basics of the story before, so I'm glad we went to the house. We were going to try to do a canal cruise, but they ended at 5pm so we missed out on that. Everything we saw was very beautiful. We went back to the hostel to change. Then we went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, it was delicious! Then we went to the grocery store and then some bars. It was super fun! We didn't stay out as late because we had to get up early the next day to check out of our hostel.
Sunday: We got up and got breakfast at the hostel. Then we went back to the redlight district, and then shopped a little bit. After we headed to the train station to head back to Luxembourg.
There are lots of pictures on facebook from the trip so far, check them out! Hopefully I'll figure out how to post them here soon!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The first few days
Since we have been in Luxembourg we have done much exploring! Wednesday we had our first class with Professor Jaan Valsiner, for now on I will refer to him as Jaan. He is the coooolest! We have had a ton of readings assigned to us so far, but generally half of them are pretty interesting, while the other half are either quite boring or extremely theoretical. The basic premise for the class is that we will each pick a topic that we want to examine how they represent a part of the European culture in each area we visit, as well as in the US. Some people have picked parks, benches, parking lots and such. Diana is looking at how parents deal with potentially embarrassing situations their young children put them in. Eugene is looking at restaurant culture, comparing prices, who eats there, if there is an outdoor menu and whether its in French, German, or English. Allie is looking at the red light district in Amsterdam, and sexuality. I am looking at the socialization of gender and sex appeal as it is used in the advertising and media. So basically while we are traveling we are just looking for examples we can use to talk and write about our topic, and taking pictures and such. So I've taken close to 300 pictures and I have been here for less than 3 days..... Needless to say, I need to sort them all out before I can post any online that would be fun to look at.
The first night Mikal (who is one of our trip leaders, he was a student on the trip last year and is good friends with Liz Magier) took us on a walk to France! It's about a 20 minute walk to the border, which is amazing! But the border is not very glorified at all, which seems to be the trend around here, there are usually just basic signs that say which country you are entering. I think there is more excitement when crossing state borders in the US... haha Anyways, we went to a gas station market (which is actually pretty nice inside) and I bought a little chocolate bar.
Yesterday after class we went into the City of Luxembourg (about a 20 minute drive from Mondorf-les-Bains, where the Klouschter is located). We all went on a 1 hour guided tour, which was interesting. The coolest thing I leared about the city that I didn't already know is that during World War I and II Luxembourg was used as a part of the power struggle because it remianed nuetral, and didn't have an army, so other countries just tended to take it over. But while the French took over Luxembourg they built huge fortress walls in order to keep others out, and to keep from being taken over. The fortress walls are all around the older part of the city, and they are generally 35 feet tall or higher, (I have a lot of pictures of these.)
Anyways the guided tour was interesting, but it was much more fun to walk around with my friends and get a feel for the city. We went shopping a little in the newer part of the city. And we walked to the train station to buy our train tickets to Amsterdam, Bussels, and Paris. That was actually kind of difficult, but we got it all figured out.
Today during class Jaan sent us to the French border and back to observe Mondorf. After class we went on a field trip to several different locations. We only spent 15 t0 20 minutes in each place, which wasn't very long for some places. Most of these were small rural French villages, and were absolutely beautiful!!! We ended up in Remich, which was my favorite place! It was more like a city, and lots of nice places to walk around shops to walk into. I think we may go back soon to spend more time there. The bus that comes into Mondorf goes there, and it seemed like it was only about 20 minutes away!
Tomorrow we will have class, and then leave for Amsterdam!!!!! I can't wait!
Fun facts: In order to use public bathrooms you have to pay, and it costs more to use a toilet than a urinal. Crazzy! All shopping closes around 6:30, and restaurants do not open for dinner until 6:00pm. And you can shop with your pets! haha
The first night Mikal (who is one of our trip leaders, he was a student on the trip last year and is good friends with Liz Magier) took us on a walk to France! It's about a 20 minute walk to the border, which is amazing! But the border is not very glorified at all, which seems to be the trend around here, there are usually just basic signs that say which country you are entering. I think there is more excitement when crossing state borders in the US... haha Anyways, we went to a gas station market (which is actually pretty nice inside) and I bought a little chocolate bar.
Yesterday after class we went into the City of Luxembourg (about a 20 minute drive from Mondorf-les-Bains, where the Klouschter is located). We all went on a 1 hour guided tour, which was interesting. The coolest thing I leared about the city that I didn't already know is that during World War I and II Luxembourg was used as a part of the power struggle because it remianed nuetral, and didn't have an army, so other countries just tended to take it over. But while the French took over Luxembourg they built huge fortress walls in order to keep others out, and to keep from being taken over. The fortress walls are all around the older part of the city, and they are generally 35 feet tall or higher, (I have a lot of pictures of these.)
Anyways the guided tour was interesting, but it was much more fun to walk around with my friends and get a feel for the city. We went shopping a little in the newer part of the city. And we walked to the train station to buy our train tickets to Amsterdam, Bussels, and Paris. That was actually kind of difficult, but we got it all figured out.
Today during class Jaan sent us to the French border and back to observe Mondorf. After class we went on a field trip to several different locations. We only spent 15 t0 20 minutes in each place, which wasn't very long for some places. Most of these were small rural French villages, and were absolutely beautiful!!! We ended up in Remich, which was my favorite place! It was more like a city, and lots of nice places to walk around shops to walk into. I think we may go back soon to spend more time there. The bus that comes into Mondorf goes there, and it seemed like it was only about 20 minutes away!
Tomorrow we will have class, and then leave for Amsterdam!!!!! I can't wait!
Fun facts: In order to use public bathrooms you have to pay, and it costs more to use a toilet than a urinal. Crazzy! All shopping closes around 6:30, and restaurants do not open for dinner until 6:00pm. And you can shop with your pets! haha
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