As you probably know, I've made no secret about how excited I am to explore Luxembourg's Mullerthal Region. After a wonderful hike with my housemates a few weeks ago, I decided to try yet another outdoor adventure this weekend!
This time, a few American Fulbrighters and I decided to try hiking to Echternach, which has the distinction of being the oldest town in Luxembourg. From the moss-covered rock formations to the stunning views to the incredibly personable city of Echternach, this hike has to be one of my favorite adventures yet!
Today was a beautiful day in Luxembourg and after a welcome brunch for new international students, I decided to get outdoors and explore a new corner of my city!
The municipal park of Esch-sur-Alzette, known as the Gaalgebierg for reasons I cannot for the life of me imagine, is located just on the other side of the train tracks. Although a lot of my housemates go running there, I had yet to check it out. (I can practically hear the surprise: "What? Elisabeth hasn't gone running in Luxembourg yet?!") So this afternoon, I put on my Keds, packed my bag with the essentials -- books and stroopwafels -- and headed out to investigate.
Moien! I've been in Luxembourg for just over two weeks now and have managed to pick up practically none of the local language. (I have, however, mastered the helpless "I don't speak your language" look.) So today, I'm keeping it simple with a post about something you see every day on this blog -- the Luxembourgish days of the week! I can't think of a particularly practical use for this knowledge at the moment as I have yet to see these words written down in any sort of schedule, but why not?
As before, these words bear a certain similarity to German days of the week; for example, Montag instead of Méindeg. (And like German, I can't help thinking that the system isn't particularly practical for work week abbreviations ... MDMDF? No thanks!) But as you'll notice in the following video, the pronunciation of these Luxembourgish words COULD NOT BE more different than their German counterparts.
Isn't that crazy?! I can't get over "Dunn-dunnsch" ... I mean Dënschdeg!
While we're here, let's move on to Luxembourgish months. In comparison to the days of the week, they're pretty tame; in fact almost all of them are basically the same as in English.
January: Januar
February: Februar
March: Mäerz
April: Abrëll
May: Mee
June: Juni
July: Juli
August: August
September: September
October: Oktouber
November: November
December: Dezember
I love how October was like, "Hey -- August and September were too normal. I'm going to shake things up and add an extra letter or two!" and then November was like, "Sorry 'bout him." As for what happened to the spring months? I have no idea ... but I have a feeling that I'll be super excited to write "Abrëll" every day for a month!
If you've seen my Fulbright Bucket List, you'll know that hiking along the Mullerthal Trail was one of the things I was most excited to do in Luxembourg. (Rather inexplicably, I should note, as there's no love lost between me and outdoor exercise. Yuck.) Well, I wasted no time -- on my second full day in Luxembourg, I got the opportunity to cross the first item off my list! I spent the day hiking with four other international students from my residence.
We started our hike in the village of Mullerthal (after which the Mullerthal Region and Trail are named). The twelve kilometer hike took us along a portion of the Mullerthal Trail and to the town of Consdorf.
This gorgeous waterfall on the Black Ernz River is called -- wait for it -- the Schiessentümpel. (How fun is Luxembourgish?!) The waterfall is one of the most popular spots for hikers in Luxembourg and was even voted one of the world's most beautiful bridges earlier this year. (Or was it? The article is in German.)
After a whirlwind trip to Brussels for Fulbright Orientation, I'm finally back in Luxembourg ... and still digesting everything I learned less than twenty-four hours ago!
The second day of Fulbright Orientation was reserved solely for the five English Teaching Assistants and focused on the challenge of teaching English abroad. Although we all have varying levels of teaching and tutoring experience, it would be a stretch to call any of us professional teachers. Of course, that's not the point of the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship; if it were, they'd hire actual trained teachers instead of young people right out of college. Still, it's hard not to feel underqualified for the position -- especially when you realize that you're teaching more English Literature courses than you ever actually took.
That's why ETA Orientation was so important. It provided us with some teaching strategies and helpful advice and it reminded us that we're all are in similar -- if equally poorly-equipped -- boats!
Ready to exchange, explore, evolve and -- hopefully -- EDUCATE!
