much overdue

Wow, it has been quite some time since I was last here.

The past few weeks have been a little crazy and I will try to cover most of the highs and lows in this post.

My beautiful and wonderful sister came to visit me for a week and we had an AMAZING time traveling around.  Spent a day in Brussels, a day in Bruges, a day in Amsterdam, a day in Trier (Germany), and a day in Lux.  It was so much fun to travel around with her and it was great to show her my home, here in Lux!

A few days after Liz left I actually got some bad news that a good friend from home had very unexpectedly passed away.  It was pretty tough week after that and I thought a lot about coming home early but after lots of thinking and praying I have come to the conclusion that I need to finish off my time here right and so I am just trying not to think too much about home but rather focus on enjoying on the time I have left here and hopefully this next month and a half will fly by!

I have been teaching drama classes for three or four weeks and it is going really well.  I am finding that seventh grade is a very challenging age for drama because most of the boys are jumping off the walls, overflowing with energy while most of the girls are so self conscious they are basically mute and glued to each other.  And it is my job to bridge this gap while teaching them something about drama in the process.

In other news I am getting very excited for a certain birthday I have coming up on cinco de mayo! I am throwing myself a proper birthday party at a bowling alley here and inviting about 10 close friends so it should be a good time!! Hopefully I will have pictures and stories from the festivities in my next post. 

Spain, jason, and pizza soup

Pictures from my adventures in Spain...

me at the Jason mraz concert

Me eating a kabab, or as we call them in america, a gyro

I dont even know what was in that thing, but I ate it...huge accomplishment!

beautiful Alicante

My precious little room in Alicante

Troy and I out to dinner, enjoying some cervazas

so, I know i have been a little behind the curve with the blog lately...I guess i don't really have a good excuse, sorry.   Here are some exciting things in my life since my last post:

~Started teaching drama, loving it, but also feeling challenged by these crazy seventh graders already, so hopefully that is a good thing

~Had an amazing trip to Spain, where I was able to spend some time with friends and see some really beautiful spanish sights

~Attended two Jason Mraz concerts where I first, fell deeper in love with this amazing musician and then second, came to terms with the fact that we probably aren't going to end up falling madly in love any time in the near future (quite an emotional roller coaster)

~Tried sushi last night, for those of you who know my eating habits, this is quite a big deal

~Read an incredible book called, "Love Walked In", which i highly reccommend to anyone looking for a god read

~Cooked chicago style pizza for my friends, wanted it to be like Lou Malnatis and added extra tomatoes to the top which created some excess liquids and led to the renaming of my dish to "pizza soup", oh well atleast everyone was in agreement that it tasted delicious!

~Made a trip to the farmers market on wednesday which is always a delight because it is in the beautiful city centre and it was even sunny so that made even more delightful

Tomorrow is the last day of school before our two week long spring break and I couldn't be more excited because my wonderful sister is coming to visit me!!! I am meeting her in Brussels where we will spend two nights and then we are traveling to brugges and amsterdam and then back to Lux, should be a great trip.  I am truly craving some sister time and I think this is going to be just the boost i need to get me through the last two months.  Hopefully my next post will be filled with beautiful pictures and wonderful sister stories.

Until then...

i could get lost in a phonebooth

I am currently sitting in the Luxembourg Airport waiting to board my plane to Madrid where I will be spending Friday and Saturday with two good friends and going to see the love of my life (Jason Mraz) in concert.  Then I will be heading to Alicante, which is on the coast, for three days to relax, see friends and enjoy the beach.  Should be a great trip!

Bonehead moment of the day: I had to take the bus to the airport this morning (because marc is out of town and eleanor is working) which i had never done before.  I successfully took the number 8 to the centre and then switched to the number 9 to the airport but was so paranoid about missing my stop the I got off one to early and had to walk like 20 minutes to the actual airport, silly me.  Should be interesting navigating the spanish train system where I have to switch like 4 times to get to my hostile.  It will be a miracle if I make it there with my directional challenges...as Grandma always says, "I could get lost in a phone booth"

On that note, say a little prayer for me and hopefully my next update will be from sunny spain!

