Das Boot?

Ok, so I'm sitting in poli sci, writing this blog post right now - probably not the most effective use of class time - but it's Friday at 8:32 am, and I'm tired and not interested in listening right now. Ergo, I decided to write a short commentary on my experience last night at the most frequented bar by Miami students in all of Luxembourg - Cafe le Notre - better known as "Das Boot."

I should explain my hesitations before I delve into the night's activities. I had never been to "the boot" before last night. One of the reasons I had not been there is that I viewed it as a somewhat unclassy place. I don't want to seem pretentious, but it is just one of those places that just reeked of all that is bad about Americans abroad. I personally had just not wanted to associate myself with the debauchery that oft occurs there.

Anyhow, it was a Thursday. Specifically, it was the Thursday after a week of midterms. More specifically, it was the Thursday after a week where I had four rather challenging midterms. So I had the intention of returning to Pitcher (see my previous post), but that wasn't happening. Apparently, the boot was happening. So, after having gone home to pack for my weeklong trip to Italy with my parents and grandparents, and noticing that it was only 7:30 pm. I elected to return to Differdange, and make my maiden voyage to the boot.

So, Erin, Alyssa, Jerica, and I walked in at about 8:30. My notes refresh my memory and indicate that I immediately noticed that it was much quieter and smaller than I had expected. Also, there was nobody smoking inside - I guess I just assumed it would be, but it seemed to me that anyone who wanted to smoke just went outside. So yeah, my initial impressions were surprisingly favorable. I purchased my first beverage, which was Battin (a beer from Esch) served in a .5 liter glass boot. It cost me a grand total of 2.2 euros (which is rather cheap).

So we just sort of hung out, listened to music, and chatted. There is a certain curve to drinking - as in, some people feel a distinct need to "catch up" to everyone else there. This is not always the best idea, I would advise against it. Anyhow, everything was pretty chill, we even had a euchre game going! So, as per usual for Americans - things went downhill when the birthday girl got there.

No names will be used, but let's just say that one student was celebrating her 21st birthday in true American fashion: by drinking to excess. Approximately 15 people rolled in with the birthday girl, and all of a sudden the place was much more crazy. I have written down in my notes, "Drunk people can still dance on top of tables/chairs." So yeah...

Then later, after getting my second .5 liter boot - while the debauchery continues with everyone else drinking heavily, I was invited to partake in a game of "Flip Cup." Now, I'm going to be honest here: I've never really played a lot of drinking games before, so I was mildly hesitant. Turns out there is really not that much drinking involved in the team sport that is flip cup. While I had seen the game before, I had never known the rules or details. Basically, in teams, you compete via a sort of relay race wherein each person has to drink a small amount of beer in a plastic cup, place their cup on the edge of the table, and attempt to flick the bottom of the cup to get it to land flatly upside-down on the table. It's by no means a difficult task, but it can be quite challenging at times. Anyways, my team was Bobby, Bridget, Gwendy (Greg's host brother's girlfriend), and I. Our opponents, who won in a close 8-6 match, were Greg, Ben, Philippe, and Jacques. So it was fun, I was decent, at least. Don't worry, there was no excessive consumption or anything like that. It's actually really easy to be responsible if you want to be.

Overall, another thing I noticed is that Americans like loud music. It definitely was loud, but I think all bars are like that. I sometimes wish it weren't so - when you can't even hear the person next to you, it's too loud. But, it was nice to hear lots of good ole American music blasting on the speakers. I miss that. I miss people driving in their cars blasting loud thumping bass.

But yeah, then we took the 11:30 train home (late night, I know, especially considering I had class the next morning at 0800), but totally worth it. I'd probably go back, as it wasn't nearly as vile as I had imagined. But, I suppose that's life - trying new things, opening your mind, stepping out of your comfort zone? At least, that's one thing I've done better here in Europe - get out of my comfort zone. Anyway, I need to go to my other class now, and then I'm getting on a train to Italy! Peace out.

One Night at Pitcher...

The cheers went up again as the guys put some sort of gel on Christophe's uncle's head. As they took the razor to his hair, more and more cheering filled the crowded bar - poor guy: he was already wearing a tutu that did not complement his portly physique; shaving his head and eyebrows was not gonna help his image at all. Wait, let's rewind:

We walked into the bar around 8 pm - Megan, Devon, and Pat were already there, and had established position at a small table near the door. We (Erin, Tiffany, Brad, and I) squeezed in around a few other chairs and the bench by the window. Of course, Pitcher was hopping. Turns out it was this guys' bachelor party, which means things were gonna get wild.

