Schéint neit Jor! Or as they say in French, Bonne année et bonne santé!

The people here are serious about their fireworks. There were so many all around me that I could smell the sulphur inside my apartment. But it was fun.

As they say here, Schéi Chrëschtdeeg!

Last night I emailed the CFL about buying a copy of their Guide randonnée. This morning, I received a reply at 8:30am. It turned out that the only place to buy the guide was the main train station in Luxembourg City. I had hoped that I could buy it at a station closer to me. My timing was good, however. If I didn’t come down to buy it today, I couldn’t get it until 5 January. Since I wanted to hike over the holidays, I went down to get it.

It’s a nice book, full of “station to station” hikes. The book is a small two-ring binder so that you can remove the pages individually and put them in the included plastic sleeve.

The Wort had a very cool collection of photos today, showing places in Luxembourg as they looked immediately after the war and today. The photographs have sliders you can adjust how much of the past or the present you see.

It’s hard for me to believe that the semester is almost over, but today was the Final Awards Banquet. As you might imagine, it’s not that easy to find a place that can accommodate about 150 people. We ended up going into Luxembourg City, which is always fun. Including travel, however, the banquet took up most of the afternoon (we still had classes in the morning).

Today the Wort had a story about a Ditty dedicated to Duchy’s Gromperekichelcher. Mike McQuaide, the singer/song writer, has some other fun songs about his experience as an American in Luxembourg.

It’s Only Gromperekichelcher (But I Like it)

Lose Yourself to the Lëtzebuergesch Sprooch

http://youtu.be/q3tPihdHXUs

Dat Ass Lëtzebuergesch Sprooch As I Know It

St. Moritz, Switzerland. The hotel we stayed at was on a lake. I am a horrible photographer, so you can imagine how beautiful it was in person.

We left for Basel, Switzerland today at 13h and arrived five hours later. The bus ride wasn’t bad at all. After we all checked in, we took the tram over to the Marktplatz and then took the Jacob Burckhardt walk around the older part of town to orient the students. Burckhardt was Nietzsche’s colleague and friend at the University of Basel. The city was in the process of putting up their Christmas markets, but had already strung Christmas lights across the streets. So naturally the song “It’s beginning to look at lot like Christmas” began to loop in my head.

Between traveling and walking all day, I was glad to go to sleep. The Swiss should be famous for their mattresses. I’d probably have to sell my car to buy one, but they are so comfortable.

Because we leave for on our study tours tomorrow, Thanksgiving was held today. Students from Luxembourg University were invited, as were some community members and Miami students doing their student teaching in Luxembourg. Needless to say, it was the biggest Thanksgiving I’ve ever attended. We had a nice evening, although many of the students missed watching American football.