Tonight is my last night alone in Luxembourg -- Andy arrives tomorrow afternoon, so I will soon have my travel and email/blogging partner back. I am sure he'll have a few entertaining stories for everyone soon, this is supposed to be a joint blog from both of us after all!
So I've survived most of my first week of work. I am enjoying getting to know everyone on the ArcelorMittal team -- there are 12 of us on the core team, I think there are another 5-10 that will join us at the busier times. Of the 12, four are American, two are Russian, one is Romanian, four are Dutch, and one is Belgian. The two partners share an office, the two lead senior managers each have a small cube, the rest of us are all in one large conference room. It is crazy. I knew I was spoiled in Cincinnati with my cubes at P&G and AK Steel, but this is a bit extreme. I will get used to it, but my notoriously short attention span when there is commotion around me could make work life interesting.
I am getting better at driving, but I have yet to feel 100% comfy at it. I attempted to get home tonight without the navigation system. I discovered a new part of Luxembourg as a result, but escaped unscathed. I had dinner at the Italian restaurant next to my hotel and I ended up sitting at a table next to another lone diner, a "lovely girl" from Scotland named Tamara. At one point I wasn't sure who I was having more trouble understanding, her or my French-only speaking waiter. It was nice to have someone to talk to while eating, she happens to be staying at my same hotel and has recently arrived here as well pending a move for her company.
I learned today that my lease has been approved by Deloitte, so that is good news! The guy in charge of signing isn't back in the office until Monday, so we can't take possession until then, but at least there is a light at the end of the Hotel Ponte Vecchio tunnel. The hotel is fine, but I am eagerly awaiting the opportunity to have a kitchen and our own furniture (once we go buy it all). I travel to Geneva for training for a few days next week, so hopefully we can move in before I leave on Tuesday night.
That is all that is really new in this neck of the Ardennes. I have finally succumbed to the peer pressure and signed up for Facebook if any of you want to be my friends.
Love,
Lesley
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
After 300 meters, take the second left!
Happy Sunday Morning, everyone! As I write this, the US are leading Europe in the Ryder Cup 9 to 7. Let's hope they can keep it up today!
Just thought I'd update you on a few of my adventures since my last post -- I succesfully navigated the bus system and went for a stroll/shopping trip through the City Centre on Tuesday. The Centre is really pretty and clean (unlike many other European cities!) and is entirely a pedestrian zone. There are tons of shops and little cafes, and of course, has the infamous Chi-Chi's where they serve drinks with ice and refill them as many times as you want! I was tempted, but thought I'd save it for a time when I'm really desperate for American food.
Colleen (hostess of the welcoming barbecue) drove me to IKEA in nearby Arlon, Belgium (about a 15 minute drive) on Wednesday so we could order the furniture for our apartment -- we got lost a bit in translation and I came away with some dishes and pots and pans, but no furniture. The folks at IKEA don't speak English as well as we were hoping, and we seemed to confuse the heck out of them when trying to explain that we wanted to have the furniture delivered at a future date. The new plan of attack was to call the relocation agency and tell them what I wanted to order and have someone working for them go an buy it, bring it back, and assemble it all. There are a few snags in that system, so I spent the better part of Thursday morning on the phone with IKEA (all in French) madly pushing different buttons until I magically got to a human who spoke English. I was able to place a pending order, as I don't have a finalized address at the new apartment yet, so a small victory. Thursday morning I also visited the apartment again to get a better feel for the space (they were all mingled together in my memory) and to try and convince them to let me take pictures -- no dice, but I did get the landlord to agree to let me take one of the view from the kitchen windows!
