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Fall 2020 #1 August 24, 2020
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Arrangement courtesy of Guy Graul
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| … and we made it!
Yesterday, Luxembourg had 11 new Covid infections which is most likely one of the lowest rates worldwide. This is to say that we are on our way out of the second wave, most likely on our way to a third, hopefully only small, wave when people return from holidays.
In that spirit we built our Fall semester and mostly everyone thought it would never work. Had we arrived to the bottom of the Covid valley in July when we finally succeeded in getting for our students a certificate from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs allowing them to travel to Europe? Que nenni! - The European Union had indeed accepted an exception for students to be allowed to travel as essential but on August 12th a note on the French speaking website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – not on the English or the German one – required that everyone coming from the US, including local residents or essential workers, provide a negative COVID test result from within 48 hours of their flight leaving the US. Was this the end of our program so shortly before its start?
Not if you know the strong will of our Administration at GLI and of our students: every single person wanted this program to happen and they all managed to get their negative test in no time at all. Cheryl Young, our Associate Provost, moved mountains to get this done and the entire team and all of our students helped! A great thank you to Cheryl!
During that time we made the Château a Covid-resistant castle and beside the huge efforts made by the entire MUDEC team, I would like to recognize one person who made a big difference in the conditions at the Château: our very own host dad Guy Graul invested a lot of his time to make the Château a beauty! Thank you so very much Guy for everything you have done and hopefully will continue to do for MUDEC!
So YES, our students have arrived, 22 in total, the smallest group ever but a group full of energy, a group also that knows that traveling around Europe will be a challenge and to a certain extent risky. During Integration, we emphasized on the measures taken, to keep the necessary distance, wear a mask if distancing is difficult and we experienced it during our trips.
We were able to go to Vianden, to Bourscheid, to Beaufort, we could visit the Patton Museum in Ettelbruck, the Diekirch War Museum and we got a guided tour of the American Military Cemetery in respect of all these measures. The students know now how they need to act and they have done so perfectly. I welcomed them on Friday evening at the airport, but now I would also like to thank them for having been a great group over the last 2 days – let’s go on like this.
Since individual traveling will be a challenge, we plan a lot of Discovery Tour activities and local events: we have talked about doing hikes in Luxembourg with Faculty and Staff and this Friday we will visit the Maginot Line, just across the border in France and since the Germans let us in again – Luxembourgers had been banned from Germany these last weeks, can you imagine? – we will visit Trier the following week – if nothing changes …
… and this is the main message we gave the students: be flexible and accept last minute changes! If we had planned a rigid program, our students would not be here now! And they have all reasons to be happy to be here.
It will be an unforgettable semester for them and it will be so because of the wonderful support we have from our Alumni: this year #MoveInMiami was another great success and we were able to beat last year’s record. I can only express my deepest gratitude to all of you who supported our projects! With your help we can make a semester unique and organize a whole range of events students will never experience again.
THANK YOU ALL!!
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 | Interim Executive Director
Raymond Manes
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-Study:
-Engage:
- Students discover their new home
-Travel:
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If students thought that castles were only made for visiting, they were reminded today on their first day of classes that the STUDY component of Study, Engage, Travel takes place in a castle as well!
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7 teams, 8 unknown locations in Differdange and 1 in the Château. Here is a selection of pictures from the Discover Differdange photo challenge, part of the integration activities. Vote for your favorite below!
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After Differdange, students got the chance to visit the American and German cemeteries before taking a brief Tram and walking tour of Luxembourg City
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American Luxembourg Cemetery
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American Luxembourg Cemetery
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Pfaffenthal Elevator lookout
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| Discovery Tour-Maginot Line
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With the COVID situation making travel less predictable and early planning more difficult, although also for MUDEC, Discovery Tour season is kicking off right away with a classic MUDEC trip to Fort Hackenberg on the Maginot Line in France this Friday. After a dose of history this weekend, students will experience first-hand how the French built a wall of fortifications to protect themselves from an attack from a previous war, which went for naught when the Wehrmacht made an end run through Belgium.
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Integration Day 2 took students to familiar places around Luxembourg, including the WW II Museum in Diekirch, Vianden Castle, both castles in Beaufort (yes, there are 2!), as well as Bourscheid.
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Riley Farrell was wearing his mask correctly in Bourscheid Castle, yet still ended up being pilloried!
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National Museum of Military History in Diekirch
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Monday: Classes Start!
Tuesday: Classes
18:30 US Embassy Safe Travel and Absentee Voting Talk
Wednesday: Classes
17:15 US Ambassador to Luxembourg Randy Evans lecture/dinner
Thursday: Classes
Friday: Classes in the morning
13:00 Maginot Line Discovery Tour
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Château HoursMonday-Thursday: 8:00-22:00Friday: 8:00-17:00
Saturday, Sunday: Closed
Administrative Hours
Monday-Friday: 8:30-12:30
13:00-17:00
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