Living in Europe has given me a very unique perspective on the international impact of American affairs. For example, I have learned more about America’s role in the financial crisis here than I ever did back home. Everything that happens in the States has a global reach, and I’d like to share my thoughts about the impacts of something that hits close to home for me on this Veteran’s Day: the role of the American military throughout the world.

Today is November 11, Veteran’s Day, 2009. It celebrates the heroism and honor of those servicemen and women who have served in any capacity at home or abroad, especially those who have fought to defend our country in foreign wars. I have several friends and former classmates in the military, many of whom have taken tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. My sister and brother were both simultaneously in Iraq for a good portion of the last year serving in the Army. My sister is a Major and has been deployed several times, but this was my brother’s first deployment and he, recently engaged, was an activated reservist in a Psy-Ops division. For their service, the nation should be grateful and respectful.

Their service to their country is unquestionably brave, but often times the reasons for their presence are unclear. Questions about the efficacy as well as the true motivation for our strategies have gone unanswered, and I don’t really expect that to change. I have conceded that I probably will not know the true motivation for continuing this war. So I guess I don’t really like the idea of war or foreign military action in general regardless of the reason, but it’s a fact that will not soon change. When it’s my own family and friends that I have to wish a happy Veteran’s day to, I really think about our current situation in juxtaposition with previous recourses that helped to resolve world conflicts and peace keeping efforts, and it’s interesting to draw upon my experiences here to do so.

Now my personal thoughts on it aside, it cannot be ignored that the American military has a profound presence throughout the world. One of my close friends here at EBS actually served in the Korean military alongside a US Army division (all Korean men serve in the military for two years). He trained with them and hung out with them on the weekends. Twenty minutes from Oestrich-Winkel in Wiesbaden, there is a large Army Airfield, which is one of the several US military installations in Germany and one of the 761 military sites on foreign soil. It’s easy to see how post WWII Europe and would desire a US military presence to stabilize the region and prevent further conflict and how America would have a vested interest in preventing communist interference, but many people question why these bases are still here some 60 years later.

America is protecting her interests abroad by having military sites in foreign countries, and though many countries dislike the idea of having a foreign military presence on their soil (we would never allow it in our country), the fact is that a good portion of these installations are welcomed not only for the security their presence brings, but also the economic shot in the arm that a few thousand soldiers with no bills and some disposable income gives to a region. For example, on Sundays, several of the American EBS students go to a sports bar in Wiesbaden that is plastered with American sports memorabilia, serves buffalo wings and cheeseburgers, and gives a discount with an American military ID. Reservations are necessary because it is packed to the rafters with soldiers spending the entire evening at the bar watching the NFL. It’s not inexpensive either, but this bar has done a great job catering to a very specific American audience and there are many businesses in the region that follow a similar plan.

I have had discussions about the US military with several people from all over the world including one of my German friends who was very knowledgeable on the subject, and it’s clear to me that the presence of the American military is much more welcomed here than I could have ever thought. Despite their opposition to many of our current military operations, many Europeans regard the US as a stabilizing factor in the region and a safeguard against threats. They have become so accustomed to our presence that they were aghast when I told them that I don’t think it’s our responsibility to keep world peace. I mentioned to my friend that it’s the US tax dollar that supports these installations and that few Americans truly realize how many overseas operations currently exist. I then mentioned that the role that we have taken on is actually the formal responsibility of the UN or NATO and not that of any one nation’s military. He then countered by saying that these are powerless organizations that are slow to act and only do so after deliberating on an issue. So, by building a reputation of quick decision-making and readiness for military action, the US has become the de facto combination peacekeeper and local economic stimulus throughout the world.

On one hand it is nice to be regarded as a powerful nation with a strong military, but I am not sure how I feel about having the rest of the world expect us to be the first to resolve a conflict. We didn’t get involved in WWII until Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, and we avoided the European theater in WWII until 1942, three full years after the war broke out. So we have ignored George Washington’s advice not to involve ourselves in foreign affairs and have strayed far from Theodore Roosevelt’s “Speak softly and carry a big stick” view of foreign relations. Our position in the world now allows us to leverage our economic and military strength to achieve goals in line with our own interests.