Apparently, as we learned from the guy sitting at the table next to us, bachelor parties are a little different in Europe. It's supposed to be no fun for the groom-to-be, and when I say "no fun" I mean, "humiliating." They made the poor guy wear a two piece tutu frilly thing, so his beer gut was hanging out, and I can only imagine he was cold.  Oh, and I forgot to mention - he was handcuffed to a pole in the bar. All his friends had t-shirts on that had been made for this occasion. They were in Luxembourgish, but we had our friend Christophe translate for us: the shirts said something to the effect of "Why solve problems with another person that I don't have by myself?" Basically: mocking the institution of marriage.

Christophe was an interesting character: to say the least. He was 21, smoked like a chimney, played bass and guitar, didn't know who his dad was, spoke great English, was still in high school, and it was his uncle who was the lucky (read: unlucky) bachelor. He had lots of things to say about America: such as how it's crazy that everyone feels the need to own weaponry, how it's insane that 21 year-olds can be so immature, or that you can drive when you're 16. He was real chill though, plays in a band - maybe he'll make it big someday? His life's dream was to be a producer in Nashville, Tennessee. Christophe also had an interesting understanding of the social nuances of Americans...

Case in point: when the bar was getting pretty crowded and chairs were becoming a hot commodity - he asked if Tiffany would sit on his lap. Tiffany, being the upstanding citizen and lady, respectfully declined. I mean, that seemed a little odd to me, but then Christophe turned to me, and asked if I would sit on his lap... (uh...no?). He kept saying, "It's just for the experience. It's ironic, isn't it? Every guy wants a girl on his lap, and I want a guy." I mean, I personally was just not comfortable sitting on this stranger's lap. Anyways, he continued later on, when he asked Megan if she would go on a walk with him, just the two of them. Luckily here, Megan had her wits about her and was wise enough to decline going on a walk with this strange, Luxembourgish boy into the dark streets of Esch. Like I said, Christophe was chill for a while, but then it just got weird.

Sidenote: I taught Christophe the important aspects of American culture, such as:
1. How to fist pound (with the help of Tiffany and Brad, Christophe learned such classics as The Octopus, The Spaceship, The Parallel-Park, The Snail, and The Explosion / Black Hole / Theoretical White Hole)
2. Slang - I taught him the words swag, bro, shred, and chill. Pretty much all the basics.

Speaking of chill - for the guy's bachelor party, the bar staff at Pitcher had cooked up a bunch of chili. So they just started passing around bowls of chili to everyone at the bar - it was delicious (and tasted like America). So that was pretty awesome, as is all free food.

Oh, and we were drinking this whole time (I mean, we were at a bar, so yeah). We started off with a pitcher of Black Nickel, each had a couple of shots, then moved on to Purple Nickel, had a couple more shots, and finally we had some Red Nickel and more shots. For reference: Purple / Black / Red Nickel are some of the house specialties of mixed drinks. Christophe was trying to explain what was actually in them - he said it was like Mayella (sp?) some Brazilian liquor that's not vodka, and that the rest was secret. But anyways, I don't think it's very strong - as I (a barely amateur drinker) had 10 or 11 shots in the three hours we were there and felt (almost) completely fine. I mean, it was either that the drinks weren't that strong, or my Irish genetics are finally kicking in (haha, thanks for those Blue!). Either way, I was fine.

All in all, a superb evening. It was a lot of fun to just hang out, chat, relax, and meet and talk to new people. Pitcher is so cool, I'll be going back for sure (as in like Thursday, once midterms are over). Oh, speaking of midterms - I need to go study for my econ exam tomorrow...Oops!

What Happens in Amsterdam Stays in Amsterdam...

So this past weekend, I traveled to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Now, you should know a few things about Amsterdam before you continue reading - first, Amsterdam has…let's say, "looser" regulations about certain things that are less acceptable in America. For example, prostitution is one of Amsterdam's biggest industries, and is quite prevalent. Also, the use of marijuana is widespread amongst the "coffeeshops" of Amsterdam.

