My Life is a Circus: Part 1, "The Car"

This is just a random picture that I took yesterday off my back porch...was snowing like crazy here.

Anyways....

This is the first in a series of three (and only three, I hope). And before you read on, please note that I do realize all this stuff just relates to material things, none of which are the most important things in my life. But as you read, I think you’ll agree that the events I’m describing are annoying!

So you might recall from a previous post that I bought a car here. It’s a nice car. Solid feel on the road, gets decent gas mileage, etc. It’s gonna work perfectly for me here.

Well, I took possession of the car on a Thursday in mid-November. The following Saturday night (two days later), I was leaving the American Sports Bar here. Get in the car, turn the wheel to the right to back out of my parallel parking spot, then turn it back to the left to pull out and leave. As I’m turning it to the left, I hear and feel a scraping, popping noise in the steering wheel. I think “that felt weird, I hope nothing’s wrong with this car!”

I kind of forget about it because as I’m driving home everything feels normal, so I think it’s maybe something that was under my car that my wheel hit…..whatever.

The next morning I get in my car and as I’m pulling out of my garage, the same thing happens, only this time, the wheel is a little harder to turn. It keeps going on like this for about a week and then I decide to take the car to the Saab dealership in Mersch (about 30 min north of my apartment). By this time, it’s obvious that the power steering has gone out, because the wheel is really hard to turn.

I drop the car off on December 1 (a Thursday), and they give me a rental car. I was to return the rental car by 5pm, and my car should have been ready.
On my way back into work, they call and tell me that the tube that holds the power steering fluid, etc, was broken and that indeed my power steering had gone out. They could fix the problem that day and it was going to be about 300 Euros. Ouch, but okay, as long as it’s fixed by today that’s fine.

Later on in the day, I get another phone call. “Mister Marcum, we found a big problem with your steering. The entire steering column is cracked and broken. It’s been like this for awhile…when did you buy this car? We will have to order the part directly from Saab in Sweden. Your car won’t be ready until next Tuesday at the earliest. Also, unfortunately, this part is very expensive and takes a lot of time to replace. The total invoice should come in at around 1,200 Euros.”

My jaw drops and I swear that I probably got three or four gray hairs in the next 30 seconds. “Also, we still need you to drop off the rental car tonight. We can have one of our mechanics drop you off at home.” You should have seen the guy that took me home. I can't even describe him. Joke.

So a few days without a car. Ok, I can manage. It’svery annoying, though, because now my 15 minute drive into work becomes a 45 to 60 minute bus adventure, taking the #10 into the city, switching to the #5 to get me close to the office, then switching to the #18 to get me actually to the office. Same route, in reverse, for the way home.

I email the guy that sold me the car, asking him what the hell the deal is…did he know about this, etc? He calls the dealership to get the story from them for himself, and then calls me back. Luckily, he is an honest guy and offers to cover the cost of the repair. I just need to send him the invoice. Sigh of relief.

Monday comes and I call the dealership to ask about my car. “There was a problem with the shipping from Sweden, and your car won’t be ready for about another week. We will reserve the rental car for you, starting next Tuesday, and you can use it from then until your car is ready.”

Ok, another week without a car. Now I’m really annoyed because there are other things that I need to buy that are just too big to carry around (i.e. a television…will be discussed in detail in part II of this series).

Tuesday comes, and I take the bus up to Mersch to pick up the rental car. After a week with no car, I’m itching to pick this thing up! I’m not really sure exactly where this bus is going to let me off, but at least it will get me into the general area (I assume). Well the bus lets me off in an area I remember from driving up there the first couple of times. It’s a 45 minute walk to the dealership. So I’m hoofing it, and it starts raining. Sweet.

I get the rental and all is well. The week goes by and I don’t hear anything from the dealership. Then on Friday I get a call. “Mister Marcum, Saab in Sweden can’t get us the part until January. But, we can order a similar part from a different company that manufactures parts for Saab, BMW, Volvo, and others. This part is a little cheaper and comes with a two year warranty. Should we go ahead and order the part?”

Yes, I tell them.

Saturday morning comes and the dealership calls to tell me that my car is ready. I rush up there and pick it up. Total cost comes to 1,000 Euros. By this time, I don’t even care. It's been over two weeks! I’m just happy to get my car back. I jump in the car and am all excited because I’ve purchased a tape adapter and car power cord for my iPod (like a the old tape adapters for portable CD players…yes, my car has a tape player and no CD player). I’m all geeked up to listen to my own music in my car. Everything works, life is good.

I go to the grocery store, stock up on stuff, head home. Go out for a run. Half way through my run, my iPod craps out on me. Dead. Can’t revive it. I get on Apple’s website and try all the “resetting” tricks they have on there….nothing works. It sounds like the hard drive in the device is skipping. Ahhh!!! I’ve also bought the Bose sound dock for my apartment, so I can’t not have my iPod. Now that I’ve had one, it seems like an essential part of life!! Another $300...unreal!!

