falling in love

I think i love Europe. Well, let me rephrase that - i know i love europe, i'm just loving it more every second. Everything here continues to be spectacular (if rather cold). Yesterday was the first day of orientation where we were introduced to the dean and given several shpiels about life at the chateau and in luxembourg. I have to say the dean is an adorable old man. He's from Germany originally, and he just gets so excited and passionate talking about the chateau that you feel like you're watching an 8 year old boy on christmas morning. it's very contagious, though he also has a habit of hitting the nearest table as hard as he can with his fist anytime someone gets the answer to a question right. it's quite startling, and i think it will take everyone a bit to get used to that. the food there is fantastic though, and i managed to successfully comandeer dinner for myself from our lunch of steak-kebabs, pease and carrots, french fries and fresh salad. yes, i was in heaven.
we went on a tour of lux city yesterday as well as the american and german WWII cemetaries - absolutely beautiful. it was interesting to see the differences in architecture and whatnot. after the tour some people took the bus back to differdange, but you could just stay in the city if you wanted so my friend chris and i voted on that. it's really great to have him here, i call him my own personal sunshine because he will, without fail, put me in a good mood. he can also keep me calm when i get a little manic/freaked out, which is fantastic, particularly because we're in a strange country 4,000 miles away from home.
it was a little strange, to be left alone in a foreign city by the people who are technically "in charge" of us. i really loved the way they just said 'well, have fun,' and went on their way. the independence is wonderful, if a little unnerving. chris and i found a cool place for dinner called "Banana's", where the walls were all covered in music memorabilia from bands like the beatles, the rolling stones and madonna. our waiter spoke no english so we successfully ordered in french, and i had my first (well, first two) luxembourg beers. DELICIOUS.
afterwards i found my way back to noertzange with no problem at all, which made me pretty proud. all chris had to do was direct me to the right bus and i was set from there to the train station, home, etc. i think i can get the hang of the train thing.
anywho, now here i sit in our apartment, watching the hills in french and realizing that no matter what language he's speaking, spencer pratt is still a douche. some things will never change.
tonight i'm meeting up with chris and a few other people in the city to check out the bars down in the grund where a lot of students hang out. i'm pretty excited about it - but then again, there isn't much i'm not excited about here.
love,
me