Adios amigos

you might not recognize me these days as I am eating things like multigrain bread, duck, and peppers

This past weekend was crazy, starting on Friday when I had the kids all day because they had no school due to conferences.  I wont go in to too many details but there were quite a few meltdowns and explosions which on one hand made me feel like I might have a nervous breakdown at any second but on the other hand gave me an opportunity to try some new parenting techniques which brought me to the funny realization that I have been here for seven months and I am just now figuring out how these complex little children work and what the best ways are for me to get through to them, oh well- such is life... I guess more like such is parenting.

After a stressful day with the kids I went out with some friends to our regular british bar in the centre and called it a pretty early night.  

Saturday I was able to go to a yoga class at the gym and then had practice for worship team and then met up with some fri

ends at a charming little South American restaurant in the centre for dinner.  The evening was filled with delicious food (i even tried duck), ever flowing wine, and delightful friends.

Some cute ones of me and the girls (Rachel, Lindsey, and Mariella)

 Me, Rachel, Cristoph, and Lindsay before we are about to indulge in some delicious fajitas

I'm actually going to be using my college degree!

As today was probably the most productive day that I have had in weeks, I decided that the only proper way to end a super productive day would be with a super thorough blog post...

I feel a little bit like life is moving in fast forward these days.  There is so much going on and it is hard to remember how much I have shared with you, dear blog friends.  

The biggest news that I have to share is that the International School where i have been substitute teaching since december-ish offered me a job (to replace a teacher going on maternity leave) through the end of the school year.  And get this...it is teaching drama! For those of you who know me (which hopefully is all of you, because I am not sure I want someone who doesn't know me reading my innermost blog thoughts) you will know how exciting this is, to get to be a real drama teacher- I will actually be using my college degree (even if for only 3 months)!  I am not sure what age classes I will have exactly but I am sure it will be a blast no matter what.  So they wanted me to do the job through next Christmas but alas I have my heart set on returning to my homeland this summer so I will be extended my stay only through June 19th which means coming home for one week then hitting up MI for the first stop in wedding marathon (over the next few months) and then off to the Northwoods for another summer of endless youth working at Clearwater Camp for Girls.  

I know it's a crazy life I lead but I couldn't be happier that I am going to be able to have all these wonderful experiences, life is so good!

Upcoming travels: Spain- Madrid + Jason Mraz concert! (April 20-22) and Alicante (March 22-25)

Liz and Kat's European sister adventure: Brussels, Brugges, Amsterdam (April 5-12)

Beurgbrennen

This country is honestly so strange sometimes....

March 1st: Buergbrennen

This Luxembourgish ritual takes place in the evening of the first Sunday after Ash Wednesday.  The practice seems to have Pagan origins and is thought to be a purification rite to commemorate the end of winter or chase the winter spirit away.

People in the villages erect a huge straw-covered cross or wheel of wood, topped with an evergreen tree, and place it on a hillside.  According to tradition, the most recently married couple or large groups of children light the cross or wheel at nightfall in the presence of spectators.

Before the ceremony village youth go around ringing doorbells to collect bacon or money for supper, which takes place in a local cafe after the burning.  

Me enjoying some gluhwein 

(spiced hot wine that they serve at luxembourgish events)

The kids about to light the cross

Robyn and I (sneaky Marcus in the background)

Burn Fire Burn!

What Luxembourger doesn't love a good cross burning?

The flames dying out

gratitude for today

Pictures from snowboarding in the French Alps:

micah (my friend/snowboard instructor) decided it would be funny to take me through some powder which led me into an extreme frustrating pattern of riding for about 10 seconds then whipping out and then spending a good five minutes trapped in the powder using all my strength to stand back up for no more than ten seconds- I can only imagine how funny it was for Micah to watch

Our lovely lunch spot

Obviously taking a break from boarding to make a snow angel

beautiful view from the top

just hanging out on a mountain

Me in front of our precious little chalet 

(owned by a family from church so we got to stay there for free:)

I just got off the phone with a good friend from home and was talking about my experience over here and what a crazy year I have had and came to the conclusion that I dont think i will be able to fully appreciate all that I have seen and experienced until I am home and have the realization, "What just happened?" It is so crazy for me to think that last year I had only been to one other country besides my own and now I am sitting here looking at pictures from my trips to three different countries over the past three weeks.  I truly feel so blessed to be living this life and hope that I can feel that gratitude on a daily basis.  

So as I said the past few weeks have been a little crazy dublin, then the alps, then the canary islands and that is why I haven't posted in a while but I will try to be better in the future.

Expect pictures from the canaries soon, i promise!