Colonies well past colonial times

cats: Growing pains, Just wordsdate: June 28th, 2018Author: Mamá

Almost every year, Luxembourg school kids get to go away for one or a few nights at a youth hostel, or camp of some kind: les colonies. This is a luxury that not all countries can offer and I’m happy that you can experience such extracurricular activities. But…

Being vegan is out of the question during these outings, so you have to eat a few cheese or cream heavy meals; hopefully no omelettes, which you hate.

Sleeping in the same room as your apparently wild friends often proves uncomfortable for you because they like to stay up late and talk loudly, while you would rather wind down after each long day.

Then there are all the small (and not so small) conflicts of spending so much time with people you don’t really have anything in common with. Kids can be cruel, kids will play pranks, they will play mind games, power games and gang up against the weaker ones. You sometimes find yourself the odd one out, the butt of all their jokes, and you end up being called a “vegetarian cow” and being derided for forgoing meat for ethical reasons, while the others who don’t eat meat only do it—far more acceptably—because they “don’t like the taste.”

Sorry, Nina, this is the state of things in Luxembourg in 2018. I promise it’ll get better.

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