Put a tent over me….because I’m a circus. I've literally just been laughing at myself. My first thought now when trying to plan or buy anything is "Ok, what can go wrong here."

I’m starting to get the feeling that whatever I touch just implodes. Nothing can be taken care of quickly or cheaply. Not one gosh damn thing. You may think, “Oh, it’s only one thing that went wrong, Matt. Chill out.”

Well, stay tuned and keep your eyes peeled for Part II, The TV.

Other than that....things are going really well!! We had our work Christmas party last night. It was actually really fun. The theme was "Aladin." They even had camels outside. Where the hell do you get camels in Luxembourg?

This was a long blog, and I've got to get some stuff done here. Take care. Peace out.

Strasbourg, France

Hi! Sorry that this picture is a little dark...I thought I fixed it up a little, but it must not have saved correctly. And, sorry that it's been a couple weeks since I've updated this blizzog...I've actually been keeping pretty busy...lot's of paperwork (anyone catch the Old School reference there?).

Anyways, the past couple of weeks have been interesting, to say the least. I will expand more on what has been going on in future posts...I just need to wait for the final outcome to play itself out on a couple things. Unfortunately, I get the strange feeling that I will hit some other snags related to these "things" before all is said and done! Sneak peak: things aren't going as well as I'd have hoped with my car and setting up TV. Also, I currently have an interesting situation going on at work.

But, on the bright side, I went to Strasbourg, France yesterday with one of my co-workers (a guy named Henk from S. Africa). Strasbourg is a France-Germany border town, located southeast of Luxembourg in the Alsace region of France, and is supposed to have one of the nicest "Christmas Markets" in the area ("the area" being France, Germany, and Luxembourg).

Honestly, though, I was pretty unimpressed by the whole Christmas Market scene that they had going on. Things just weren't that "authentic" feeling and it was really crowded (lots of other tourists, I believe). The city itself was pretty cool, though. Really old buildings, tons of cool restaurants, a lot of nice shops (tons of ski/snowboard shops, actually), etc. We also found a decent "brasserie" (bar) with some really really good beer.

The trip also served the purpose of getting me acquainted with the way the trains work here, which was probably the better part of the whole thing. In summary, the trains here are really comfortable, really smooth, really easy to figure out, and really convenient. You can basically get to the station five minutes before the train leaves, hop on (no check in, no baggage claim, etc), and in a couple of hours you are in the center of the city of your choice. The only drawback to them is that they can be kinda expensive and they take longer than if you'd just drive places yourself (i.e., a drive from here to Zurich is 4 hours, but the train will take at least 5 hours). But the scenery during the ride is nice, the seats are surprisingly comfortable, the bathrooms on board are surprisingly decent, and you can take the extra time to read, listen to music, etc.

Some major cities are decently close: Paris = 3.5 hours; London = 6 hours; Brussels = 3.5 hours; Amsterdam = 5 hours; Cologne, Frankfurt, and Heidelburg each = 4 hours.

We only had one little thing happen...neither of us brought our passports. So when the guys came around to check our tickets, and asked us for our passports, we both just kind of looked at each other and then started trying to explain to these guys that we lived in Luxembourg and didn't think we'd need our passports. We were trying to laugh and be friendly about it, but they didn't seem too amused. One of them asked if we had 7,000 Euros cash on us, apparently because that was the fine. Then another guy started looking through my back pack, and found the piece of paper where I wrote down the train schedule (so we knew when to catch the train home). On the back of it, I had written down the World Cup groups and where each of the teams were playing. He was asking me "Why do you have all of these countries written down? What do you plan on doing here?" Then his buddy took the piece of paper and started looking at me pretty sternly. I was getting a little worried, but then they started laughing and it was obvious they were messing with us. (very funny)

Anyways, I'm excited to start taking trains around to see things...especially next summer for the World Cup (several cities in Germany), possibly this February for the Winter Olympics (Torino, Italy), next summer for Oktoberfest, etc.

Munich

The land of beer and brats....

This weekend was a fun one. My friends Matt and Brandi Render (see the "London Calling" post) flew in from London on Thursday. Unfortunately, I had to work both Thursday and Friday, but they kept themselves busy touring around Luxembourg.

They visited the city centre on Thursday and then we went to the American sports bar here to watch some NFL games and eat our Thanksgiving hamburgers.

