Spring Break: Luxembourg (part 1)

As I mentioned, I had an amazing time in Luxembourg.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous while I was there, which meant in addition to eating lots of amazing food (I tried hare!) and exploring beautiful historic sites, I also spent a lot of time outside with Lydie soaking up some much-needed sun!
The first day we went out roller skating in Ingeldorf (the village I was in) and over to Diekirch (the next town) to explore and get some ice cream.  It was a blast, but it turns out I don't remember how to stop or slow down while roller blading...the things that keep me humble. haha.
I probably also would have been more graceful if I hadn't been attempting to also snap pictures of the countryside as I whizzed by.

Ingeldorf church

A little bit of home! (or rather, New Hampshire)

Diekirch was a charming town, and also lends its name to one of the Luxembourgish beers (I tried it on my last night-it was actually pretty good mixed with lemonade, but I'm not really a beer person).  If I remember correctly, there are two brands, one from the northern part of the country and one from the south.  Diekirch is the northern brew.
The town also has great ice cream, which was much more exciting for me.

the main street in Diekirch

The mascot-ish thing for Diekirch is a donkey, and there were images of them everywhere, including this fountain.  The ice cream was also different than American ice cream: milk-based, like normal ice cream, but with a much stronger fruit flavor more like sorbet.

In the afternoon we went to 'the lake', which has a real name but nobody uses it.  'The lake' us part of a reservoir system created by a massive damn, which we also went to see.  The lake was absolutely lovely and because we were off-season, also really empty and peaceful.

On the way back, we stopped at a viewing point so that I could see a castle.  Although the entire country of Luxembourg is only 2,586 sq km (998 sq mi), it has 7 castles.  I saw four during my trip, but only went inside one.  It was a great re-awakening of my love for tiaras (more on that later).  It even had turrets!  Edinburgh Castle, while awesome, was a military fortress and does not have turrets.

That night Lydie's sisters and I made dinner and I was introduced to 'bretzel', which is a pretzel but sweet and filled with almond paste and also possibly chocolate.  Around Easter there is a tradition where Luxembourgish boys give girls they like a present on a specific Sunday, and then the girls have a different Sunday to give the boys something.  One of these things is a bretzel and the other is a special Easter egg, but after much debate I can't remember which gender gives what.

mmm.

Just Some Thoughts (another sick day...)

So, I'm sick again (grumble grumble).  I'm pretty sure I've managed to catch every nasty cold most British kids get the whole time they're in primary school.  Eventually my immune system has to catch up...sigh.  But in the meantime, I've actually been really productive in getting homework done, and after a week I am finally feeling a lot better.
Last night I went to my friend's 21st birthday party, which was Sex and the City themed and a lot of fun.  Here we are with her big balloons:

The thing that makes her party blog-worthy (aside from how great it was), though, is the fact that just for her birthday, just because she wanted to, she had a ceilidh (traditional Scottish dance).  Since so many of her friends are part of New Scotland and/or Scottish, we were able to just go for it.  A few of the dances were taught, but for the most part such a large percentage of the group knew the steps that they were able to just drag the few people who didn't through them.  It was pretty awesome, and something I wish I could do at home.  Unfortunately, I haven't quite trained my friends that well...yet.

Other than that, there isn't much to report.  Lots of homework (only 4 weeks left of semester 2 classes! aahh!) and getting over the plague...again.  I made chicken soup from scratch today, almost the way my mom makes it-I can't get the stuff to make matzo balls here.  It did get me thinking about how magical chicken soup is, though, which reminded me of a great book I read as a kid: Stone Soup.
It's an old folk tale, and there are lots of versions of it, but the basic story is that there is a village somewhere that is having a famine.  People have food in their homes, but no one really has enough to eat.  Then a man comes to town with a cast iron pot, and offers to make stone soup to share with the village.  He fills the pot with water and drops in a plain old stone.  As it boils he says "you know what would make this soup even better? cabbage! oh, well..." and lo and behold, one of the villagers offers a cabbage they were hiding under the bed.  This continues until all of the village families have offered something, and together everyone's meager offerings have created a wonderful, delicious soup!

Maybe my first graders can try reading it.  Soup is great stuff, and teamwork is even better.  My flatmate and I have been studying hard all week, and we're sharing my soup for dinner tonight :)

Holidays are Here Again

Thanks to a huge snowstorm, flights from Edinburgh were delayed and cancelled the entire weekend after exams ended.  I am so lucky I had decided to go the the Netherlands instead of the US!  A lot of my friends barely made it home for Christmas day.  My flight was only delayed a few hours, so I had a full week with my cousins :)

They live in a village about an hour from Amsterdam, and I had a lot of fun walking in the snow with Aunt Lynn and their dog Eva.