So we rolled out of Luxembourg Friday afternoon and caught a 14:20 train toward Namur, where we changed trains. Then, our train from Namur to Liege-Guillemins got late, and we missed our next train. But, we eventually got on a train from Liege-Guillemins to Maastricht, and then on to Amsterdam.

We pulled up at about 21:00 into the main station at Amsterdam, and had to figure out how to get to our sketchy bed and breakfast. Turns out we have to get on this ferry across the river, and then we just had to walk up the street to get to this lady's house. Luckily, we found the place without any problems, and met Linda - the hippy lady. Backstory - so we ended up at this B&B because someone's marketing professor heard we were going to Amsterdam, and recommended this place, and actually made our reservations for us (turns out Linda was an old friend of his).

So, our rooms were very interestingly decorated: lots of strange black paintings and funky decorations. Also, though there was a bathroom in the hall, we had a shower in our room - but it was like a free-standing unit, with an umbrella on top. After we set our stuff down, we headed back into the city to get dinner - because we were starving and it was almost 22:00.

So we rolled into the city, and wandered around for a while looking for someplace to eat. Unfortunately, as we were getting into the city late, the only real option was McDonald's (well, there was a KFC across the street, but that just seemed too American for us). We got some cheap food, and then walked over into the Red Light district. It was not really what I expected. Basically, there are just streets lined with these places where girls have like their own little booths, with glass doors. And they just kind of stand there, and from my understanding, if you want to uh…make a transaction, you have to go up, knock on the window, negotiate the price, step into their office…I think that's about enough detail. Anyhow, I actually thought it was hilarious at one point, because this one girl was in her booth, not paying any attention to all the people outside - she was texting on her phone. What the heck? I mean, it's not like I was interested, but she wasn't even trying.

We strolled around for a little bit longer, and then ended up at Bulldog, the hostel that a bunch of other Miami students were staying at. We sat around and just hung out for a bit - many of the students were in different states of mind, so it was quite entertaining. 

When all the other Miami students were clearing out, we decided to follow suit, but while they went to the Red Light District, we just went back to our place.  After about probably 5 minutes, we were asleep.

I woke up at 6:45 on Saturday morning, because I had thought that the established game plan was to be up and ready to roll at 8 am. Again, miscommunications about waking up led me to just chilling and getting some work done Saturday morning. We had breakfast with Linda at around 9:30, which consisted of bread, a nutella-like chocolate and marshmallow spread, eggs with ham, coffee, and orange juice. It was awesome to get a hearty, warm breakfast.

We got back to the dock, got on the ferry (which I'm still not sure if it cost anything to get on, but we never paid for it, so whatever), and got back to the main train station. We then took a leisurely walk to the Anne Frank house. The city is very pretty, much more so during the day than it was the night before. Here is a picture of one of the canals in the city:

We eventually got to the Anne Frank house, and noticed that there was a substantial line, but heard it was going fast. Our group actually split up at this point, as several members were uninterested, and several were. I was among those who stayed and waited in line. It was only about a 40 minute wait to get in, but it seemed faster. So unfortunately, you were not allowed to take pictures inside the museum / house, but I can tell you all about it:

So it's actually quite a large facility, because the front part is a warehouse area, and in the back, where the 8 people actually hid, was a sort of annex house. Throughout the museum they had quotations from Anne Frank's diary on the walls, and a ton of artifacts or relevant news publications. They still had the original newspaper cutouts and posters that Anne and her family had put on the walls hung up in place. When you walk through the bookcase into the secret annex, you really do feel like you can connect with what they did for two years. They had the curtains drawn all the time, they could never go outside, and had to maintain silence as much as possible.

Basically, it was really cool. At the end especially, they had a ton of stuff about Anne's actual diary. They had a bunch of original pages and stuff - it seemed as though she was quite the prolific writer. It's a shame, such inspiration and hope, lost because of a genocidal maniac and his oratorical skills.

So then, we went to go meet our friends at the Heineken Brewery. Unfortunately, we went the wrong way and ended up going like 20 minutes out of the way before turning around and power-walking all the way to the Brewery. The 15 euros it cost to go on the "Heineken Experience" tour was a little steep, but I'd do it again for sure.