This policy has had a mixed bag of successes and failures. The Vietnam War was unpopular and the effectiveness of our presence was questionable; the Cuban embargo (Cuban Democracy Act) is often regarded as archaic and detrimental to the nation it was supposed to save. On the other hand, however, two days ago marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, something that Germans are proud to celebrate, but it also serves as a stark reminder of the oppression that communism brought to the region. I can’t help but think of the way that the threat the USSR posed was neutralized: through very strong military inaction. Reagan is credited with ending the communist regime, but it was really just the straw that broke the camel’s back after a long series of strategic moves by his predecessors, none of which used military action to effect results. It is interesting, that despite very little military aggression directed toward Russia, the number of foreign bases surged to over 1000 at the height of the Cold War. The American military’s strength and global presence solved the problem without ever actually going to war with Russia. The Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the most volatile situations in modern history, was defused by a strong military presence and a slow trigger finger. It’s unfortunate to note that there are currently 184,251 troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan alone, and President Obama is in the process of narrowing between four strategies to push forward in Afghanistan; every plan involves more troops.

Like I said before, a Veteran is any person serving in the military during a time of war. So while the world remains divided on what the role of the US military should be, this time of war drags on into its ninth year creating more and more veterans each day, each having made unique sacrifices for his or her country. This war may not be popular and the end may not be in sight, but these men and women deserve the gratitude and respect of their countrymen. So I would just like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to thank the veterans they know.

I started the abroad of my study abroad a month before the studying part. I arrived in London at the end of July with a full month of traveling before settling down in The Hague and starting classes. On the long lists of places I wanted to visit during my stay in Europe London wasn’t very high but it happened to be where I was flying in, so i spent a few day there. Looking back I’m glad I got the chance to see London, it’s a wonderful city. It was also a great way to start my trip since it’s an English speaking country unlike any of the other places I visited while traveling.

My experience in each city always fits into one of these two categories: Spending 12 hours every day going from site to site trying to see everything even though it’s never possible or leisurely wandering around exploring a city and taking it all in. London was definitely category one. There are so many amazing things to see in London the first thing to do is make a list in order of importance. Me and my travel buddy bought a day ticket to ride one of those red double decker buses that took us to a lot of the sites and allowed us to hop on and off anytime. This really gave us the opportunity to see a lot more, by saving us the time we would have spent lost on the tube system.

In London I went to two great museums, The British Museum and Tate Modern. Also, they were both FREE, that never happens site seeing is expensive. I got to see all of London from up high on the London Eye, which is like a farris wheel but you ride in a big glass bubble that fits about 10 people. It was really beautiful, it was a clear day and I could see the whole city. Big Ben Rang at pm and then it was off Picadilly Circus, which was described as the Time Square of London. It was crowded and exciting, a great way to end the last day in London.

Next I went to Montpellier in the south of France (Louisville’s Sister city!) where a friend of mine from UofL was finishing up a work study. This was definitely category two. Montpellier is a small City with tiny streets and stone roads. I stayed in dorm here and met a lot of people from around Europe who were there to improve their French. Not being able to understand or speak French in France makes things pretty difficult. Luckily my friend was fluent and did all the talking.

After four days in Montpellier I traveled up to Paris where my friend was flying out of, and later that day my boyfriend was flying into. I love the use of trains for travel in Europe. Trains in a lot of cases are cheaper, usually less hassle. There are rarely delays, you don’t have to wait in security check, just be on the platform when the train is scheduled to come.