 They had gotten a lot of snow too!  This is the shopping center in town.

 There are several churches in their village, but this one is in the central area, and is used by several groups.  According to John, my uncle, the top of the church isn't very high because is was destroyed during World War II.  I learned a lot from John and Lynn about the WWII history of the Netherlands.  I love learning surrounded by the effects of the past-it makes it so much more tangible.
We also attended my younger cousin's school Christmas play here.  It was in Dutch, so I didn't understand much, but Lynn explained that it was about two children experiencing Christmas in the future.  I was excited because we sang some Christmas carols (my favorite holiday tradition!) and I learned "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" in Dutch!

As we walked around town Lynn explained some of the traditions and fairs that the village has throughout the year.  In the spring there will be a festival around this pond in the center of town.

Lynn has learned to make a lot of Dutch recipes in her time in the Netherlands, and she made a few of them for me!  Everything was delicious :)  We went to the grocery store in town to pick up ingredients, and I looked like a crazy person taking pictures of the displays.  I'm pretty sure someone is cursing the "crazy American tourists" right now...I'll just consider it karma for all the times I've cursed tourists who cause traffic jams on my way to work!

The large variety of chocolate and flavored spreads available for toast.  So many more choices than Nutella!

Kaas means cheese-yum!  I loved that the wheels of cheese were sitting behind the counter...it seems a lot more natural than the processed blocks of American at the supermarket.

Lynn and John introduced me to many dutch foods, including brussel sprouts (which I really liked!).  One dish Lynn made was called "Stamppot" (pronounced st-ohm-pote).  It was basically mashed potatoes with vegetables and sausage in it.  I'm going to make it myself this week!

YUM

At home for Christmas my mom and I always make Russian Teacakes: round cookies with chopped nuts rolled in powdered sugar.  My favorite part is licking the warm melted-sugar-paste off my fingers...don't worry, I was my hands!  I offered to make them for Christmas day, and my cousin helped!  She also taught me how to count to five in Dutch, which was useful when we played board games.

Rolling the cookies in powdered sugar

the finished batch!

Christmas Eve is also my aunt and uncle's wedding anniversary, so they always go out for dinner to the restaurant where the had the wedding reception.  It was really yummy, and it was fun to get dressed up for a night out.  Students don't do that very often...
The restaurant also gave us little desk calendars with pictures of different places in the Netherlands.  Mine is currently sitting on my windowsill with Cu, my stuffed sheep.

they are always fooling around :)

the restaurant

We took a break from eating to watch movies and dance.  John used to take ballroom lessons, and even did a couple of competitions!  He and Lynn have taken lessons together, so I got them to show me a few steps and John taught me Viennese Waltz.  Now I just have to keep the centuries straight in my head...

By the way-their Christmas tree is in the background of this shot.  It was actually alive and in a pot-after the holidays Lynn is going to plant it in the front yard.  I thought this was a great idea!  Unfortunately, our tree at home is plastic and probably wouldn't do very well in the garden.

One night we tried a table grill, which Lynn said were popular in the Netherlands.  There was an assortment of meat and sauces, and we got to grill our selections to go with different salads and toppings.  It was a really nice way to all sit and eat together-and I didn't burn myself! yay!

I learned a lot of new things while I was away-another was Wii Sports.  I'm terrible at it, but it was really fun. John took several embarrassing pictures of me attempting to play.  For the sake of my own ego, I'm only sharing one.

 I also got to try Oliebollen and Appleflappen-fried treats traditionally served on New Years Eve.  We ate the Appleflappen too quickly for me to get a picture, but here are the Oliebollen:

In case you were wondering, I did do other things besides eat.  It's just that internship applications and class selections are a lot less interesting as blog topics.

Alstublieft, Libert family! and Happy Holidays everyone!

First Grade Friends 3

Dear First Graders,

Thank you all so much for your letters!  I'm glad you like hearing about Scotland.  I love living here so far, but we've had a lot of snow and it makes things tricky!  Do you get a lot of snow in the winter in Lowell?
I wanted to answer a few of your questions about Scotland.  I will do this every time you write to me.

Do you live in an apartment?

I do live in an apartment.  In Scotland, apartments are called "flats."  I live in a flat with four other girls.  Everyone who lives in my building is a student, too.  Sometimes we go places together and have special meals together, like Thanksgiving dinner.  Do other people live with you, or do you just live with your family?

What school do you go to?

I go to the University of Edinburgh.  The school was founded in 1582-that's almost 430 years ago!  But girls have only been allowed to come to University here since 1889-about 120 years ago.  Before that, only boys were allowed.

this is my school's symbol, or crest.  There is a thistle at the top (Scotland's national flower), a book in the middle, and a castle at the bottom.  What is the Bailey symbol?

