I'll start with an apology for being really, really bad about keeping you all updated during my stay in Luxembourg. You can thank Matt for finally yelling at me enough to write something and post some pictures, although it's still taken me almost a week.
My first family in Luxembourg had a dairy farm and they also raised potatoes. They ate boiled potatoes everyday with the noon meal. Even if we were having pizza or spaghetti or something they had potatoes. Their house reminded me of the Hand County Courthouse. My host dad spoke a little bit of English and was really funny. He reminded me of a mad scientist. My host mom didn’t speak English, but apparently thought I spoke German because she always yelled at me or gave me commands in German. I didn’t like that very much. She often treated me like I was a 4 year old. Whenever I tried to help around the house I would be doing it wrong even if it was a simple job like peeling potatoes. I finally stopped helping because I was sick of getting yelled at. My actual hostess was a 33 year old girl/lady who still lived at home. There was a 32 year old sister who was married and had a little girl that turned 4 while I was there. Sarah, the little one, and I spent a lot of time together. She’s in preschool so I’d pick her up from the bus stop. I even went to preschool one day, but she was sick that day so I had to go alone. We also spent a lot of time coloring and playing UNO. I think I’ve had my fill of UNO for the next few decades. When I was with this family I went to France, but it was really kind of boring. I’ve been getting car sick a lot on this trip so long car rides really aren’t that much fun. I did get to see some Charolais cows in their native land of France. I also got to see the Chablis wine region.
My second family was a relatively young couple with a 4 and 6 year old. They have a huge new house. She is a teacher and he works from home selling insurance. The dad enjoys mountain biking so the first weekend I was there I went on a 27km ride with him. I was only with that family for a week, but I will go back to them this weekend for another 2 ½ weeks.
My third family also has a dairy farm. They have 3 kids ages 18, 15, and 13. Everybody speaks pretty good English. Frank my youngest brother is just starting to learn English, but he tried very hard to talk to me in English. He’s a super awesome kid. He does Judo so I’ve even gotten to watch him when they have Judo practice. Everybody thought I was going to come to Europe and find my future husband, but I’ve already told Cindy I’ve found Maddy’s future husband. The kids are all in scouts. Rather than having boy & girl scouts they just have scouts, but it’s like boy scouts. The first day I was here I went to scouts with them and I learned the secret Luxembourgish scout language. The first week the kids were all in school, they had last week off and are back in school this week. I’ve helped on the farm some. I’ve power washed the room where they milk the cows several times, I’ve fed the bulls they are fattening up to eat, I’ve gone to the pasture to bring in a cow that was about to calve, and I’ve mowed the lawn and raked leaves. Last I went with my oldest host brother in the tractor to this recycling place. There is a place to drop off grass clippings and tree branches right next to our house and my host dad gets paid to haul it to the recycling place. Last week we went shopping in Germany and we also went to Brussels Belgium. In Brussels we went to Mini Europe a place where they have small models of famous buildings in Europe. We also went to the Atomium, a building in the shape of an atom built for the 1958 World’s Fair. Last Saturday there was a dinner for all the people that had hosted people this year. This family is very, very interested in history, especially WWII. This area was right in the middle of all of it so that’s partially why. The Battle of the Bulge wasn’t too far from here and my host grandma had US soldiers living in her house during the war. They’ve told me how sometimes you’re still able to find grenades or other remnants from the war buried in the area. They have some US Army helmets that they have found in the woods. Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Berlin wall falling so we watched a special about it on tv. I thought that was pretty cool, especially when they pushed over the wall they’d built like dominos. I’ve learned a lot of very interesting history with this family.
Luxembourg reminds me more of home than Austria did. I think it might be because Luxembourg has been influenced by so many different cultures. Yesterday the “Schwan’s man” was here. It wasn’t really Schwan’s, but it was a similar company.
For those of you that don’t already know I’m going back to school when I get home. I’m going to the University of Wyoming in Laramie to get my master in geography with an emphasis in GIS. I have to take some undergraduate geography classes so I can get a better base understanding that geography is more than where places are in relation to one another. Also they’re required to get into the program. Those will be the classes I’ll be taking this spring in preparation for the real deal next fall.
I haven’t been doing nearly as much running as I would like, but I have finally updated my maps on the left of where I am along I-90.
About time!
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