Dear Santa,

I am writing to you in order to let you know about my well-behaves and mischiefs of this year. In order to save your precious time, I think it best to confess the last two weeks only, since they pretty much sum up my average daily life in the year of 2008. To let you know beforehand, my consciousness rests in the deepest dungeons of hell and I promise wholeheartedly that I will change (Yes, We Can!). Here is a short sum up of the things I will never do again:

December 20th – I was spending a quiet dinner, when suddenly my phone rang and a few of my not so sober friends me invited to join their drinking fiesta. They planned to attend the “Stroosbuerger Bal”. Since my discipline ranks among the highest, I told the waiter to forget about the main course and I stormed out of this so called civilised place, to join the battalion of forgotten brains.

A brief memo about this event: It takes place annually on the 20th of December and is organised by the Luxembourgish Student Union in Strasbourg, a picturesque small city situated in the splendid environments of French-Alsace. This year, the event was organised in an enormous tent on the surroundings of Luxembourg – Capital of Europe. When we arrived around 1 am, atmosphere was kicking in and the crowd was starting to feel alcohol’s delightful pleasures. The cover band ‘Providers’ was performing at their highest level sending people outta space. After spending a few hours of exchanging uncomprehensive sounds in the most difficult conditions of drunken dialogue, I ended the evening devouring the tastes of a delightful ‘Mettwurscht’. It was a pleasure and I will never do it again. For sure!

December 25th – It’s time for the annual, glorious event ‘Zürecher Bal’, which takes place in the elegant circumstances of ‘Park Hotel – Dommeldange’. As the name says, this event is organised by the Luxembourgish Student Union in Zurich, in Switzerland for those of you who are not used to the illegal traficking of valuable counting units. I don’t remember anything and I promise, my dearest Santa, that I will never do it again. For sure!

December 28th – Here comes the neighbourhood. The most pompous event of the annual student parties takes place. Naturally, we’re talking about the ‘Breisseler Bal’. A brief remark about the titles of these various get-arounds, Luxembourgish students are well-known for their creativity and innovative way of life. Sur ce, àfond!, and we’re entering the place of craziness.

It was the same location as the ‘Stroosbuerger’, but through their subtle contributions to decoration (Bréissel is a B****) and light effects, the students from Belgium’s capital had transformed the place into something special. It somehow reminded me of an era where Dionysos’ rites were performed. They had only switched Greek wine into Luxembourgish beer. When the band played ‘Le Lac du Connemara’, I was enjoying a view of apparent top models and freaky rugby players screaming, yelling, shouting, singing, kicking, tumbling, etc etc... The view was improved by my position, elevated by an extremely robust bar construction. Indeed, it was quite an adventure! I will never do it again. For sure!

December 31st – Some of Luxembourg’s students spend this very special evening, that is New Year’s Eve, at the annual ‘Lécker Bal’, again a symbol of our deep sense of Imaginationland, organised by the Luxembourgish Student Union in Liège, a sleepy little town in the forests of Wallonia. The tent I had visited three days ago was now filled with charming, robe-wearing Ladies and smart-dressed Gents. Crémant was flowing down dry throats and, even though people were wearing their Sunday dress, behaviour was following a more drunken way of life. Different couples ended their romantic night by dancing to slow music, that’s what they call nowadays when two people try to keep a certain balance. I will never do it again. For sure!

I hope, Dear Santa, that you believe the promises I have made. You received my list of most wanted gifts I attached to my last letter. Please consider my regrets when you judge on whether to grant them.

Yours faithfully,

Georges Zahlen