Travels & New Surroundings

J. Peterman: “Make it interesting.”
Elaine Benes: “Interesting, yes INTERESTING, people like interesting!”

Just like Elaine I will do my best to make this interesting but I promise nothing.

This week’s travel tip(s):
1) Learn a foreign language, French or Spanish. The bus driver didn’t speak English; neither did the lady at the bookstore, the waitress in the restaurant, and neither does my house dad nor two of the kids. If you can speak there language it is much, much easier.
2) Don’t connect a flight through Newark, NJ.

I tend to ramble so I will do my very best to condense as much as possible but not leave out any great details. Ok, so it’s only been a couple days but I feel like there is so much to say and send back. This is going to be in two parts. There is so much to write about. Part I will be about everything from intro about the country and family up until orientation. Part II will be about orientation. Every part will have a few hellos to a couple of different people.
Here is a little tid-bit on the country of Luxembourg (which I thought was a city in Germany until I applied to the program). The entire country nestles between Belgium, France, and Germany. It has a population of 450,000 people and its largest city, Luxembourg City, has a pop. of 85,000 people.

Just like the United States it is a hodge-podge of people. The most recent group of immigrants are Portuguese but it is a country made up of many different ethnicities of people. Everyone learns Luxembourgish right off the bat at home. French is second and is learned at home or at school around age 6. German then follows around age 8 with English bringing up the rear about age 11. They are an environmentally conscious people with recycle bins everywhere and NO ONE drives SUV’S or even mini-vans. Something I would describe as hybrid Volkswagen’s are as big as it gets. Another reason for this is because of gas prices. Gasoline is approximately $9.00 per gallon. It is deceiving though because the gas is sold in liters so it appears cheap. Speed is in Kilometers per hour so it took some adjusting when seeing the speed limit sign say 90.

It was a three hour group bus ride from Brussels, Belgium to Differdange, Luxembourg where the school is located. We had a safe trip to school where we met our host family. The mother and her two year old daughter Sophie met us at school. There I found out a couple of things. Sophie was a fireball and completely full of energy. The father Shanni (Shaw-nee) spoke zero English. Getting into his Volkswagen I complimented on his nice car and the first thing he says is “no English”….great way to start the semester. Marie the mother however speaks very fine English and has been a wonderful mother. The family you could describe as a patchwork family. Kevin, 16, belongs to the father Shanni. Jordan, 6 (boy), belongs to Marie. Sophie, 2, belongs to Shanni and Marie together; however Shanni and Marie are not married and have no plans of it. By speaking with other students we have discovered this is common practice for a mother’s “friend” that is a male to live with her for many, many years without marriage.

L to r front: Shanni, Marie, Me, Collin. L to R back: Jordan (6), friend of Jordan, Kevin (16), Ian.

I live with two other Miami students; Collin from Chicago (Hinsdale), and Ian from Oxford, OH (home of Miami University). They are great guys and we have really helped each other a lot. About half of the 130 Miami students live in Differdange not far from school while the other half is scattered in the suburbs of Lux City. We are in the little village of Cessange. The bus stop is right outside our house and it takes ten minutes to get to the Luxembourg City train station on the bus. From there the train takes approximately 40 minutes to get to Differdange where the school is located. Once class starts this will either be great study time or great nap time, we’ll see what happens. This has all been a huge learning experience considering I have never lived anywhere where public transportation is so commonly used.

Chateau de differdange, where school is located. Sorry for no authentic pictures yet.

The train stop in Differdange is approximately 5 minutes from school or “the Chateau”, which is an incredible place that is owned by the steel company that pretty much owns all of Differdange. The only trouble with the train stop is that there is a GREAT little Portuguese bar right next to it. It has been a trend to stop and buy a boot of Battin beer with some Differdange friends before hopping on the train to head home to Lux City and its suburbs for the evening. When I say Boot yes I mean just like the movie Beerfest, and to answer your question yes the bubble really does exist and the boot must really be turned sideways to keep the bubble from popping beer in your face. The name of this gathering place has politely been renamed ‘Das Boot’ by the Miami kids because of the simple reason that they serve beer in a glass boot (large= 1 liter and small= .5 liter) for very reasonable prices.

Sorry for the length but again there was so much to say. A couple of hello’s:
Dad & Katy: I love you guys. I can’t wait until you can experience it yourselves! Katy, remember it’s senior year and before you know it you are graduating from the greatest high school in the world. Enjoy every second of it, work hard, BUT enjoy every second.
Mamma: I’m doing my best to keep my eye on the donut and not on the hole. I Love you!
Kohlhepp’s: Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Tell the boys I say Bonjour!
Baumbusch’s, Bright’s, Myers’, and Stevensons’: Thank you so much for all of your support. It truly is great to have an entire family to support you!
Paul Davis: I know you would appreciate all this history even though you already know it all. Thank you very much for all the genealogy information. It was 10x more than I expected. I hope your health is holding up and we look forward to seeing you around the holidays!
Jim Irwin: I have been looking for the Rasputin family around here but unfortunately have had no luck. Go Bucks!