The adventure begins...

I'm in Europe this semester studying in Luxembourg and thought I'd create a little something to keep my friends and family up-to-date with how things are going over here, so check it out!

My friend and I left Indy last Tuesday (Sept. 2nd) around noon, and made our way through Philly and finally to Brussels.  After a dreadful plane ride with a screaming baby in front of me, and an angry french man who wouldn't let me put my seat do

wn sitting behind me, I was more than ready to finally get to Luxembourg.  We arrived in Brussels, took a train to the main station, and then took a 3 hour train to Luxembourg City.  From there a fellow Miami student who also is my roommate for the semester and the host father picked up me up (while staying in Luxembourg this semester I'

m staying with a family - a father, mother, and 17 year old son...more on him and his ridiculous hair in a bit...).  We drove to their house and I put my things in my new room.  They offered us dinner and after that I spent my night unpacking and promptly went to sleep, as I was exhausted from such a long day of travel.

The house that I live in is in a little town called Bettembourg which is a 10 minute ride south of Luxembourg City (the captial) and a 3

0 minute train ride to Differdange, where Miami's chateau is located.  The chateau consists of classrooms, a giant dining hall, student kitchen and hang out areas, faculty and staff offices and a few of their residences (upstairs apartments).  The first record of the chateau

 is in 1253, so it is quite old, yet still quite stunning.

Thursday through Saturday consisted of orientation.  Thursday we had meetings in the morning, and only one after lunch.  They let us out by 2:45 and I went back to Bettembourg and went for a run.  We went to a local cafe for dinner and made our way to the local fair which has been around almost as long as the chateau...this was its 668th year!  It was a typical fair...with the exception of a few things, it was exactly as I remember the Indiana State Fair.  We hung out there for the night and caught the train back home.

Friday we had more meetings in the morning, then hopped on a bus for the afternoon and visited a few places.  Our first stop was a hike through the woods in a place they referred to as 'Little Switzerland', then we went to Castle de Beaufort, an ancient castle.  We then had a drink (compliments of Miami) that was made at the castle, then made our way to a small town were we sat at a cafe and hung out for the rest of the afternoon.  We went back to Diff and went out at a local bar for the night.

Saturday was along the same lines, only we visited different places.  We went to the HAMM American Military Cemetary, the Germany Military Cemetary, and then the American War 

 Museum.  It was an interesting afternoon, and gave us a different perspective of the war and gave a first hand view of the history we've learned so much about.  We were dropped off back at the fair, where we did a ride called Air Maxx which was probably the scariest ride I've ever done...it was an 8 person car on a 75ft pole that rotated...it was pushing 5G's!  After recovering from that, we made our way back to Diff for the night.

Sunday we spent the day with our host family.  We went out to a local pizzeria for lunch, came back home for coffee, and ended up watching The Matrix Reloaded with the host dad.  We then played XBox with the son...  The son has a buzzed head with the exception of a circle of hair on the top of his head that is about 8 inches tall and bleached blonde.  Its very...Euro?  We got dinner and went for a walk in Lux City.

Classes started yesterday and continued today.  I'm taking an international business class, introductory french, english cinema, sociology, and political science.  So far I think I will enjoy all of my classes, but they're a lot more work than I was expecting.  As for now, I'm just trying to get through the rest of the week of classes, and looking forward to traveling to Bruges this weekend with some friends!

Please feel free to email me with questions or comments!  I'd love to hear how everything is going back at home (or wherever you might be) so email me (hoffmatj@muohio.edu) or skype me...my skype name is THoff06.  I'll post again sometime soon!  Take care!

PS - Pictures can be found here...  PICTURES