The First Month

walking along the Rhine

Our family has survived one month of living in Luxembourg. I have felt every second, minute and hour of each day that has passed. It feels good to reach this small milestone of one month. I'm proud of our little family. 

Our first days in Luxembourg were filled with the necessities of moving into a new home, a new culture, and a new country -- one trip to IKEA, a few swear words, frequent trips to grocery stores, lots of tears, and a boatload of rules, paperwork and bureaucracy to navigate. 

Our first week, we were required to register our entire family -- in person -- at Luxembourg City Hall and the ministry of foreign affairs. 

Additionally, we were all required to have a physical exam by a government doctor, who asked some pretty funny questions and said our weights aloud quite loudly after stepping on the scale. We were also required to be tested for tuberculosis, which meant waiting for a very long time in another government doctor’s office, getting shots, and then getting x-rays. Then we were required to return three days later to prove we didn’t have TB. Don’t worry, they didn’t have the right equipment to x-ray Ingrid, so we had to take a separate trip for her tests to be completed at a children’s hospital. I’m grateful for gummy bears and iPads — the only way we survived all of the waiting around in public places. 

Every day, Ben was filling out a form, asking me to sign something, or figuring out what we needed to do next in order to get internet, phones, parking stickers, parking dials, opening a bank account, ordering cards without transaction fees, ordering vehicles, turning off phones, turning on phones, arranging insurance, etc. It's been a real headache for him and he keeps saying, "I'm about ready to kill some people." 

Ben is withering away! After being here one week, Ben lost 10lbs and continues to drop the L-B’s. Apparently I didn’t realize just how well-fed PwC kept Ben in SLC, especially while traveling. Combined with walking to and from work and the limited availability of snack food, we sort of felt/feel like we were starving to death until we figured out how to shop. Ben will soon begin taking more and more clients out for meals, and I’m sure will be right back up to his fighting weight. 

He is enjoying work here. They have made him the Director of Marketing in addition to his risk assurance responsibilities, which basically means they run all documents and marketing materials in English by him first. He likes the people he works with, can get by on his church french, and eats a brie and salami sandwich, coke, and a chocolate bar every day. 

He’s responsible for a lot of things in our day-to-day lives because he speaks French — calling doctor's offices, running random errands, translating signs, and yelling at motorcycle gangs to shut up when they stop and smoke outside of our house at 5 a.m.

Here are a few things I don't want to forget about the past month: 

Otto and Aksel contracting pink eye. (Luckily, I was able to fill two antibiotic prescriptions in Utah before we came, and I feel like a genius.)

The cooler weather.

Belgian chocolate chips.

The chocolate bars (one a day).

Brasserie Guillaume's raspberry tart.

Bread, bread, bread.

More time with Ben.

Exploring countless parks with my children.

Watching Otto ride the zipline on his own and loving it.

Falling down the stairs.

A visit from the Holdaways.

Successfully making chocolate chip cookies.

Listening to Aksel shout at Otto that he needed a time out.

Otto and Aksel shrieking with delight when Ben walks up our steps.

Walking in the city center with Ben and Ingrid under a canopy of brightly colored umbrellas, candles on tables twinkling, and the aroma of perfume, cigarettes and food.

None of the light switches are uniform. Some flip up to turn on a light, some down. No rhyme or reason. 

Stores close whenever they want -- even if the sign says they're open until 7, they still close and lock their doors at 6:28 if they feel like it. 

Everything is shut down for the month of August. Everyone is gone on holiday. Unless you're trying to get gas, then the entire european continent on their August holiday is at one gas station. 

Drivers are unable to turn right on a red light. 

Not only is prostitution legal; it is done in broad daylight across the street from the Ministry of Education. 

How the lights in nursery caught on fire our first Sunday.

Aksel's footsteps in the middle of the night as he found his way from his bed to ours (until we bought a crib).

A magical weekend in Germany with the Holdaways -- amazing food, soundly sleeping children, staying up late talking, belated birthday celebrations, brownies, vest shopping, and lots of laughing. 

The beauty of Rodemack.

The sound of bats at night.

The pastoral countryside of Luxembourg.

The way I felt when we finally got internet.

Yudri Rodriguez' cooking.

Ben thinking it's appropriate to drive 200 km/h on the autobahn.

Otto calling the Rodriguez girls "the ones with the black hair".

Trying to hide our VPN so we can access Hulu, Pandora, PBS Kids, or Netflix.

Ben trying to park our car in our driveway without bottoming-out.

Miss

purple skittles
double stuff oreos
clorox wipes
hand sanitizer that doesn't cost 16 euros (more than $20) for a bottle
carpet
target
my scensty warmer
my dyson
our bed
chick-fil-a

This past month has been filled with intense highs and lows. Moments of weakness and doubt and bursts of peace and beauty. We are grateful for this pause we have in Ben's career to spend more time as a family, to do something out of the ordinary, to eat loads of incredible bread and chocolate, and show our children the world. 

We love you, Luxembourg.