What are the museums like in Edinburgh?


There are many types of museums here!  I love going to museums, and try to visit as many as I can.  Edinburgh is a very old city, so some museums are really old buildings that are made to look the way they would have when they were used.  When I go to places like that, I can learn about what life was like in the past.  There is even a castle!  It's on the highest hill in the city.  Lowell has many old building like this, like the Lowell Mills.  Have you ever been to visit the mills?

Edinburgh Castle

The Lowell Mills

Another type of museum is a gallery-a place that has a lot of things to look at on the walls or in cases.  One type of gallery is an art gallery, where you can look at paintings.  Edinburgh is home to the National Galleries of Scotland, where anyone can go look at artwork!
Another wonderful museum I've been to here is the Museum of Childhood.  The Museum of Childhood is all about what it was like to be a kid at different times.  They have all sorts of toys!  What kinds of toys might you have played with if you lived in the 1800s, or the 1950s?

a dollhouse at the Museum of Childood-it had real working lights and running water!

Trains at the Museum of Childhood

Have you ever been to a museum? What was something you saw there?


I like chicken sandwiches.  What do you like to eat?


I love to eat all kinds of food-including chicken sandwiches (I had one for lunch!).  Scotland has a famous food called Haggis, which is served with "Neeps and Tatties" or swede (a vegetable) and mashed potatoes.  Haggis is made out of sheep meat (called "mutton") mixed with oats and spices and cooked for a long time.  It sounds gross, but it actually tastes really good!  Scottish people eat Haggis on "Burns Night," a holiday celebrating Robert Burns, who is the National Poet. He wrote a poem called "An Ode to a Haggis" which people read before they eat on Burns Night.  Do have a special meal you eat for a holiday?  Have you ever written a poem or story about food?

Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties

I hope you have a great winter break!  I can't wait to hear from you again soon.

"Oot and Aboot" part 2: Food Edition

So as I was jokingly explaining to my parents earlier, my activities lately have fallen into three categories: studying/class, working out, and eating.  I've also discovered a setting on my camera that lets me take really artsy, professional-looking pictures of food.
So far I've been trying really hard not to eat out too much, since it's expensive and I haven't found a job yet.  Sometimes though, it's nice to get little treats.  To celebrate the end of the first week of classes, some friends and I went to dinner at Hispaniola, a restaurant around the corner from my flat that's Treasuer Island themed.

The building used to be Rutherford's Bar, which opened in 1834 and was apparently a favorite haunt of author Robert Louis Stevenson...thus the theme based around one of his books.  The inside was charmingly kitschy, and the food was really good (Italian).

These came out really dark...but here we are inside!  The antique pistols on the wall were really cool.

We also had some uninvited guests!

I've also discovered some cheap/quick places to grab a bite, but mainly my food adventuring takes the form of post-study treats!  Last night, I'd planned on going to a favorite, Chocolate Soup, after working on my paper.  Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed.  Nicolette ended up introducing me to Piemaker, which is down the street from my flat and has traditional British savory pies in addition to a few sweet offerings.  Plus, it's cheap and open until 2am, which is rare here!  Most things close at 5 unless it's a restaurant.

The name always reminds me of the TV show Pushing Daisies when I walk by.  On the back of my pie wrapper was printed "Piemaker and the Story of Pies":
Pies were first made by the Romans in ancient times.  They used to cook the filling and sealed it in a clay shell which could be reheated on their travels.  Later they introduced a 'paste' layer made from maize which could be eaten when moisturised and cooked. (The origin of the word 'pasty')
In Britain the Welsh miners introduced the famous double crust Cornish pasty, which was made with succulent meat, potato and vegetable fillings and puff pastry with a dough rim on one side.  As cleaning of dirty coal hands was a time consuming exercise, they held on to the rim while eating the rest and then discarded that.
During the industrial development and mechanisation of the previous centuries, pies lost the quality (which had made it food for Kings), when fillings were minced and liquidised to be able to fill inferior pastry shells.
Cute!  Of course, it then goes on to talk about Piemaker pies and why they're so yummy.  I'm not arguing-mine was really nice.

But even with that, I was still craving the hot chocolate Chocolate Soup is known for.  So today I went to the library and then headed over to the cafe for a late afternoon treat.

YUM.  I decided to try "Autumn Harvest," which was dark hot chocolate with whipped cream, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Definitely worth the wait!

There are a few more places I want to try, including a Frankenstein-themed pub which reminds me of the Jekyll and Hyde Pub in NYC.  Seems like a perfect place to go for Halloween!  I also need to check out The Elephant House, which in addition to being the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, is also supposed to have really delicious tea, which I've definitely been missing!
Hopefully I'll have gotten over my picture-taking phase by then...