Wednesday, July 17, 2013

If we had blogs in 1997: Goodbye, 1997

The last post from the first semester of my year abroad in Europe. Lots of good riddance here. As always, spelling, grammatical, and factual errors have been preserved.

11 Dec 1997

I must start by saying how much Kristine disgusts me. Last night she locked us out of the common room because Adam was here. I can't wait for her to go. She is the most irresponsible, disrespectful, immature person I have ever had the misfortune of meeting. Hilarious.

Now that I got that out, let me start with today's events and work backwards to Thanksgiving weekend. Today, I finally got my research paper done. I even turned it in to Tony, though technically its not due until tomorrow. A funny thing happened - all the proscrastinators couldn't save their papers. They kept the chateau open until 10:30, but a lot of that work was lost. I hope Kristine's work was lost, though she probably wasn't doing any. Schadenfreude!

Anyway, that's all I've been doing for the past couple of weeks. I've fallen far behind in Smith (Adam, as in Wealth of Nations) and Hitler (Adolf, as in murderous dictator). I barely remember this week - I can't believe Thursday is over already. Last night we had a slide show, but I didn't think it was sad because I'm not leaving. I wish a few people were staying - Courtney, John, Kelly, Bethany, Jared, Steve C, Steve B, Mary, JJ, Dave, and maybe a few others, the mature ones. I would even help Kristine carry her bags out the door if it meant getting rid of her quicker. Some people said some really dumb things at the slide show. They're proud of their immaturity. Otherwise, the day was uneventful. I can't think of any extraordinary thing that happened Tuesday or Monday. Sunday I went to the international craft bazaar, which seemed to be a waste of time. Wait. That was the Sunday before. Last Sunday I spent the day at the chateau because it was open. I must have gotten a lot of work done, because I'm finished now. Saturday can't be explained until I explain Friday's dinner-dance.

Me & April left at 5:30 for Lux. Matt was there at the train station and Niki, Valerie, and Lissa were there. So we all rode the train together to the Lux train station where we had the ball. Dinner was chicken cordon bleu, some wierd stuff, potatoes, quiche, and lots of wine. The Dupays came late, and complained about the food and made no effort to hide their boredom. Matt got the Becker scholarship for which me & Erika were in the running. I got the Most Likely to Be Prepared for Winter and Hunting Season 365 Days a Year superlative. This was because of the red hat I wore everywhere. I drank 4 or 5 glasses of wine and bought three beers. There was dancing - I hate dancing. Mary went on a pecking spree. She told Matt O she liked him but he didn't remember any of it. At least he acted like it. If he did remember, he's a great guy for pretending he didn't. Anyway, the pecking spree continued at Pub 13. I had two pina coladas, a cigar which I stole from Osborne, and a cigarette which I ended up dropping on Julia. Gross. Smoking. Ugh. Have only done it a few times in my life. She was great - trashed but cool. Her and Hans looked really great together. Yawn...

Anyway, the most suprising thing of the night was Dan D. Just talking to him - he is a good guy, he just has a real problem with alcohol, and he's pretty immature. I wonder if its because he gained that reputation and he thinks he has to keep it. For some reason, we all just left. I went to Erika's house with Matt, Mary, and who-knows-why-Lissa, where I passed out. Next thing I knew, Matt & Mary and what's her name left, not soon after Brian B left Julie Co's room. Hmm... So I moved into Erika's bed and woke up when Madame Lye came into the room. Erika was sleeping on her chair. It looked so uncomfortable. Yawn...