Paris with Jerimy was great. Our hostel was two blocks away from the Moulin Rouge and our first morning together we climbed a giant hill that the Sacre-Coeur sat on top of. The Church was beautiful and enjoyable despite the herds of people. And the view of Paris from that hill was breath taking. There is so much to see in Paris between the Eiffel Tower, Sainte-Chapelle, Notre Dam, the famous cemetery Pere Lachaise, the Catacombs, Musee d’Orsay, Arch de triumph, and dozens of other things that you couldn’t possibly have time to see in 4 days. People complain about going to cities and seeing all the touristy things, people travel across the world to see these sites for a reason, they’re mind blowing.

By this point I had been travelling for almost 2 weeks. I was living out of only a backpack, staying in hostels, struggling to communicate, walking all day long, getting lost, and loving it.

Yesterday news broke out that the European Auto-maker, Opel, a division of GM, will not be sold by the American Automotive giant.  I found this to be especially interesting news, as an American currently residing in Opel’s home state of Hessen, Germany.  Their headquarters in Rüsselsheim are a mere 30 minute drive from my flat.  General Motors cited Opel’s significance in its future global strategy as a key reason to reject a potential sale to a Canadian or Chinese company.  According to Reuters, Opel held a 7.2% share in the European automotive market in August.

This represents the strength of the future plans for GM, and it’s confidence in the future American and world economy.  President Obama’s administration released a statement saying they had nothing to do with the decision not to sell, despite the US Treasury having an approximately 60 percent share in GM after all of the government loans to keep the company afloat.  Hopefully this and recently reported profits in Detroit will spur more positive action in the US stock market.

Conversely, German politicians, are more than irked in general about this announcement.  Angela Merkel, current German Chancellor, was taken aback by this surprise move by GM.  Juergen Ruettgers, the Minister-President from the neighboring state to Hessen, North Rhine-Westphalia, stated that “General Motors’ behavior shows the ugly face of turbo-capitalism…”  It is possible that they have doubts about GM’s abilities to procure funds to keep its European units stable.

In contrast, at Vauxhall in Britain, GM’s other big European operation, workers and community members were relieved to hear that the Detroit company was not going to sell.  GM has stated, however, that these plans do not affect its current intentions to unload its Saab operations on a Swedish company.

It is these German-American news stories, whether positive or negative, that make me happy to be abroad and learning about another country’s economic state.  Other recent tidbits of information that I have learned about my current state of residence include that it is where the element Hassium was discovered less than twenty years ago (and named for, despite a slight spelling change).  Hessen is also famous for being the home of the best German wine, from the Rheingau region.  I live dead center in the middle of this German anomaly: a region so enamored with wine in the middle of a country so reknown for its breweries.  And naturally, although I have admittedly not thought a lot about specific American historical events since middle school, Hessen is the origin of the famous Hessian mercenaries which George Washington crossed the Delaware to surprise attack on Christmas Day during the American Revolution.  Without these men we as Americans would be without one of the most iconic American paintings.  Ain’t history great?

Rheingau Autumn – Harvest Time

This is all of us with our nine person van getting ready to leave for oktoberfest!

It’s hard to believe that October is almost over! This past week was fall break and our mid-term finals were before that. I only had a final in Finance and hopefully I did well. We haven’t gotten our grades back. After the Finance final on Friday we took off to Brussels for our flight to Rome, Italy!!! We arrived in Rome about noon on Saturday and had a jam packed afternoon seeing all the sites like the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and some other monuments. We went back to the hostel around 8pm and called it a night. Sunday we met up with Josh and Brian at the Coliseum and got in the front of the line with our Roma Pass which we purchased at the train station. We got a guided tour which lasted around an hour and then headed over to the Roman Forum. It was so neat to see how the city was over a thousand years ago! I studied three years of Latin in high school and all the things we translated talked about the Senate House and the Forum and I was actually standing there where it all took place! It was a crazy feeling. After walking around there for a while we climbed to the top of Palentine Hill where there were gardens and old houses where people use to live. It was amazing. Afterwards we walked to where the Circus Maximus was, which is now like a park, but you can still see where the chariots would race. We walked further down and saw the Mouth of Truth which is part of an old church, and then went to St. Peter in Chains church where Michelangelo’s Moses is along with the chains that actually imprisoned St. Peter before his execution. Sunday night we got some pizza and wine, which is everywhere, and hung out at the hostel.