On Friday, they took a train to Vianden. Vianden is a small town in northeast Luxembourg that has a big castle and overall pretty scenery. They said that it was very easy to get there and that is was really nice, so I'm excited to visit there myself. After Vianden, they went back to the Luxembourg city centre, where the Christmas market had just opened. Again, they claim that the Christmas market is nice, so I'm excited to go down there next weekend. When I got home from work, we went out to eat at a pretty nice Greek restaurant downtown. Then it was early to bed, in preparation for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday morning was an early one...we got up at 5:30am, made some coffee, jumped in the car and headed off for Munich (about 5 hours by car). After getting lost a bit, we found our way to the German Autobahn and started making some good time.

On the way to Munich, we passed through Dachau and visited the Dachau Concentration Camp site. They have turned the site into a memorial, with museums and a historical walk around the grounds. While a good experience and very interesting, it was also very sobering to be at and see a place where so many people suffered so much.

After Dachau, we got a bit lost again and ended up driving on back roads into Munich's city center. However, we got our bearings and found the hotel around 3pm. We parked the car, checked into the hotel, and headed off to explore.

Our hotel was smack dab in the middle of all the action, so it was not long before we found the main pedestrian areas and the Christmas market. Ice skating, roasted chestnuts, carolers, snow covered buildings and merchant tents, Gluhwine (hot spiced wine drink), and the general atmosphere made it everything that you would imagine Germany during Christmas to be.

We basically just walked around taking in the sights and sounds. We also went to the top of this tower in the main city center building, which provided a nice view of the entire city...very pretty!

Then we made our way to the original Hofbrauhaus and settled in for some brats, mashed potatoes, sauerkraut and, of course, beer. We lucked out by getting there when we did because not long after we sat down, it started to get very lively. A German band (accordian, horns, guitar, etc) kicked off the night with some music and general entertainment. Several liters of beer and some new friends later, we decided to pack it up and head back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we woke up, had some breakfast at the hotel, and then headed off back to Luxembourg. Driving back was interesting, as it was dark most of the morning on our way to Munich. Very beautiful, snow-covered forests and hills. Also, with other cars on the road, it was interesting to see just how people drive on the Autobahn. For example, I was sustaining a speed of about 140 km/hr (about 87 mi/hr), and people were flying by me like I was sitting still!

Overall, it was a very fun trip and I'm really happy that Matt and Brandi were able to come over from London and explore with me. The next trip for me will be Rome and Rothenburg (Germany) during the week between Christmas and New Year's, where I'll be accompanied by my better half...should be fun!

13 November - 19 November

Here's the situation: you just moved to a new country, you haven't driven in a month and a half, you can't read any of the street signs b/c they are all in a foreign language, you have never been accused of having either a good sense of direction or general common sense, none of the roads go in a straight line, the names of the streets change without any turns or notification that they are changing, and the other drivers on the road generally don't pay attention and drive very fast.

What's the best thing for you? Obviously you need to get a car. And so I did!

Wish me luck....

London Calling

Was in London this past weekend to meet Agnes and stay with some EY friends (also on GEP). Instead of me telling about the trip (b/c I am bound to forget something), I defer to Aggie's description of the weekend to our respective mothers.

Per Agnes (with some of my comments thrown in)....

"Hi! Okay, I will give you the run down....First off, it was so much fun!! ....and mom I am going to CC you on this so you have the details too!

I am going to say "Render" for Matt Render (the guy who works at E&Y in the London office who we stayed with. He transferred and is doing the same program Matt is doing. His wife Brandi was so nice and we got along well!)

Thursday:
I got in around 9:30a (after a overnight flight that left Chicago at 8:10p on Wed) and got to Render and Brandi's apartment around 11 or so. Render gave me the keys to their place, I relaxed, showered and then headed out around 1:30-2 to pick Matt up from the other, small airport in London. We met there and it was SO WONDERFUL to see him!! (yeah that's right...it wasn't so bad for me to see her either)

We got back on the train, went back to the apartment and Render and Brandi met us there after work. Their place was pretty nice: one bedroom, small kitchen area, decent size living room area and a huge TV. (The boys loved the TV, of course). (agreed....Sky TV is solid and I'm going to try to get it here in Lux)

We went to this Thai restaurant down the street from their place, had dinner, wine, etc. Then we went to a pub and met up w/some other E&Y people. Guinness was the drink of choice for everyone! We got home around 11 or 12 that night b/c all pubs in London close at 11.

Friday:
Render and Brandi went to work. Matt and I slept in and then toured all of London. We went to a pub for breakfast and did the full English breakfast...sausage, eggs, baked beans, etc (it was solid, and cheap). Matt and I are just dying for coffee, everyone else, (and I am not kidding) are drinking beers at 10a. It was nuts! I have never seen so many people drinking in the middle of the day as I did in London.

