First Couple of Weeks

Hey Ya'll its Peter,

Sorry about the lack of updates these last few weeks, life in Luxembourg has been surprisingly busy.  I'm going to start from our arrival and talk about the first couple of days, so you're aware of the chronology of this post.

As some of you know, I arrived the day before everyone else and had very few problems.  I flew from Buffalo to New York, New York to Zurich, then finally Zurich to Luxembourg.  Everything went relatively smoothly as I had no problems with overweight bags or carry on luggage*.  I did have a flight get cancelled, my last leg from Zurich to Luxembourg, but I was able to get a seat on a flight later that same day.  I arrived in Luxembourg around 18h30 and caught a taxi to the Résidence des Dominicaines (≈20€, Driver spoke French and German), where Dr. Carsten Carlberg meet me and gave me the keys to my room.  The rooms here are equipped like most dorms, with a mattress, some storage units/book cases, a desk with chair, and one light attached to the wall. I advise bringing a travel pillow and a blanket for the first night if you can, as the store where you can buy them closes by 20h00.  There is also a  kitchenette equipped with your own personal mini fridge and bathroom with shower that you share with one of your neighbores.  On each floor of this Résidence is a big kitchen with 8 burners, a TV, table and chairs, and large refrigerators.  This is where you can cook when you want to.

Food when you first arrive is sort of tricky.  There are a couple of places to eat further down Avenue Pasteur towards the city center where you can catch a bite to eat your first night, but they are only open until a certain time.  There is a kebab place (sort of like a gyro, but better, ≈5€) that is open until 23h00 M-F I think, and some restaurants that cost a bit more that have variable hours.  There is a small grocery store right on the street too called Cactus, which is a luxembourg chain.  It has slightly elevated prices, but if you need to grab something quick its a decent place to go. It is only open until 18h00 however, so if you arrive after that you need to just buy dinner for that night. 

The next day I went to Auchan, a giant grocery store that is sort of like super-walmart located in an area of Luxembourg called Kirschberg.  The company is based out of France, and sells everything from sporting goods to electronics to cell phones to food to clothes.  It is one of the cheapest places to buy food in the area, and also any sort of furnishing goods that you might need.  I set aside about 200€ - 300€ to buy the goods I would need like pots and pans, silverware, coffee pot, etc and I stayed within my budget.  The first couple of days we were here we went to Auchan a lot because you can only buy as much as you can carry. Ben and I went in on a wheeled cart that they sell, and it has turned out to be a lifesaver.  With it we can carry a lot more stuff than would otherwise be possible.  We bought cell phones at Auchan, from the carrier Orange.  They have a good deal where you get unlimited texting for a month when you buy a 10€ recharge card.  We try to do most of our shopping there, since food stuffs in general are much cheaper than at Cactus.   At each of the cash registers (caisse in French) there are little flags hung up that indicate the languages that the cashier is able to speak.  They come in French, Luxembourgish, German, and British.  We were unaware of this at first, so I played translator as much as I could. 

I think one of the others is going to post about University and Admin. stuff from when we arrived, so until next time!

@+
Peter

*At the date of this post, international flight regulations generally allow for 1 checked bag weighing less than 22 kg or 50 lbs, and one carry-on + Personal Bag for free, with additional baggage or additional weight costing extra.  I was aware of these regulations and therefore had no problems, but I think some of the others were not and had to pay additional fees. Chances are good that for the next round of students, these regulations will have changed so its a good idea to check the baggage rules for whatever airline you end up flying.