The first part of the tour was all about the history of Heineken. It discussed the company's founding, their awards, and the evolution of the business. Then, we got to see how they make the actual beer, and even got to taste the raw hops and barley (which were bitter and terrible). Next, we got to see all of the brewing facilities, which were large and cool but I had no idea what any of it was for. The next part of the tour was called "Brew U" and it was like an interactive ride in which they demonstrated what it would be like to become a bottle of Heineken beer. While interesting, all I wanted to do was get something to drink. We hadn't had lunch, and I was really thirsty from the power-walking. Finally, we got to have our tasting of freshly made Heineken beer. So they let us go into this room, and they just passed out glasses (15 cl, which means they were small), of beer to taste. The guy explained that there is a lot of foam in Heineken beer, and that's intentional to protect the flavor of the beer underneath. They instructed us to tilt the glass back when we drink so that the beer can get under the foam into our mouths - and how drinking foam would indicate your inexperience and overall lameness. It was harder than I imagined, but I managed to not drink all of the foam. Whatever. But my thirst was still not satisfied. Here is a picture of Heineken's tasting bar area:

So we continued on the tour, and got to see several exhibits about the marketing of Heineken and of all the stuff they sponsored. There was an exhibit about James Bond and another about the Champions League - both were really cool. Finally though, at the end of the tour, we got to the Heineken World Bar. We each were given two tokens upon entrance to the experience, and each token was good for a beer at the World Bar. So, that's pretty much what happened. We sort of skipped the line and just went up and grabbed our drinks. These were bigger glasses (maybe 25 or 30 cl - I honestly don't remember). But we got our second drinks, and had those too. And then I remember some strangers just left their full beers on our table, and I seem to recall somebody pouring some of that into my empty glass. 

Moral of the story: Jimmy is a lightweight / beer has greater effects on you if you haven't eaten lunch. So then, we exited the brewery. Now, several of our friends had gone and rented bikes without us, so we had to take the tram back to the train station and get bikes of our own. That tram ride was probably the most fun I've had in a while - due to the fact that I was definitely beyond the point of "just feeling it" and would even go as far as to say I was "tipsy." Anyway, for some reason I let (Name removed for liability purposes) convince me that it'd be fine to get on bikes. I can't even believe the guy let me rent them, and even encouraged me to not get the 3 euro insurance! Probably not the best decision I've ever made in my life, but luckily nothing bad happened. I somehow managed to be able to bike around solidly for the rest of the evening - how, I'll never know.

We settled on going to a Tibetan restaurant for dinner. Some of the other Miami students had told us that all of the Chinese and Indonesian food was really good in Amsterdam (don't ask me why), but we ended up at a Tibetan restaurant. I had mixed meat and rice, which was warm and delicious. Also, it was cheap, I think it ended up costing like ten euros for the whole meal. So anyways, we paid, and headed back out into the city.

After getting our bikes, riding through the crowded streets, and parking them shortly thereafter, we decided it was time to go to another bar. So we ended up at the Blarney Stone, an Irish pub. It was by far the lamest Irish pub I've been to yet. I mean, there was like ten people there, most of them were already drunk, and they were all guys. If there is not a single woman in the entire bar, you can be sure you're at the wrong place. Anyhow, they did have cheap beer, so I somehow managed to procure a pint of Guinness (funny how that just happens). 

So we were pretty tired, and after biking through the Red Light district at night, we had all had plenty of Amsterdam and were ready to sleep. So we made our way back to the train station, got on our ferry, crossed the river, and rolled up to our B&B. So, after such a long day, we still faced the challenge of getting into our place - Linda had supposedly left a key for us in the mailbox, but it was the wrong key, and we were supposed to use the back door. Ergo, we ended up knocking on the door, and Linda had to come let us in. Then, after a long and challenging day, I at least, had relatively little challenges in getting to sleep.

We awoke late Sunday morning, around 8:30 or so. After a quick shower in our room, we heard Linda calling us down for breakfast. Again, we had some delicious bread, coffee, and warm eggs. It is so clutch to get warm breakfast - they just don't do that in Europe very often. So then we got on our bikes, and rode back into the city (after taking the ferry of course). Here is a picture of our little ferry dock area (with the train station centered in the background):

We shopped around for touristy souvenirs (I really should buy people some gifts…). After that, we returned our bikes, went back to our B&B to pick up our backpacks, and hopped on a train after snagging some sandwiches for lunch. So after approximately seven hours of relatively uneventful train travel, we got back to Lux City, and thus ended another interesting weekend in Europe.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to check out more pictures on facebook (I'll put them up shortly after I post this blog). 