Monday morning we got up early and headed to the Vatican City. We took the metro and got there by 9:30. We stood in line to get into the Vatican Museum where the Sistine Chapel is and walked through there with an audio guide. All the galleries were very impressive and the so was the Sistine Chapel. There were tons of people gathered in the chapel staring at the ceiling. It’s still hard for me to believe that I was actually there! On the way out of the Sistine Chapel, we made a wrong turn and ended up outside in the back of the museum. There was a passageway that led through the tombs of the Popes and we followed that through and it popped out inside St. Peter’s Basilica. The Basilica takes your breath away! Walking through you think you have seen everything and then there is another room you didn’t see before. It’s the largest church in the world and words cannot even describe how beautiful and overwhelming it is! After leaving the church we still had our audio guides from the museum and somehow had ended up in the church so we had to walk all the way back around and turn our guides back in. We shopped around in the market in front of the Vatican for a while, I bought a scarf and other people bought jewelry. All the jewelry there was so pretty. We left the Vatican and took the metro and a bus out to the Appian Way. It was the first “highway” and is a few miles outside of Rome. It was very peaceful there and nice to see the cute Italian houses and fields. We walked from the bus stop to the Catacombs and took a tour of those which was pretty cool. That night we went to the Spanish Steps and climbed to the very top and got a great view of the city.

Tuesday we had a flight to Athens from Rome’s main airport which you have to take a train to get to. After missing the first train we made it to the airport with only an hour and a half until our flight left. We rushed around but finally made it. We arrived in Athens which was warm and beautiful. We flew over the water and along the coast line and it was gorgeous. Wednesday in Athens we went to the Acropolis, Temple of Zeus, Hadrian’s Gate, first Olympic stadium, Roman Agora, and Ancient Agora. It was nice because our student IDs got us in free everywhere and most of the sites were close together. Thursday we took a ferry out to Aegina Island and spent the day at the beach laying out and enjoying the weather. Everyone is Greece was so friendly and willing to help us. We met a lady from New York who lives in Greece for 7 months of the year and told us we should stay here forever. I wish we could!

After a relaxing day on Thursday reality set in on Friday. We got up early and got to the airport four hours before our flight only to see that our flight back to Rome was canceled. We had planned to go back to Rome but then take a day trip to Florence on Saturday and then our flight back to Holland left Rome at 8:30am on Sunday. Once we saw our flight was canceled we talked to the service desk about our options and we could either buy another ticket to Rome which would cost around 400 euros or we could give up on Italy and just try to get back to The Hague. Our airline said they would exchange our tickets to Rome for tickets to Paris and we would have to catch the train to The Hague. We decided this was our best option (no Florence) and they had to put us in the airport hotel until our flight the next day to Paris. The hotel was very nice and they even paid for our dinner and breakfast. Saturday was a long day flying to Paris and then taking trains to Brussels, Antwerp, and finally Den Haag. We made it home around 10:30 Saturday night! Traveling in Europe you definitely have to learn to be flexible and that is something I am trying hard to learn! Now we are back and staying here for a few weeks. We have some papers and projects due in the next few weeks so it’s time to sit down and focus on school work.

Thanks for reading!

Amanda Hesse

Wow what can I say? What an amazing trip I just experienced!! The Hague had a week long fall break after midterms, and consequently we took advantage of it and went on a 9 day trip. Over the course of 9 days, we hit five different cities in 3 different countries. We used 6 days (out of 15) of our train pass in the process and traveled countless hours via train, but it was definitely worth it.

Our trip began on Friday night when we took an overnight train to Zurich, Switzerland. We arrived around 8:30 AM and spent about 12 hours wandering around the city. Zurich had the potential to be quite picturesque because it was sandwiched between the mountains and had a large river running in the middle of it. However, the weather didn’t help our cause at all. In fact, we actually got sleeted on for at least an hour or so. It was quite cold and rainy the rest of the day.

