Where did October go?!

Oops!! It's been almost a month since I wrote last, and tons of things have happened!  The first few days of October (1st-5th) were spent in the Netherlands with my sociology class field trip.  The class focuses on the relationship between news and cultures, so we visited a few different newspapers and talked with their editors about how their papers reflect Dutch culture.  We also had lunch with an advanced English class at a local highschool, did a boat tour of Amsterdam, and visited the Anne Frank and Van Gogh museums.  We of course did the touristy things as well when we were there, and had a great time!

The weekend after that, October 10th-12th, my friends and I went to Nice, France to enjoy some nice weather (that we so desperately miss in Luxembourg) and to just have a relaxing weekend.  We visited some of the local markets, enjoyed some gelato, and on Saturday had a 'fancy' or 'Nice' dinner on the beach.  It was a great weekend and definitely one I'll remember for a long time to come!

The following week was the 40th anniversary of the Miami University Dolibois European Center (MUDEC).  Basically there was a week long celebration including an academic convocation one night, a concert another night, and then the finale of a boat cruise and formal dinner / dance Friday night.  Alumni were in town, along with Miami staff, local Luxembourgers, and all of the host families.  It was a huge party and a ton of fun...it was basically prom, only in college.  After the festivities during the week, my friends and I chose to stay in town to catch up on sleep and homework.  We played soccer most of the day on Saturday, and went out in the city Saturday night.  It was great to catch up with everything and to save some money, too!

This past weekend I went to Berlin, Germany.  There were 20+ friends with me, so of course it was a great time!  We got there a little late Friday so didn't go out for too long, but on Saturday we did a walking tour through the city.  My tour guide was an architecture student in his mid-20's that knew an unbelievable amount about Berlin...it was supposed to be a 3 hour tour, but it ended up being almost 5 due to him talking so much!  I can't complain though...it was amazing to hear all of the stories and to literally walk through history.  I hope that I have the opportunity to go back to Berlin and take more time to see it all.  After the tour, we went on a pub crawl, hitting 5 different bars and getting a good idea of the night life in Berlin.  It, too, was a ton of fun.  There were around 145 people, all about our age, so it was a ton of fun!

My sister gets in from Italy tomorrow and is staying until Friday, then I leave for a 9 day tour of Ireland and the UK!  I'm starting in Dublin, going to Edinburgh, then Iverness, York, and London to finish out the week.  More to come on that when I get back!

I hope that all is well at home.  Please email me and let me know how you're doing!  hoffmatj@muohio.edu    Take care and I look forward to hearing from you all soon!