Moien ("hello") from Luxembourg! (Or, since we're being all international, from Lëtzebuerg ... that's Luxembourg in Luxembourgish. But I digress.) I am writing from my new home away from home, the Maison Koehlebierg in Esch-sur-Alzette. Although I have only been in Luxembourg for twenty four hours, there is already so much to say and so many stories to tell!
But let's start at the beginning...
Pre-departure photoshoot at Dulles Airport!
I flew to Luxembourg on KLM (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij, or Royal Dutch Airlines), the Dutch counterpart of Air France, and spent a few hours on layover in Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Although the airport was lovely (and featured free WiFi, a perk whose importance simply cannot be overstated), I quickly realized that -- despite a few years of German and a relatively positive attitude toward the Netherlands -- I by no means speak Dutch. Luckily, in addition to their understanding of the importance of Internet access, the Dutch also all seem to speak English.
After a lengthy but relatively smooth layover in Amsterdam, I finally made my way to Luxembourg! My first glimpse of the grand duchy was from the air and I couldn't resist snapping a quick photo through the plane windows. Did it feel like Princess Mia's arrival in Genovia at the end of The Princess Diaries? Why yes. Yes it did.
After arriving at Luxembourg's much smaller airport yesterday, I went straight to campus to get my student card and room key (more on the fun administrative side of things later) and finally arrived in the southern city of Esch-sur-Alzette around dinner time. Dinner, however, wasn't in the cards; after unpacking about half my suitcase and struggling to keep my eyes open long enough to figure out the WiFi password, I went straight to sleep!! (Let me tell you -- jet lag is real and it is terrible.)
Today -- my first full day in Luxembourg -- has been a fun, disorienting whirlwind, full of walking, grocery shopping, and meeting new people whose names and native languages I'm not sure I'll remember. The fact that I am finally here after months and months of waiting has yet to sink in, but I have a feeling that Luxembourg will very quickly start to feel like home.
I'll write again soon and share more photos and information about my new life in Luxembourg. But for now -- Äddi!!
Having coffee and pastries at the kitchen table and missing you so very much. But then daddy showed me a YouTube video of a funny lab experiment complete with blue smoke everywhere and I know I'll be okay.
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