The city was quite clean and had many large buildings (predominantly banks and other commercial centers). However, it was a pretty expensive city even for basic things like food. Nonetheless, we visited a few cathedrals, including one, which had a tower that offered a panoramic view of the whole city. Other than that, one of our main focuses was to stay warm, which proved to be troublesome. Zurich didn’t offer that many attractions for tourists, as we saw everything we wanted to in the first 3 or 4 hours. In fact, my travel book had 0 pages about Zurich, and Brian’s travel book had 3 pages. Regardless, it was exciting to go to a different country that many people don’t ever travel to.

The next stop on our journey was Rome. In order to get there, we took another overnight train (from Zurich) which put us in the city around 9 in the morning. Rome was simply amazing!! There were so many things to see and do. Every ten steps you take, you see another picture-worthy building or site. We were there for 3 days, but I honestly feel that we could have stayed another 2 and still not have gotten bored.

The first day, we decided to knock out all of the Ancient Roman sites. We had to start with the famous Coliseum, of course. The most famous building of the ancient world was not a disappointment in the least. Regardless of the fact that I had seen so many pictures and heard so many stories about the Coliseum, the amphitheater was awe-inspiring. My imagination really came to life just imagining the crowds, the fighters, the animals, the naval battles, etc. that took place there some 2000 years ago. Afterwards, we visited the Roman Forum-the center of Ancient Roman life. Even though most of the Forum was mostly just ruins, you could just imagine the ornate temples, the courthouses, the Senate, etc. Following that, we entered some beautiful cathedrals filled with some amazing murals and statues.

The second day in Rome, we went to the Vatican City. The Vatican Museum was unbelievably huge-in fact there are over 4 miles of galleries in that one building!! Every single gallery I walked into, I was just like, “Wow.” I felt like I should have taken a picture of every single piece of art in the museum. The most famous artwork we saw was the Sistine Chapel. I just stared at the ceiling for about 20 minutes without problem. Eventually, I just had to give my eyes a rest as there was so much going on. Next, we wandered through the tombs of the popes and even saw the tomb of Pope John Paul II. The tombs led straight to the most immaculate church in the world-St. Peter’s Basilica. The church was so large and had so many quadrants to look at that our group actually got separated for about an hour. St. Peter’s puts just about every other church in the world to shame with its size, artwork, prestige, etc. After leaving the Vatican, we walked along the Roman countryside and even toured some catacombs dating back to the 4th and 5th century. The catacombs were the final resting place for persecuted Christians who were killed for practicing their beliefs during the time of the Roman Empire.

The third day in Rome, we walked to some of the less famous places in Rome. We started with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which regrettably, is much nicer, and more ornate then the one in Arlington Cemetery. Next, we walked to the Pantheon-a huge temple devoted to all of the gods of Ancient Rome. Afterwards, we meandered to Trevi Fountain, which in my opinion was quite possibly the prettiest thing I saw on the entire trip (if you have never seen it or heard of it, type it into Google Images and enjoy). The rest of the day, we just wandered around, leaving most of the touristy areas of the city.

I was sad to leave Rome the next morning, but nonetheless, it was onto Florence-the birthplace of the Renaissance. After checking into our hostel, we went to the Duomo (once again Google it), a famous cathedral located right in the center of the city. Basically, every road in the city led to it, and one can see it from just about anywhere in the city. Later in the day, we entered the Uffizi Gallery, which according to many sources is one of the most impressive art galleries in the Western World (if not the whole world). Inside, we saw the works of such artists as: Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Raphael, Caravaggio, and Rembrandt. My favorite artwork in the gallery was the “Birth of Venus” by Botticelli. It was just so interesting to see the real paintings rather than pictures in art textbooks.