I had my first day in the office on Friday -- let's just say it was a little bit of a different experience than my first day at Deloitte in Cincinnati. I was escorted throughout the day by one of the seniors on the team, Arthur. Arthur is originally from Russia, but went to university and worked in Houston before transferring to Luxembourg in December 2007. I have my computer now, but no email address or password to the network, so I wasn't really able to do anything. I did get my temporary car -- a really awesome station wagon! Every one has an 'estate' wagon here, so I shouldn't have been surprised, but it isn't quite the sweet ride I was anticipating when they told me I'd have a Mercedes C-Class. It's very nice, brand new, I'm not complaining -- I'm just super glad to have some wheels to feel a little less tied down to the Hotel Ponte Vecchio. I borrowed Rob and Juli's TomTom and after leaving the office early afternoon on Friday, I set out for my very first drive in Europe -- destination, IKEA.
Driving itself is pretty much the same, but the roads are narrower and the signs are totally different. I had a few scary moments as I tried to figure out how to listen to the TomTom, watch the road, watch the TomTom map out the route, and watch all the other drivers at the same time, but I made it. I was quite relieved to finally reach the motorway and have a few minutes of Interstate-type driving. I have no idea how fast I was actually going, but there were others flying past me, so I would assume I wasn't at crazy European speed yet. I need to work on my metric system a bit! I made it to IKEA, my knees were a little shaky, but I mustered up my courage and walked in. Three hours later, I wheeled my overflowing cart out to the estate wagon and was quickly amazed at how much storage capacity the thing has. Maybe this car will come in handy whilst we are moving! The drive back was a little less nerve-wracking, but I was very happy to get to my mini-bar and pop open a Bofferding, one of the Luxembourg beers.
Yesterday I spent the day with the McFarlands (same barbecue hosts) and Colleen, Abby (her 6-year-old) daughter and I spent some time at the Cactus, the Luxembourg version of Wal-Mart and Best Buy smashed together. It's insane. You can buy everything from a washer and dryer to birthday party supplies to milk. And they have a HUGE selection of everything! There were literally about 30 different models of washers! After our foray into the shopping world, we all went to the local football pitch (soccer field) to watch Seamus's (8-year-old) match and then stopped on the way home for Indian take-away. Delicious! I made it safely there and back in the car with little issue, so I am hopefuly this is indicative that I will eventually feel comfy behind the wheel.
Today is Sunday, so everything is closed. I am planning to get in the car again and drive up to our new neighborhood, Beggen, just north of the Centre and will probably map out my route to ArcelorMittal, as tomorrow is my first day at the client location. I'm hoping the roads will be a little more calm than they are on weekdays!
Hope you are all happy and healthy!
Love,
Lesley
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Bon jour from Luxembourg!
Moien!! That's Luxembourgish for good morning, hello, good afternoon, etc. Well, it's Tuesday morning on a beautiful day in Luxembourg -- the weather is crisp with blue sky and a few white clouds. It is 11 degrees Celsius, that's 52 degrees Fahrenheit, otherwise known as a little chilly.
The first few days have gone well -- I arrived on Friday afternoon in Luxembourg on a propeller plane from Frankfurt, Germany. LuxAir has four new prop planes, I must say they are quite an improvement from the last prop plane I flew from Evansville to Memphis a few years ago. It was cloudy and gray when I arrived, which little did I know was announcing the absolute downpour that would occur all day Saturday. I have been assured by many people here that Saturday's weather was an anomaly and while it does rain a decent amount, it is rare for it to pour. Good news, I guess. I was picked up at the airport by Juli, another senior manager I will be working with at ArcelorMittal (my client), as I told my mom and a few other girls, she was wearing a Burberry raincoat and carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, and from then I knew we'd get along just fine. She dropped me at my hotel and returned a few hours later with her husband (Rob), her mother (Grandma Mary), and her two kids (Chad and Katie, ages 6 and 4, respectively) to take me to dinner at a little bar called "Maybe Nut Bobs" or "Maybe Not Bob's" or something like that. They serve primarily good pub fare -- potato skins and nachos, cheeseburgers and BLTs. A perfect first meal in a foreign land. I pretty much crashed after dinner and slept until 1:30 PM Saturday -- and I wasn't really missing much because of the rain!
