Lazy Sunday

Today was a beautiful day outside, not that I spent much of it out there. I had to run to the grocery store twice in the morning, good thing it is almost across the street. I made Shrimp Creole and everytime I looked at the recipe I realized I forgot something else. I guess a list is only as good as the person who makes it! Last night was fun. Jim, Kathy, and I went out for a while we had some dinner and some drinks at Chi Chi's. Who knew I would come to Luxembourg for Mexican food? And there was also bad karoake..that was more fun than anything. It is always fun to rank on others..I have to give them credit though. I can't hold a tune and I wouldn't get up there even if I could. I tried to take pictures of the creepy basement so that everyone could see. It looks a lot less creepy in the pictures because when the flash goes off everything is lit up and looks bright and I guess as cheerful as a basement can look. I guess I will have to work on that one. Sundays here are great. The grocery store is open until noon and except for that everything is closed. there are some pubs and restuarants open at night, but in general there is no reason to feel like you need to do anything but lay around and chill out. At home I always feel like there is something that needs to get done or some place I could be. Today I was perfectly content cooking and reading my book. Hope all is well with everyone. I miss you all.

The Internet has finally arrived!

Well, two week in Luxembourg and I finally have internet at home! I am so excited about that. Last night I had a drink with my colleagues at work. Here it is customary when someone leaves that they offer a drink for there co-workers. Once I am settled in my group, my colleague Jeff is moving to another group so he brought in drinks for everyone. Since I had someone else in my group leave last week, it kind of seems like this happens all the time! I had my first full fledged conversation in French. My internet installer did not speak English. I probably sounded like a little kid but he understood me and I understood him so I guess that is all that matters. I am sittting here drinking my coffee and planning my day. I have to get my shopping done today because everything is closed on Sundays. I am going to get some things to make the place a little more homey, and groceries of course. I also need to start planning some trips. My family is coming the first week in June and I was going to plan some time with them. I think they all wanted to go to Paris and my sister wanted to go to Germany. Off to get ready!

I have arrived

I arrived in Luxembourg about a week ago. I have no internet at home so I have been putting off updating the blog because I feel a little wierd about updating it at work. I should have the internet at home starting on 3/28 for all of you who are anxiously awaiting it's arrival. I landed on Sunday 3/16 at about 10 in the morning. Although I was suffering from jet lag and annoyance at not being able to use my international cell phone (thanks Jenni for helping with that!) I was anxious to see the town and my apartment. My apartment blew me away. It is like an IKEA showroom that you live in. I am the first person to live there. The only drawback is that the sub-basement that I need to bring my trash to looks like something out of a horror film...Do you think it would be sanitary for me to let the trash pile up until my father arrives in June? After getting settled, I made my way around town. It took me a couple hours to find someplace where I could by a phone card as everything is closed on Sundays in this town. I did manage to get a phone card and call the few people that I knew in town. Kathy agreed to come and meet me at 2:30 instead of 5pm. for the hour while I waited I enjoyed the St. Patricks Day festival . There was an awesome U2 Cover band, sounded just like the real thing. In case you do not know, Luxembourg has many festivals. This past weekend was the New Orleans festival. Unfortunately the tent was not heated so I did not stay too long at that one. I met Kathy's friend Jim who helped me this weekend to find a place to get the things I desperately needed like a coffeemaker, a hairdryer, and an iron. Thankfully BBH let me expense these items. There is no doubt that a coffeemaker is a necessity! How happy was I to finally get that. I also got my bus pass. I have walked pretty much everywhere but it is nice to have to go to the mall or other places that are a little too far to walk that I have not found yet, lke IKEA. Other than that it has pretty much been work and sleep. The past weekend was a 4 day weekend. Because Lux is a very catholic country we not only get Good Friday off we also get Easter Monday. I spent Easter Monday doing laundry. This is the longest process ever here. I have a wash/dry machine in my apartment. This makes it very convenient but each load of laundry takes about 2 hours and to say that your laundry is dry after that is more of an estimate than an actual fact. The machines are also smaller so one load at home is like 3 loads here. I guess it is good I am not letting it pile up yet! Other than that this weeked was mostly walking around and taking pictures. Jim and I were pretty much the only Americans around so we hung out together for the most part. We went and took pictures which I will post as soon as I have the internet at home and then we mostly sat at the bars since that was all that was open on Sunday and Monday. Monday I opted to stay in all day. Work has been long and busy, no different than home. I really like my team here...I miss my team back home. Easter made me miss everyone, but I am having a great time so far. Hope everyone had a wonderful easter and I will update you again soon on my life. Pictures to come over the weekend!