We left about 1pm to get lunch at the spicy food place across from the train station. Spicy food? That's real specific. I wonder if it was Indian. Turkish? Probably something like that, something I'd never eaten during my Southwest Ohio upbringing. Then we went to Clervaux after we met Matt. We got to the hotel and they just laid around. Then Justina got there and we all ate dinner. It wasn't that great for the price. (Before that we had the whimpiest shakes ever for $3.) Then we went up to a room and laid around until Julia, Hans, & Brad came. We watched Home Alone in french. (April said she watched it in German, but I don't see how it would be on in French and German on the same night. I think she just couldn't distinguish between french and german - and she claims to understand french. What bullshit! Ha! There was a lot of that. Since we had to take either French or German, some students thought that after a few months, since they could understand a few words they were fluent in a language. The funny thing about this comment is that it is quite possible the movie was in Luxembourgish, which is a Germanic dialect with French loan words. I could have thought it was French because I understood a few of the words, while she could have thought it was German because she couldn't understand enough of the words!) Then we watched Doloris Claiborne in English. After, we talked for awhile, but it wasn't a memorable conversation. In the morning me & Justina watched Smurfs in Deutsch. We ate bread and nutella like a typical breakfast. Then we went to the chateau. That means the chateau in Clervaux.

Don't know why I repeat all this again: The week before was more work and not a lot of non routine happenings. The Sunday before, I went to the international bazaar and the Lux mall. Saturday was fun. We had Thanksgiving at Erika's house. Erika did most things. Matt & Mary peeled the potatoes, I did onions, Julia and Justina did carrots, Brad and Hans made Tiramisu, Julia messed up the whipped cream. The meal was wonderful. The wine really got to me, though. Me and Erika, that is. She passed out on her bed. We all had a bottle of wine each. It was a wonderful time, but now Erika has this thing against alcohol. I wish she didn't. The Friday before that we saw the Peacemaker, which had a lot of flaws, but I still liked it. Mary threw a fit when we tore it apart. She throws a lot of fits. She didn't even go to Clervaux with us.

I miss Lynn. I wonder what's up with her. I hope nothing has changed between us. If she abandons me, I don't know what I'll do. Why must I fear this always? I get to go home in one week. I can't wait.

19 Dec 1997

It's over. I'm sitting in Schiphol airport now. My flight to Detroit doesn't leave till 2:30, and it's only 11 o'clock. But I get to fly into Detroit, after all the hassle. They switched my first flight time from Lux and i would not have gotten here in time. But I was able to get the 7:55am flight to Amsterdam after being placed on stand by. Emily had the same problem. They were going to send her to Milwaukee and me to Columbus via Memphis. But I caught the 4:50am train to Petange, switched there to go to Lux, took Bus 9 to the aeroport,, and arrived there at 6:00am. It was difficult to get such a small amount of sleep. Actually, I'm suprised it hasn't been bad. But last night we went to Pub Gerlache, Chi Chis, and Pub 13. Mary got me an alarm clock as a Christmas present. Erika got me a U2 book in French. I haven't begun to read the book, but the alarm clock helped tremendously in getting up this morning. I think it made the difference between my landing in Detroit or Columbus. And Robert drove me to the Differdange gare. I would have missed it otherwise. I had to make him because I was locked in. Strangest door lock ever. You had to have a key to get OUT of the house. The key wasn't there.

It's been strange. I'll probably never see most of these people again. Some of them I don't want to see ever again. Some I wish were staying next semester. It's been like a dream. Tomorrow I have to get up and go to Tony's class. I guess this is part of the (bad) "dream" since I was sitting in the airport and decided to take the other core course the next semester. Educational psychology. That's how bad his class was - I wouldn't even take a course within my major. No more Tony. I can't believe he gave me a B- on my research project. I better get a better grade on my final paper, even though it's crap. I'm sure I'll get a B/B- like the others. This past week was horrible. Not only did I have four examens, but that damn final was a pain. And I couldn't start it until the research paper was done. Tony does not know how to teach. He was at Pub Gerlache last night, but he left early. He probably was grading our papers. He has to be done by Monday.

Matt was crying last night because people were leaving. I didn't feel sad. I'm glad to get away. I can't wait to go home. Only 12 more hours.

And that's how the semester ends. College-like. Europe had become a home; it was no longer a  foreign land. The next semester brought plenty of new travel adventures. From what I've read so far, these new entries are deeper, better written (better, not great), and evidence of actual learning about the world.

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