eternal

photo of the flame from taylor mcconnell 

the other night the eternal flame of luxembourg was out when we passed by... that isn't supposed to happen to eternal flames, is it?

day 5 in lux

i've been here for a few days now, and been pretty productive. i've already applied to a bunch of jobs, which was a priority, and can now deal with less important things and relax a little. 


some impressions so far:
-the streets are so clean and well-planned! amazing in comparison to toronto.. there are bike lanes everywhere, often separate from cars, veloh! bikes to borrow all over the city, and even scooter/motorcycle parking spots on the sidewalk

-it seems pretty safe.. the most 'dangerous' people i've seen so far are the teenage 'thugs' who hang out on the steps to the train station, singing french rap songs

-you can consider polish and luxembourgish drivers as opposites: polish won't even slow down for pedestrians, you just have to run across and hope you don't die, whereas in luxembourg people stop for me when i'm not even planning to cross the street..

-the food in the shops is reaally good :) a bit annoying that they run out of things like bread by evening, but that means it's always fresh

-there is a cookie called speculoos which apparently people are obsessed with. i got yogurt with it on the bottom, so assumed it was a type of fruit, but no it was yogurt with cookie mush on the bottom. i've seen it in many things and yesterday i wanted to buy peanut butter but instead found crunchy speculoos paste for spreading on bread. but it is quite a tasty cookie :)

it's a bit funny but somehow because i've decided to live here simple tasks seem pretty scary. if i was travelling, then i would maybe attempt to use french but just use english most of the time. because i'll be going to the same shops as a regular though, i feel that i should use french because it's the main language along with luxembourgish and it just feels rude not to use it if i'm able to. but i haven't spoken french really for about 6 years so just to say 'un pain au chocolat et un café s'il vous plaît' makes me all nervous. going out and having conversations in stores and restaurants is the best way to get over it i'm sure, but it's still scary. 

i tried to join a luxembourgeois course on monday actually, but it was full and i'm on a waiting list. hopefully a space will open up! i especially want to study french but there aren't any affordable courses starting soon, and knowing how to have a basic conversation at a store in luxembourgish would be nice. i'm really curious about the language and it would be quite fun to speak it a little bit :)