The second day in Florence, we began with the Accademia. This art museum was not nearly as large as the Uffizi or had as many famous artworks inside. However, the Accademia is the home of Michelangelo’s statue, “David.” The statue was so large, perfectly sculpted, and still in perfect shape. This may be the one artwork that defined the Renaissance time period and to be standing in its presence was quite awesome. Afterwards, we walked around a marketplace and some shops (if you like shopping, Florence is a good place to go as there are vendors everywhere). After buying a few souvenirs, we walked across the Ponte Vecchio Bridge (Google it) to the more quiet side of the city. We walked around some beautiful gardens and climbed to the top of a hill to see the whole city. After a little more wandering around, it was time for dinner and to go back to the hostel before going off to Venice the next morning.

Venice was just as I had pictured it in my mind: just an extremely scenic place with lots of canals, boats, colorful buildings, etc. Our first adventure in the city was to take a water bus down the Grand Canal from the train station to St. Mark’s Square. St. Mark’s church had a totally different style than most other churches I had ever seen. Nonetheless, it was just another huge and beautiful cathedral in Italy. Across the street was a huge bell tower. We took the elevator up, and were once again able to see the whole city (it seems to be a reoccurring theme with us). It was just so cool to see all the little islands, the waterways, the gondolas, etc. Afterwards, we walked around the waterfront for probably a good mile or two just taking in the beauty of the city.

After we saw the major sights, we simply began to wander around the streets of the city. Venice is an extremely hard city to navigate around. There are 150 canals, 400 bridges, several islands, etc. There are few street signs, and most residents’ addresses are just the district of the city followed by a number (not a lot of help for us). It began to rain later in the night which didn’t help our cause, but we still managed to see a good chunk of the city in the 8 or 9 hours that we had to spend in the old town.

The six days we spent in Italy were so amazing. We saw so many sights, famous museums, and cathedrals. In fact, I probably went to more art museums this past week than the last 5 years combined. I have always found Italian food as the best in the world, and real Italian food didn’t disappoint. I ate so much pizza, pasta, lasagna, calzones, etc. The best, however, was gelato (Rick Steve’s calls it, “an edible art form”). I am already missing it-as it was probably the best ice cream I have ever tried (yes, even better than Graeter’s), not to mention that I had it about a dozen times in 6 days. I loved Italy, and hopefully I’ll be able to return there sometime in the near future.

From Venice, we had a 620 AM train to go to Innsbruck, Austria. We arrived in the quaint, mountainous town (about 110,000 people) around 1230. Innsbruck was quite literally located right in the Alps. We finally had nice weather and looking at the snow capped mountains was a great experience. We saw a gold plated roof dating back to the 15th century and the tomb of Emperor Maximilian I (it reminded me of the Terra Cotta soldiers in Xi’an, China). The Winter Olympics were in Innsbruck in 1964 and 1976, and we were able to see some of the old Olympic stadiums. We went to the top of the ski jump and had a drink in the all glass restaurant, admiring the beauty of our surroundings. The city of Innsbruck was very quiet, safe, clean, and pretty-I would love to return there to go skiing for a week.

Like I said at the beginning, what an amazing week my trip was. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be able to go to all of these places. My body and mind were exhausted by the time I returned to Holland Sunday morning, but the fatigue was well worth it; I enjoyed every minute of the trip.

Thanks for reading,

Josh

Instead blogging about Europe and it’s intricacies and wonderments, I thought I would shift gears on this post. As a CIS student, I would like to implore you to try out Google Wave, a new and intriguing communication technology from one of the most innovative companies in the world.

For anybody that does not know, Google Wave was announced in late May at the Google I/O conference. You can watch the 80 minute video where they introduced the technology here. Or for those without an outrageous amount of time and interest, you can just watch the first 2 minutes, and say you saw the whole thing. The video is quite a la Steve Jobs and his cliché presentation style, only geekier and with worse jokes.