Saturday afternoon, Juli and Rob and the kids picked me up to take me to Belle Etoile, a huge shopping mall with a grocery store and all sorts of shops. I got a prepaid mobile phone so I'd have a phone number here while organizing apartments and other stuff...and so I could call home. I have to tell you after three years of being constantly attached to my BlackBerry, it was an odd feeling to have no emails buzzing, no text messages, and no phone calls, nor anyway to send any of those items. I did manage to work the wireless connection at the hotel, but it is very spotty and only works at certain times of day (hence, no blogs from me yet!). We went to dinner where I spent a good amount of time reading "What do you want to do when you grow up?" to my new best friend, Katie (the 4-year-old), in various Sesame Street voices. I was scolded numerous times for not doing the proper voices of Rosita and Zoe, and my explanations that those two didn't live on Sesame Street when I was younger didn't seem to soothe Katie. I did okay with Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Big Bird, though.
Sunday arrived and I woke up at 1:30 PM again. So much for a productive day! By the time I watched a little CNN International and watched what Ike was up to, it was time for Juli and Rob to pick me up again and head this time to the home of Bill and Colleen for a barbecue. Bill is one of the other senior managers on ArcelorMittal. Bill and Colleen have three kids, Seamus (8), Abby (6), and David (2). Abby quickly attached herself to my leg and demanded that I join them on the giant trampoline. I managed to stave her off for about an hour, but succumbed after two beers. By this time, one of the partners on ArcelorMittal and his wife (Eddy and Monique -- they are Dutch) had arrived and Eddy was intently watching my drinking intake and supplying me with more beer and champagne (they had a bottle to toast my arrival) and kept refilling my glass. It seemed safer to head for the trampoline than to keep drinking! It was a very nice afternoon and evening, I think I will be in good hands here other than I need to work on my tolerance if I am going to keep up!
That brings us to Monday -- I managed to pull myself out of bed at a more-respectable 8:00 am to meet Jeannot (zhuh-no), a very nice man from the relocation agency who drove me around town all of yesterday to see flats. I looked at nine, narrowed it down to three, and with the help of Andy and Juli, finally decided on one in Beggen, which is about 4km north of the city centre. Jeannot claims that is "very far" for a Luxembourger, but is actually closer to the city than Andy and I lived to downtown Cincinnati, so I think we'll be just fine. Most people commute from similar or farther distances. It's 116 square meters -- if someone could please convert that to feet, I would be quite appreciative. I think you multiply by 9, so I'm guessing just over 1,000 square feet. That feels about right. It has two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and is a duplex -- which means it has two floors. It's ultra modern and has one of those spiral staircases right in the middle of it. I have always wanted a spiral staircase, so I was pretty pumped about it. It's new construction, has one parking spot in the garage (and Andy and I will take turns, I'm not going to make him park outside all the time!), and has a dedicated laundry in the cellar (that means we have our own washer and dryer -- or we will when we buy it -- but that all the washer and dryers in the building are in the same room -- this is how all the apartments in Luxembourg are situated so that if a leak happens, it is contained). Another thing about Luxembourg apartments -- they are all tiled. Meaning you have tile on the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor, the bedroom floor, the living room floor. Quite strange, I think it must be a deal they have with the rug companies. We'll be on the 4th and 5th floors of a 5 story building, so nobody will be above us. We have a corner unit with a terrace that wraps around it with nice views of the surrounding forest. I'll post pictures later when I get the keys. Oh, and it has ZERO light fixtures. That is something renters supply in Luxembourg, so I will be making a very fast trip to the IKEA in Arlon, Belgium (about a 15 minute drive) to get us some lights.
