Luxembourg

Hi! So I haven't updated in about a month. On the general front, things are going good, I've been to my last school party (and Denmark throws rad parties, can you imagine...), I went on a day tour with my Rotary club where we visited many of the different borders between Denmark and Germany, and THEEEENNNNN a couple days later went to Luxembourg while staying at my host dads house near Düsseldorf, Germany. (Disclaimer: He lives part time in Germany because he works for NATO).

The first day (Saturday) the other exchange student and I drove to Düsseldorf, Germany, with my host mom, and arrived around dinner time. Technically there isn't much to talk about on the first day because it was all spent driving.

The next morning (Sunday) we woke up at 7 which was ridiculously hard, ate breakfast (which I was hoping wasn't mandatory at such an hour of the morning), and then drove a couple hours to Luxembourg City.


We got there around 3:30 that afternoon, and went to the American Cemetery from WWII. It was like a smaller version of Omaha Beach, with 5,076 burials, many people unknown when lost in combat. We wandered around there for a while before leaving and driving into Luxembourg City.

We drank some grass water when we got to the hotel (it was really Schweppes tonic with lemon but I panicked while ordering because I ran out of time so I just chose something that consequently tasted like grass), and then went and wandered around for a while. We ended up eating dinner in a Tex Mex restaurant, and ate a pepper that was probably grown in the sixth circle of hell, it was so hot. I did however have refried beans, which I have not had since I left the U.S, which was like taking a flight on the airline of taste buds back to the U.S. Which in all honesty will be better than my delta airlines flight back, so cheers again to my itinerary that gets worse each time I think about it. (Really though, was geography not taken into consideration when making this itinerary)?!

After that we had some ice cream, and then went back up to our room for the night. Monday morning we woke up slightly later than Sunday but still early for the weekend, and ate breakfast together. We then went up, finished getting ready, and checked out of the hotel. My host parents went down to old town Luxembourg, and Claire and I went around Luxembourg City together, and ended up in a café. We met again at 12, and drove from Luxembourg City to Vianden, which is home to Vianden castle. It is so beautiful there!

We drove home after that, however not before a stop in Aachen, Germany at the lindt chocolate warehouse. I first walked in and thought I saw a couple other things like fruits, normal groceries, I thought it was kind of a grocery store with a couple extra lindt chocolates. No. My eyes soon adjusted to what was in front of me. It was all chocolate. Every shelf was lined with Lindt Swiss Chocolate. What a time to be alive.

Tuesday we were "home" in Germany, and toured the base with my host dad. We went into a couple shops and were blown away because we were lead to the American food section which was stocked with Ritz crackers, flamin' hot cheetos, regular cheetos, beef jerky, honey mustard pretzels, and all kinds of doritos. We didn't actually buy anything besides two personal sized honey mustard pretzels and bag of beef jerky which we shared (I didn't really eat the kind of food they sold here in Germany when I was back in the United States anyway), however it was like we were back in the United States for a couple hours. (You read hours correctly). We even heard people speaking English to the fluency of other Americans which, to be honest, it'd been a while, and even longer that we've really heard the nasally twang of Americans...and lets be honest, we can't deny we all sound a little nasally...

The biggest shock was when we walked into the shop to be greeted by a friendly display of pepperidge farm brand food, which if you recognize that brand name you probably know the goldfish crackers "the snack that smiles back." (I know you sang along to that). We scoured the store looking for them, practically running, but were unfortunately dismayed and disappointed when our hopes were brought up once again, and they really had set out a display of everything pepperidge farm, minus what is probably their best selling product. If you know what goldfish are, without jumping to conclusions we eat live goldfish, then you are American. (Clarification- when abroad you must clarify that goldfish double for crackers, I have indeed encountered this obstacle many times).

I have had a lot of people tell me "I know this great place with American food!" I have learned to dismiss these comments however, before I get my hopes up, because what Europe has yet to catch onto is that goldfish and cheez-its are probably the most American food of it all, and these shops will never be selling American food to me until I walk in and see a display of goldfish or cheez-its after a hearty nine months. (Tbh I'm well and functioning without goldfish and cheezits and have kind of hyped it up a bit this year, but what's a little hyperbole to make a story).

And tomorrow we drive home! So that was that.

Vi ses!