PROM NIGHT!!

Hi! Ah I am sorry I have not posted anything on the weekend yet, I have been trying to write my recap but I have been so busy and just having so much fun with everything that has been going on I just haven't had time!! I wanted to post what I had written so far though and say a few things too.....

1. Today is MUDEC PROM!! I am so excited, I am about to start getting ready now. We are going on a boat cruise on the Moselle River, then dinner and an awards ceremony at a fancy restaurant, then dancing until the wee hours of the morning! Its going to be pretty awesome and I am excited to see everyone all spiffed up. I am also excited to wear my super cute dress and new heels!

2. CONGRATULATIONS TO MY BEST FRIEND EVER- DANA- who got engaged Monday!! I am so excited for her and Scott, they are going to have a great life together! Cant wait to see them when I get home and say congrats in person!!

Ok, here is what I have recapped so far...


Despite volcanic ash thwarting my original plan to go to Barcelona, I still managed to have a fun last traveling weekend of my semester! It was a disappointment to not see Spain, but I realized I had no control over the situation and stressing or worrying about it would not do anything. Instead, I just saw it as a chance to enjoy some places close by to Luxembourg and spend time with as many MUDEC people as possible. I have mentioned this before, but I think the greatest way I have changed over here is a serious decline in my stressed out level, I have learned how to go with the flow and not be so high strung! I saw that in myself this past week when I was able to cancel my trip, plan some new ones, and just go on with life, rather than getting totally upset and stressed out about a freak weather accident. Hooray!


I was supposed to leave for Barcelona on Wednesday, so I will start recapping there. I had class in the morning, went running, showered, and then went back to the chateau in the early evening. Our last Wednesday orientation activity was a concert with Tom Garcia, a music professor here who has performance degrees from Duke and Juilliard. He specializes in Latin American music and played a concert for us of traditional and popular Brazilian music. It was a little random, but I enjoyed it. From there, I headed to the Differedange park with my two roommates and a few friends for a picnic dinner. The park is in the main square of our little town of Diff, and now that it is FINALLY spring here, the park is gorgeous. There are tons of flowers, trees, grass, and fountains, and it is just a nice place to sit in and relax. It has become a bit of a tradition in the past few weeks for MUDECers to go to the park after class in the evenings and drink wine and hang out before a night at bars. Its quite fun really, and that night we joined in the tradition and added food. We ate a very French meal of bread, cheese, chocolate, and grapes, and drank a sufficient quantity of wine! It was a lot of fun, and that night at Das Boot turned out to be as crazy as ever. We even had a beer pong table set up in the bar somehow, and I played and learned that I am quite rusty after 3 months of inactivity…haha


The next morning, I was struggling (read:hungover) somewhat, but managed to make it to the Chateau for lunch. That day, our Student Activities Coordinator organized a group trip to Luxembourg’s own Bofferding Brewery, and after Barcelona was cancelled, I decided to sign up. Although I was in no shape to drink beer, it was a ton of fun. A huge group of us went and had our own private tour of their factory. Bofferding is I think the only beer brewed in Lux, and its slogan is that it is the “Secret of Luxembourg.” It is pretty decent and quite cheap so we MUDEC students have discovered the secret and drink our fare share of it, the boot must go through so many cans every Wednesday night! I have been on a few beer tours in Europe, and while this one wasn’t as high tech and intense as the Heineken or Gunniess ones, it was a lot more intimate, and we walked through the actual factory where beer was being brewed, rather than just a massive museum/advertisment like the other places. At the end of the tour, we had about an hour or so in the bar to enjoy UNLIMITED beer (people were pretty excited about this) and shop for souvenirs! I picked up a couple of shirts (one for myself and some for the special men in my life) and was glad to own a souvenir from Luxembourg, the place I live!

After the tour, I returned to the Chateau, where I, despite my partying ways in recent days, managed to write a paper that was due the following day. It was a pretty quick assignment for my museums class and did not take long at all. Later that night there was a concert organized for MUDECers at this local Portugese bar we sometimes go for Kareoke. Some guys in my program had met this guitar player on one of their first weekends traveling in Switzerland, and had convinced our student activities coordinator to book him for a concert in Differdange! I was on the fence about going, but decided to use my “JUST GO” policy and headed over there right before it started. It turned out to be great! The singer was an American guy who had apparently dropped out of the army and just travels around Europe now playing gigs. He played a bunch of really fun covers of American music, and it was nice to just sit back, relax and chat with friends while listening to his songs. I had every intention of going back to my house pretty early that night in anticipation of an early morning the next day but somewhere I got caught up in the music, drinks, and dancing, and before I knew it, my roommate and I were deciding to take the 11:30 train home- meaning we get home at midnight. (Sidenote: For all my UVA friends who go out at that time, and are laughing that I say 11:30 is late, remember this is Luxembourg, where I must rely on public transportation, and going out at 8 pm is late! Haha) Despite the fatigue I knew I would endure the next day, I had a really fun night and was so glad I had just gone with it.

Friday, was the last day of a wonderful, rich affair that I have been carrying on throughout my time abroad, not with a man, but with my favorite city ever, PARIS. I think I explained this before, but I had one day on my Eurorail left and sicne I had already prepared to skip class, I decided to just go for it and visit Paris for the day. When else in my life am I going to be able to just go to Paris FOR THE DAY!?! Sadly, probably never, so I decided to take advantage with my friend Kelly! It turned out to be a perfect day! We started off by visiting…..

Going to have to leave you hanging! Ill try to finish tomorrow!

Love you,
Care