Weekend In Lux City (Apples, Banana's, and Bars)

So, as a result of having been a little ill, worn down from schoolwork, and the impending week of travel, I (among a good few other MUDECers) elected to stay in town this weekend. Before the weekend however, I went out to dinner with Norby on Thursday night, and it was awesome.

So Norby's two friends (and I feel terrible about this, but I forget their names now) came over and picked us up around 7:30 or so. We had a beer before we left, and I had some other Luxembourg beer that I haven't had before. It was nice. So we went to this little restaurant that was originally just a house. It was really small, quiet, and very cozy. The place itself was basically just a room and a bar with a few tables around the walls. So, for dinner itself, I (on Norby's advice) had filet de cheval. For you non-french speakers, I ate horse meat. It was actually really tasty. I think it's best described as like American beef in taste / texture, but significantly leaner. Anyhow, Norby and his one friend split a Raclette meal. Ok, so basically this thing is a Swiss delicacy, and it's quite a feast. They serve you a big block of cheese in a heating device, so you slowly melt the cheese. They also provide you with a plate of assorted meats and a bunch of potatoes, so you can basically go to town and combine all of them in a warm, sumptuous feast of flavor. Norby let me try some, and it was superb. We ended up hanging out, having some wine, and chatting with the other people in the restaurant (which is cool, because that doesn't really happen a lot of places in Luxembourg).

Fast-forward to Friday night. I take the 17:48 train from Esch into Lux City. Greg and Patrick meet me on the train, and we arrive in Lux city at 6:15. It's a short 7 minute bus ride, where we get off near the city center. A 5 minute walk later and we arrive at the city center. Hilarity ensues as Patrick and Bobby are wearing the exact same striped sweater (with different colors). Dinner discussions are tense, the group splits up - I end up drinking strawberry margaritas at Chi Chi's. After the rest of the group meets us there, we get dinner at Chi Chi's (quesadilla - first mexican food in a month). Some of the group has already left, but several of us decide another margarita wouldn't really be such a bad idea, so we hang out for a little bit longer. Then, after a 10 minute walk through the city, we get to Clausen - basically a street with a bunch of bars on it. PROBLEM: there are bouncers at either end of the street, and to get in you need a valid i.d. For some reason, my train pass (with my birthday on it) or my student id (also with my birthday) did not suffice - they said I needed a passport or drivers' license. Bummer. SOLUTION: we walked around to the other entrance of Clausen, waited for a huge group of students to roll in, blended in, and snuck in. Ended up at some bar called Verso, had a couple of (quite expensive) drinks, and chilled out.

I took time to analyze how different the clubs were in Europe as opposed to those in America. (Disclaimer: I do not spend a large amount of time in clubs anywhere, but I've researched this subject extensively and feel I possess enough base knowledge to comment on key differences). So anyway, in Europe, they play extremely loud dance music all night, but no one really dances. At least, there's not like a pure dance floor where everyone is just getting down. Well, I take that back, there were some people dancing, but the vast majority of persons present were just standing or sitting, hanging out, and drinking with their friends. The bar was huge, the bathrooms weren't trashy, and everyone was really dressed up - these were the chief differences I noticed. Also, there were a lot more places to sit down in Europe. Oh, and in Europe, everybody smokes in the bars, which is not all that cool - because now my nice clothes smell like smoke. Anyway, back to my riveting narrative. So found Jacques and Phillippe (Greg's host brothers) and they guided us back to the train station in time to catch the last train home (it left Lux City at 12:50 am). As expected, we ran into a bunch of other Miami students on the train back (an experience in and of itself), and I made it home by about 1:30 am. A late night indeed.

Woke up about 11:30 on Saturday morning. Hopped on the 1:14 train into Lux City, as the game plan was to hit up the Apple Festival going on in Steinsel (a little village just north of Lux City). Now, I had been told that it would be a 15 minute bus ride, and a short walk up a hill. Allow me to correct that statement with what it actually was: a 30 minute bus ride, a 40 minute trek up a large hill. No big deal though, just got to Applefest a little later than I had planned. It wasn't really a festival so much as a couple of tents and an apple orchard. But, it was really cool. I had some of the best apple juice I've ever had, tried some fresh apple tart, and got to stroll casually through the orchard and pick some apples. They were fantastic.