Wave, as the video tells, is Google’s reinvention of the concept of an email, if it were possible to completely remake it today. Daniel Lyons from Newsweek explains that “Wave combines e-mail, instant messaging, and word processing and editing; plus, you can upload and share photos, videos, and other media.” The emphasis is on the conversation, or a “wave” between two or more people. Other people can be added to the wave, and use the “playback” feature to run through the entire conversation so far to catch up. They use features of HTML 5 to make it a very feature filled utility. It also has instant messaging capabilities, which allows faster communication than a regular email conversation and maximizes your time usage. All this is available on Google Chrome, Apple’s Safari 4, Firefox 3.5, or IE if you use a Chrome plug-in.

Over the summer, selected developers were allowed to explore the Google Wave system. This was a move to encourage them to program extensions for the utility before it actually comes out fully for the public. Now, since September 29th, Google has released a “preview” version of Wave to a select amount of the public. So, if you visit wave.google.com, you can apply for an account. In my own case I received one about one day after I applied. Be aware, though, that since it is a preview there are a number of features disabled as Wave is a work in progress at the moment. You can check out the Wave developers’ blog for information on how it’s coming along.

Critics of Wave are of course already complaining about how hard it is to understand and explain simply, which reminds me a lot of Twitter detractors. In fact, you can check out EasierToUnderstandThanWave.com, a site poking fun at the gadget’s complexity. Warning: annoying music is included on the site. Critics of Wave are quick to point out how many unsuccessful products Google has churned out at an alarming rate over recent years. Their methodology seems to involve throwing as many ideas through the R&D department as possible, and seeing whether or not the occasional viable project comes out the other side. While this business model may not be financially prudent, it is the only way true brainstorming works. This process has produced things like GMail, Google Maps, Google News, and Chrome. And lest we forget that the original search algorithm of Google made the company’s name an actual verb that has been added to English dictionaries in recent years. (Digression: yesterday in class my German teacher exclaimed, “Sie sollen das google.” or “You should google that.”)

I want to warn anybody not particularly interested in new web technology that getting an account at this point is probably a waste of time. While you can use Wave for communication today, there are obviously not a lot of people with accounts, so it will not be a viable option if you are looking for an email or IM alternative immediately. Google’s launch of the full product is supposed to be in the first half of 2010. You should only check this out if you are interested in seeing what the future of web communication might be like. Whether or not Google Wave takes off remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that future communication will be built upon ideas like this.

This past weekend, Brian and I ventured to Luxembourg. We bought a train pass before we came to Europe, but now we realize that we will be hard pressed to use all 15 days of travel in a 2 month period. In all honesty, the two day trip to Luxembourg was quite spontaneous, as we didn’t decide to go there until the past Monday.

We left on Friday morning and came back late Saturday night. With travel times included (about 6 hours each way), we were actually only in Luxembourg City for around 24 hours. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed our little get-a-way from Holland. The city was quite pretty and picturesque. Luxembourg even had hills!!! We had not seen substantial hills since Dublin (the literal translation of Netherlands is “low lands” or “flat lands.”) The city was also quite clean; it may have even been the cleanest place I have ever traveled to.

We maximized our time there by going to as many places as possible in a short period. We saw the Palace of the Grand Duchy (Luxembourg is the only remaining sovereign Grand Duchy), some beautiful cathedrals, and a famous fortress dating back to the 10th century. The rest of time there, we wandered around a marketplace, took a hike through the forest, and just took in the sights.

Another upside of our trip was the hostel. The hostel that we stayed at was not only the cheapest one available, but it resembled a Holiday Inn. It was by far the best hostel I have ever stayed at. I am hoping to stay in another hostel run by the same chain in the near future.

All in all, I am glad that we decided to go to Luxembourg. It was nice in a sense because nobody really talks about or travels to Luxembourg; it was cool to do something that most people won’t ever do. Luxembourg was also the prettiest place I have seen since I have been to Europe. Because of its small size, there was not a whole lot to do. The amount of time we spent there was pretty ideal. So, I wouldn’t recommend ever going there for an extended period of time, but if you are ever in the nearby vicinity (Belgium, Holland, Germany, or France), I highly recommend you stop in Luxembourg for a day or two.

Thanks for reading,

Josh