Today I stopped by the Deloitte office in the morning to meet with Marga, one of our HR contacts to go over a few administrative matters and now I'm back to the hotel. My hotel is about two-minute drive from the office, I took a taxi on the way there as I don't receive my car until Friday and everyone had assured me it was much too far to walk. Bah! The cab ride was SIX EURO. Good grief, even New York is cheaper! The backpacker in me just couldn't stomach paying it again, so I walked back to the hotel -- for less than 20 minutes. Not something I would want to do every day in heels, but it was fine. I know, I know -- I'll spend hundreds on a purse, but not six euro on a taxi, but really -- it was quite a silly distance. I'm going to head into the city centre to explore a little on my own in a bit, I'm going to take the bus assuming someone at the front desk can tell me how much it is. Nobody knows -- Luxembourg is like anywhere else in the US, they drive EVERYWHERE! Andy and I have vowed to not become like them and to take advantage of our legs as much as possible.
A few tidbits I've picked up so far:
The first few days have gone well -- I arrived on Friday afternoon in Luxembourg on a propeller plane from Frankfurt, Germany. LuxAir has four new prop planes, I must say they are quite an improvement from the last prop plane I flew from Evansville to Memphis a few years ago. It was cloudy and gray when I arrived, which little did I know was announcing the absolute downpour that would occur all day Saturday. I have been assured by many people here that Saturday's weather was an anomaly and while it does rain a decent amount, it is rare for it to pour. Good news, I guess. I was picked up at the airport by Juli, another senior manager I will be working with at ArcelorMittal (my client), as I told my mom and a few other girls, she was wearing a Burberry raincoat and carrying a Louis Vuitton bag, and from then I knew we'd get along just fine. She dropped me at my hotel and returned a few hours later with her husband (Rob), her mother (Grandma Mary), and her two kids (Chad and Katie, ages 6 and 4, respectively) to take me to dinner at a little bar called "Maybe Nut Bobs" or "Maybe Not Bob's" or something like that. They serve primarily good pub fare -- potato skins and nachos, cheeseburgers and BLTs. A perfect first meal in a foreign land. I pretty much crashed after dinner and slept until 1:30 PM Saturday -- and I wasn't really missing much because of the rain!
Saturday afternoon, Juli and Rob and the kids picked me up to take me to Belle Etoile, a huge shopping mall with a grocery store and all sorts of shops. I got a prepaid mobile phone so I'd have a phone number here while organizing apartments and other stuff...and so I could call home. I have to tell you after three years of being constantly attached to my BlackBerry, it was an odd feeling to have no emails buzzing, no text messages, and no phone calls, nor anyway to send any of those items. I did manage to work the wireless connection at the hotel, but it is very spotty and only works at certain times of day (hence, no blogs from me yet!). We went to dinner where I spent a good amount of time reading "What do you want to do when you grow up?" to my new best friend, Katie (the 4-year-old), in various Sesame Street voices. I was scolded numerous times for not doing the proper voices of Rosita and Zoe, and my explanations that those two didn't live on Sesame Street when I was younger didn't seem to soothe Katie. I did okay with Elmo, Cookie Monster, and Big Bird, though.
Sunday arrived and I woke up at 1:30 PM again. So much for a productive day! By the time I watched a little CNN International and watched what Ike was up to, it was time for Juli and Rob to pick me up again and head this time to the home of Bill and Colleen for a barbecue. Bill is one of the other senior managers on ArcelorMittal. Bill and Colleen have three kids, Seamus (8), Abby (6), and David (2). Abby quickly attached herself to my leg and demanded that I join them on the giant trampoline. I managed to stave her off for about an hour, but succumbed after two beers. By this time, one of the partners on ArcelorMittal and his wife (Eddy and Monique -- they are Dutch) had arrived and Eddy was intently watching my drinking intake and supplying me with more beer and champagne (they had a bottle to toast my arrival) and kept refilling my glass. It seemed safer to head for the trampoline than to keep drinking! It was a very nice afternoon and evening, I think I will be in good hands here other than I need to work on my tolerance if I am going to keep up!
