Thanksgiving Dinner Comes Early!

This Friday, I had the great pleasure of sharing Thanksgiving dinner with some international friends (about 25 of them!) at LISEL. As I said before, every Friday night someone cooks a traditional meal from their country, so I took the opportunity to share the meal and the holiday as close as I could to this Thursday! I was so grateful to have everything come out well since I am no expert chef (At home, I usually only make pies and sometimes branch out and make mashed potatoes during the holidays) and we also didn't have any measuring cups, metric or U.S., so it really was a near miracle! I have to give a big thanks to Marie (one of my French friends), Monique (Luxembourgish), Anto (Italian), and Edith (Armenian) for all of their help in the kitchen! Preparations started a day early since we were working with a small kitchen with a tiny oven and enough food for a small army. To add to it, many ingredients that we take for granted in the U.S., like canned pumpkin and cranberry sauce and cornbread mix, aren't available in Luxembourgish supermarkets, so we were starting from scratch most of the time! I didn't mean to impose my vegetarianism on everyone, but whole turkey's are hard to find this time of year in Luxembourg, so that was the one plate left out. On the menu were mashed potatoes, cranberry-apple sauce, stuffing, glazed ginger carrots, and pumpkin pie for dessert. "So, Americans do eat something besides hamburgers" was one of my favorite comments, made by a friend from Pakistan. I'm always happy to help disprove unjust stereotypes when it comes to American culture and traditions! It was fun to have to indicate that cranberry sauce is supposed to be served cold and that it's not usually for dessert, although without the turkey, that does make for a strange mix. I'm happy to say that I'll be sending out the recipe for pumpkin pie to a few friends!

Best wishes to you and your families this Thanksgiving! We always have so much to be grateful for!

Take care,
Erica

P.S. See the pictures posted above! (when they finally upload) ;)

The U.S. Election from Abroad

One of my favorite experiences here so far was the chance to see the U.S. election from abroad. I will admit that it's a strange feeling to see how caught up people from all over the world get about the election of the next president of our country- it makes me feel very privileged to be an American and even more conscientious to ensure that I made an informed vote. Thankfully, in this modern age, it is relatively easy to watch the debates in their entirety and follow the rest of the campaign online. I was excited about the election, if solely because at 20, it was my first time voting! I was relieved that my absentee ballot arrived in time for me to have a voice!

As I am sure that everyone is already aware, Obama was by far the most popular candidate in Europe, in part for the sole reason that he isn't from the same party as President Bush and in part because his views more closely match the more socialist-leaning European mindset. I was interested in the way that the European media portrays the U.S. election, and was reading Le Monde, a left-leaning French newspaper that the university library subscribes to, on a daily basis to get a better idea of their perspective and improve my French at the same time! "So McCain, or Obama?" was probably the question most frequently posed by foreign friends and people who I met in my first few months here when they learned that I was American. It was very interesting to discuss the platforms of the two candidates with friends just to see what they knew and it was fun to discover what stereotypes persist. Almost everyone I've met associates Texas with President Bush and the Republican party, so they are usually surprised to find out that it's not as homogeneous as that and that not all elected officials in Texas are necessarily Republicans. It was fun to show them a map of the presidential election by counties in the U.S. that owe thanks to my dad for sharing with me, just to give them a better idea of the existent political diversity. You can paste this link in your browser if you would like to see it!: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/election/uscounties.html

Last night, I had the opportunity to share my perspective on the election at the LISEL dinner that I attend almost every Friday night. Just to give you the background, LISEL, an non-profit organization that I recently learned is supported by the Catholic Church, exists to help students with almost everything imaginable- from housing, to organizing outings, to finding service opportunities in the community, to giving students a context in which we can get together and share our respective cultures. There are about 40 students that participate in the dinners on Friday nights from all over, Luxembourgish students and many foreign students included. Each Friday, someone volunteers to cook a dish from their home country to share with the group and we discuss a topic- among which have been conflict in the world or the experience of being an immigrant in a European country- or someone shares a presentation of their culture and home country. I'm very grateful to participate- I will be making a traditional U.S. Thanksgiving Dinner next Friday (which will be fun to share and maybe make me a little less homesick during the holidays!) and giving a presentation on Texas the following Friday. After our discussion about the election last night, during which I was able to share a contrasting viewpoint on some of Obama's policies, I was tasked with explaining the electoral college system (which is very little understood here and the philosophy of which I myself need to refresh my knowledge a bit) during my presentation on the 28th. I'm excited to get to share! I will be sure to take and post some pictures of both events, so look for them later this month!

Thanks for reading! 'Til next time!

Take care,
Erica

The University- a Comparison

I just wanted to write my brief take on The University of Luxembourg, where I've been taking my classes now for two months, and U.S. universities since a comparison with the Air Force Academy would never end. For any of you who are curious about the U.S. service academy experience, I would be happy to share- I think I will write a quick blog on that subject soon for friends here who are curious and want to see pictures.

The University of Luxembourg is a relatively young University, established in 2003, and seems to be very well supported by the State in its fledgling stage - which makes it really nice to be a student here a lot of the time. The university has a student population of about 4000 bachelors, masters, and doctoral students, half of whom who are foreign students from all over the world, anywhere from China, to Cameroon, to Hungary, to close neighbors like Germany. The University's offer of coursework in French, German, and English, and offers inexpensive student housing to those in highest priority, which facilitates its highly international character. The university is currently divided into three campuses, Kirchberg for technical subjects like engineering, Walferdange for the arts, Limpertsburg, where I take most of my classes, for economics, law, and the natural sciences. I go to Walferdange twice a week for my French Linguistics class and for first semester Latin (taught in French, which makes things interesting). It's nice to take classes at both campuses- I am grateful to take most of my biology classes with the same small group of Luxembourgers since we've become friends and I feel like I'm getting to know the real Luxembourg better through them, but I also enjoy taking a few classes with the students in medicine and in the arts which tend to be a little more international.

One of the main differences that I've found between European and U.S. universities is the emphasis on specialization in Europe- no basic courses exist that don't pertain to one's major. For instance, the students in biology start out their first semester taking physics, geology, basic and organic chemistry, developmental biology, and cellular and molecular biology. As far as I know, the possibility of double majoring or taking classes in a sub-specialty (e.g. a minor), doesn't exist . In addition, everyone enrolled in a certain year of a certain major is obligated to take the same courses at the same time. At first, I found this strange until I realized that European students must choose an academic orientation in high school, allowing them to take more advanced courses and put a heavier emphasis on courses in "lettres" (humanities) or in "filière scientifique" (scientific field), for instance. This helps explain why a bachelors degree takes only three years to complete, since many students already have what we consider to be "basics" courses out of the way before starting college.

I hope you didn't fall asleep reading this! I'm looking forward to exploring the Marché de Noël (Outdoor Christmas market- which very typical of Europe starting this time of year) in one of the town squares on November 30th, so I hope that will prove to be an interesting read (with pictures!). Please feel free to comment, ask a question, or to suggest a subject that you'd like to hear about!

Take care,
Erica

Rotary Seminar in Paris- 9-11 Oct. 2008

Photobucket Album

(Click on the photo here to see the photobucket album!)