On our way back down the hill, we ran into other Miami students and told them that they were unfortunately too late to make it to the festival. But, instead, we all went out to dinner in Lux City at a place called Banana's - which was awesome. The margaritas there were real strong though. Luckily, I also had a giant hamburger / egg / cheese / french fries sandwich contraption for dinner. After dawdling around in the city for a while, we were notified via text message that it was "student night" at Verso (the same bar we were at on Friday night), and that "student night" meant "free beer for students." Ergo, we made it to Verso (and I had my driver's license now, so it was chill). After another long night of chillaxing (and almost running into Norby, as I later learned), made it home, slept, and woke up around noon today. Very unproductive day so far, basically been getting ready to leave on our Study tour tomorrow.

Our chocolate class is headed to Koln tomorrow via bus. Then later to Brussels and Bruges. Should be interesting - especially since I have no real plans for afterwards on Thursday. By that I mean, we get done with our Study Tour on Thursday at 1500 in Bruges, and class doesn't resume until Monday morning, so I'm going somewhere - I just don't know where yet.

That brings me to a study abroad tip for anyone considering it: Either go with one really good friend, or go to a program where no one knows each other before hand. It's been a little difficult for me here, because I didn't know any MUDECers before I got here, and there are a ton of people here who came with like one best friend, so it can be clique-y at times, which is unfortunate. It can be hard to fit into groups of already-established friends at times. But, don't let that discourage you from heading out on your own. Sometimes, that's the best way to get to know yourself and how you really feel about life.

Anyway, I need to finish packing - look forward to hearing from me in a week or so about my long travel time. Thanks for reading!

Luxembourgish Sunday

Today was all Luxembourg.

I got up this morning, had brunch with Norby and his friends from Germany, and took a shower. Then, we went to the National Museum of the Mines in Remalange (just outside of Esch). We got to take like an hour-long guided tour down into the old steel mines, which was sweet. Unfortunately, our tour guide just spoke in Luxembourgish, but thankfully they gave us these little audio players so that we could hear the tour in English. Twas a fascinating tale indeed.

We spent the afternoon at Pitcher, where we met Norby's niece, Tammy, and her friends Michael and Andy. Greg and his host family, including Jacques, as well as a couple other Miami students joined us for some drinks while it poured outside. So, I had a Heineken, which was good. But then Tammy and her friends got some "Blue Nickel" (could be off, but that's what it sounded like), which was some drink invented at that bar. I inquired as to what it was, and Norby told me it was a little vodka with a lot of blue lemonade and lime flavoring. So, we all had a shot of that (while I'm still drinking my Heineken). We just hung out and chatted, and it was very nice. We had another shot of the Blue Nickel (still good), and hung out some more.The bartender, Jean-Claude, then brought over some black looking drink, called Black Nickel. I did not have any. But later, when he brought us some Purple Nickel, I mean, I had to try it since everybody else seemed to like it. It was more sour than the Blue stuff. And then Michael poured me another (I tried to stop him, but I don't think he understood english very well). So, I had to have it. DISCLAIMER: I am not an alcoholic, and I will only drink responsibly - approximately three hours elapsed while we sat at this bar. UNDISCLAIMER: Then after a while, Norby decided we needed to have some Bofferding, which is another famous Luxembourgish beer. 

Then, we went to Greg's host family's house for a traditional Luxembourgish dinner. It was awesome. We had some pork pie with jelly for an appetizer. Then we had bean slurp soup, which sounds nasty, but was actually delicious. Then we had bacon potatoes (best creation ever), wine sausage with mustard, and salad for the main course. All of it was incredible and satisfying. Then dessert was a plum pie with whipped cream. Oh, and with appetizers and dinner we had a Riesling (white wine from the Moselle region), which was quite nice and refreshing. Then, after dinner we each had a small glass of Vieux Marc, which turns out is some extremely strong french liquor (even Norby said so!). I got it down though. I'm actually surprised that I did so well considering the amount of alcohol I consumed today. Don't get me wrong, I was trying to be very responsible and not drunk (which is extremely, EXTREMELY, frowned upon in Europe), but I was unsure about how I would handle. Luckily, I have good genes for this kind of stuff (thanks Mom and Dad!). So then, before we left, Tiffany and I asserted our American dominance at foosball over Jacques and his cousin, Lisa. America 4, Luxembourg 1. Victory yet again.

Anyways, first day of class is tomorrow, and I have class from 845 all the way until 1915. Yikes. Long day ahead, so yeah, peace out.