That brings us to Monday -- I managed to pull myself out of bed at a more-respectable 8:00 am to meet Jeannot (zhuh-no), a very nice man from the relocation agency who drove me around town all of yesterday to see flats. I looked at nine, narrowed it down to three, and with the help of Andy and Juli, finally decided on one in Beggen, which is about 4km north of the city centre. Jeannot claims that is "very far" for a Luxembourger, but is actually closer to the city than Andy and I lived to downtown Cincinnati, so I think we'll be just fine. Most people commute from similar or farther distances. It's 116 square meters -- if someone could please convert that to feet, I would be quite appreciative. I think you multiply by 9, so I'm guessing just over 1,000 square feet. That feels about right. It has two bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and is a duplex -- which means it has two floors. It's ultra modern and has one of those spiral staircases right in the middle of it. I have always wanted a spiral staircase, so I was pretty pumped about it. It's new construction, has one parking spot in the garage (and Andy and I will take turns, I'm not going to make him park outside all the time!), and has a dedicated laundry in the cellar (that means we have our own washer and dryer -- or we will when we buy it -- but that all the washer and dryers in the building are in the same room -- this is how all the apartments in Luxembourg are situated so that if a leak happens, it is contained). Another thing about Luxembourg apartments -- they are all tiled. Meaning you have tile on the kitchen floor, the bathroom floor, the bedroom floor, the living room floor. Quite strange, I think it must be a deal they have with the rug companies. We'll be on the 4th and 5th floors of a 5 story building, so nobody will be above us. We have a corner unit with a terrace that wraps around it with nice views of the surrounding forest. I'll post pictures later when I get the keys. Oh, and it has ZERO light fixtures. That is something renters supply in Luxembourg, so I will be making a very fast trip to the IKEA in Arlon, Belgium (about a 15 minute drive) to get us some lights.
Today I stopped by the Deloitte office in the morning to meet with Marga, one of our HR contacts to go over a few administrative matters and now I'm back to the hotel. My hotel is about two-minute drive from the office, I took a taxi on the way there as I don't receive my car until Friday and everyone had assured me it was much too far to walk. Bah! The cab ride was SIX EURO. Good grief, even New York is cheaper! The backpacker in me just couldn't stomach paying it again, so I walked back to the hotel -- for less than 20 minutes. Not something I would want to do every day in heels, but it was fine. I know, I know -- I'll spend hundreds on a purse, but not six euro on a taxi, but really -- it was quite a silly distance. I'm going to head into the city centre to explore a little on my own in a bit, I'm going to take the bus assuming someone at the front desk can tell me how much it is. Nobody knows -- Luxembourg is like anywhere else in the US, they drive EVERYWHERE! Andy and I have vowed to not become like them and to take advantage of our legs as much as possible.
A few tidbits I've picked up so far:
- They really do hate the Germans (Jeannot told me so when he showed me the German cemetery yesterday -- he says, "See, it is very small. We don't like the Germans, but we loved the Americans which is why your cemetery is so vast."
- On that point, there are very few true Luxembourgers -- only 8% of people working in the city are from here, the rest are from France, Belgium, and Germany, all within an easy commute of here.
- There are at LEAST two McDonald's! Four or five Pizza Huts, includine one that is within walking distance of our new flat.
- There is no such thing as central heat (and no A/C, for that matter) -- everything, even our brand-new apartment, has radiators.
- The German TV stations are totally normal during the day, switch to porn as soon as it gets dark. Not that I watch it, but it's hard to miss as they are the two channels in between CNN International and InterSport, the only two English-speaking channels on my TV.
- The fact that they speak Luxembourgish only at home is a lie -- they speak it everywhere!
Well, that's all for now -- I'll try and do better at posting now that the first few days are under my belt. And everyone be sure to give a shout out for Andy -- his last day in the Cincinnati office was yesterday!! For those of you who didn't know, he is spending a few more days in the Midwest seeing family and wrapping things up, so he'll join me here on Friday, the 26th. Hope this finds you all well and happy -- and free of major tree branches from Ike! I also hope you have power!
Love,
Lesley
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