So, it's been a while. I blame this on being so incredibly busy at every second of the day, but I'm having tons of fun so it's all okay!
I guess I should talk about Luxembourg, Trier, and the Battle of the Bulge- bear with me, this happened like weeks ago so I may not remember everything.
So directly after work on Wednesday we all boarded this bus and made our way to Luxembourg- since our day was super hectic and we got to the hotel relatively late, we didn't do anything when we got back and just went to sleep (after me and Catherine, my roommate, watched this insane movie with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman being in the New World in French).
The next day we went to the Court of Justice, which was very interesting- we saw a court case, which really wasn't that interesting. The problem with the case was that the lawyers were very technical and kept on referring to articles and decisions that made no sense to us, so I spent my time flipping through the different interpretations and analyzing languages. After the Court of Justice we went to I beleive the European Investment Bank, and then Jerry took us on a tour of Luxembourg, which was so beautiful. After that we all had dinner and then started a loong preparation time for going on. Once we finally got out the door though, Rinske fell and twisted her ankle! oh no! and so Liz and I took her back to her room and then, tired, I decided to just go to bed.
The next day we left Luxembourg in order to go to Trier, a German town that still has many remnants from the Roman days. Rinske was a trooper and although she was in a wheelchair, followed us on a walking tour of Trier, up into towers and down into bathhouses. Trier was very beautiful and after the tour we went back in order to have some dinner- me and a few other people went to this German restuarant where Sara acted as the translator and made sure that we all had delicious food. After dinner, we went out (strangely, the best place to go out was in the old Jewish ghetto) and then collapsed into bed.
The next day we followed the tracks of the Battle of the Bulge in our bus- we spent a good amount of time on the bus, but the best part was going out and seeing the physical battlefield. It was beautiful and also haunting, since we knew that so many people had died there and Jerry kept warning us not to stray from the path because we might fall into a foxhole. After that we went back to the hotel and a few of us went out to a hookah bar, but it was an early night as we were so tired.
The next day we saw a graveyard where American soldiers who died in World War 2 were buried and got a tour- we also saw the site of a massacre of American POWs by German soldiers, and a site where four black US soldiers were tortured and killed- no monument had been made to them until 2002. After this, we went to a World War 2 museum which was run entirely by this man whose town had been liberated from German occupation by American soldiers and his wife. They've dedicated their lives to keeping the memory of World War 2 alive, and it was really great to see all of their things, which were mainly very personal things about soldiers that they had kept over the years.
After this, we got back on the bus and made our way to Brussels.
Peace out! Next time, my parents come to visit!!!
Pictures: Luxembourg and the Battle of the Bulge
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