The concert on Saturday was great - absoloutely wonderful! It was really very inspiring - I keep going back to the fact that the students were there to make music - not to have a good time, not to make friends or seem Luxembourg (although they did all of those things). They were there to make music, and boy, was a lot of music made.
We didn't leave Luxembourg until Sunday evening at 6:50PM (which was already 9:50 Dubai time), so we planned to do a little sight seeing - there's a walk around the ramparts of the city that's supposed to be nice. The weather did not cooperate. It was cold and rainy (remember, I live in Dubai now, and my blood has thinned. It wasn't cold to the Luxembourgers, but it was cold to me!!) Plus, my remaining student was too tired to go walking for 2 hours. 
So, we went into the center of town and ate lunch at Chi Chi's. Yes. Chi Chi's. I haven't seen or heard of a Chi Chi's in years, but there's one in the center of Luxembourg city. And I ate there. It was really good.
So, we went into the center of town and ate lunch at Chi Chi's. Yes. Chi Chi's. I haven't seen or heard of a Chi Chi's in years, but there's one in the center of Luxembourg city. And I ate there. It was really good.We went back to the hotel and waited - my blessed student didn't think to bring a book or anything to while away the hours, so he planned to sleep until we needed to get to the airport. Instead, he worked on Sudoku puzzles out of my book, and ate my peanut M&Ms. Can you believe him?
There were 3 schools with flights at about the same time - and we all ordered cabs for 4:00PM. 
The problem with that is there are about 7 cabs in the whole city. Maybe I'm underexaggerating, but not by much. That's one of the biggest differences between Luxembourg and Dubai. That and I only saw 12 construction cranes, instead of 12,000. That, and the air was clean, and there were grass covered hills, not sand dunes, and there were forests of tall trees, and the streets were not congested with people and cars. Sorry - I got distracted.
The problem with that is there are about 7 cabs in the whole city. Maybe I'm underexaggerating, but not by much. That's one of the biggest differences between Luxembourg and Dubai. That and I only saw 12 construction cranes, instead of 12,000. That, and the air was clean, and there were grass covered hills, not sand dunes, and there were forests of tall trees, and the streets were not congested with people and cars. Sorry - I got distracted. Anyway, the school from Abu Dhabi ordered 2 cabs, we ordered one, as did another school. 3 cabs came, Abu Dhabi left. We waited. Waited some more. A cab pulled in - we went toward it, but realized it was full with 3 kids from the Abu Dhabi school (no teachers). A boy got out and went running back into the hotel. Then our cab came, and we got in and went to the airport. When we arrived, the 2 teachers from Abu Dhabi were standing on the curb, looking incredibly worried. I was glad to be able to tell them that the kids had been fine, they just returned to the hotel and should be right behind us. Both teachers were understandably freaked out, one more than the other because her daughter was in that cab. But they came, and everything was fine.
We waited in the very small Luxembourgish airport for a long time, boarded the plane and went to Milan. While there, my student's bag apparently didn't want to return to Dubai so soon, so it jumped off the baggage train so it could stay in Milan for another day - you know, see some sights, eat some pasta, etc. That was not a happy thing - we landed in Dubai at 6:45 AM, and then we got to wait until the all the bags came and were on the carousel. It's depressing, watching the same bags go around and around, hoping without hope that this time your suitcase will appear. Ah, well. It's supposed to be delivered today. So, we get out of the airport at about 8:00, so all told it didn't take long to deal with the baggage fiasco, and I was on my way home. My student was lucky - our school's policy is that they have 12 hours from when they land to be in school. Since we landed at 6:45AM, he needed to be at school at 6:45 PM - oh, wait, we're not in school then, so he got to go home and sleep. I, on the other hand, got to go to school and teach. Granted, my first class was not until 12, so I did go home, swept up my apartement - there was a sandstorm over the weekend, and a good portion of the desert decided to stay in my apartment - and took an hour nap, then I woke up (grudgingly, yes, but I still did it), showered, dressed and went to school.
My students missed me (and why wouldn't they?)and that was nice, but I really just wanted to sleep. I still do.
Anyway, that was my trip to Luxembourg!
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