So we ate and then walked around....Saw the Tower of London, Monument, Piccadilly Circle, said hi to the Queen at Buckingham Palace etc. (message to Brenden and Kirin: I gave the Queen my best for you). Along the way, we decided to stop in a few pubs. We would sit down, order one drink, split it and then move on to the next site/pub.

We went to see the Producers that night which was interesting.....It's a great musical and we got discounted tickets. Problem was, we were tired from walking all day so we get to the show and Matt falls asleep through parts of it!! (As soon as the lights went out, so did I) I enjoyed it, and I think he would have too if he wasn't so tired!

Afterwards, we went to grab some food at this great Italian Place, had some wine and then met up w/everyone else.

Saturday:
Got up, had breakfast and then we went to a pub to watch rugby and soccer games. (Brandi made us a seriously good breakfast of eggs, toast, potatoes, something else I'm forgetting, and coffee. It was really good....Goetta is the only thing that could have made it any better) We were at this pub in the afternoon and into the early evening. No American football anywhere! We ended up leaving that pub and went to another to meet up w/more people. They had a great beer garden and we hung out there for a bit. After the pub closed at 11, we went to this 100% swanky place in Nottinghill. Very fancy club. Got home around 2. (I somehow ended up with a receipt from this place in my pocket for about 30 pounds...mysteriously, I only remember drinking one bottle of beer. Also mysterious about this place was that you had to walk across a drawbridge, down some stairs, and through a formal dining room to get to the bathroom....can't say I've ever had to do that anywhere else.)

Sunday:
Woke up, I am not going to lie....I had a few too many Guinness's the night before and was NOT excited about flying for 8 hours.... But we just all hung out and then Matt took me to the airport around 2 (flight was at 4:30p). Then, he had to get back on the train and head over to the other airport for his flight. I got in around 7:30p.

The weather was kind of yucky. It was in the 40's and kind of rainy each day."

I would say that about covers it. It was a great weekend and I can't wait for the next trip. Agnes is coming here to Luxembourg for Christmas and we are planning a trip to Rome. Should be fun!

31 October - 6 November

This week kicked off with me moving into my apartment (finally). It is good to be settled into a place to call "home." The picture above is my living room. The staircase leads up to my bedroom. From the bedroom, there is another staircase that leads up to a study. I also have my own garage and storage room in the basement. The place is big and nice and I'm really excited about it. The view off my back porch is amazing...green fields, hills, and forests. I have plenty of pictures, so if you're interested, email me at matthew.marcum@gmail.com and I can send you the link.

Tuesday was a day off, so that was the big day to explore my new 'hood and see what there is around. Three things stood out to me: there are a bunch of Chinese restaurants (good cashew chicken), the water is very cheap (8 bottles of water, 1.5 liters each, for 4 euros), and the wine is even cheaper (1 euro, 25 cents for a bottle of red wine). Also, there are a ton of fitness trails, forest trails, and overall good running and biking areas. There is also a nice pool and gym really close that I am probably going to join here soon.

All of my stuff arrived from the U.S. on Thursday. So after two months, I've finally been reunited with all of my things! I celebrated by fishing out my DVDs, drinking a couple of beers and watching Old School. It was a nice way to christen the new pad. I also got the internet all hooked up on Thursday, so I should be on Skype a lot here.

This weekend was decent...spent time on Saturday with a couple of my co-workers checking out some of the local establishments (i.e. bar hopping). Left the bars around midnight only to realize that the bus back to my apartment had stopped running for the night. Hoofed it home (about 3 miles), so I even got a semi-work out in too! (FYI: You can't hail cabs here from the street. You have to call ahead to order one. Also, all the cabs here are Mercedes and the cabbies don't smell...big difference from Chicago)

So this week should be pretty low-key. Will probably work pretty hard Monday through Wednesday. Then on Thursday, I am flying to London to rendevous with Agnes. I'm very pumped about that. We are staying with a friend of mine and his wife. Should be very fun and I'm looking forward to hearing a lot of English spoken!!!

Check back for more updates next week.

Be right back

Sorry no picture this time...

Went to The Netherlands this weekend, but none of the pictures turned out too well, so I didn't post any. I took a day trip with a guy from work to Maastricht, which is in the very southern part of The Netherlands. In the process we drove through some pretty scenic parts of Belgium as well. Fun trip, overall.

This week was a pretty normal work week, except that I kept having to leave work in order to run random "administrative" errands so that all my registrations, etc, would be in order by the time I moved into my apartment. That is an ongoing process with the final stages to end tomorrow. November 1 is a national holiday for Luxembourg, so I'm taking advantage of the day off to truly and finally get all of my stuff into the new place and start to really "settle in." On Thursday, all of my stuff that I shipped way back on August 30 gets delivered to my apartment. I will also get my cable and internet hooked up that day.

So...that means that I will be without Skyping abilities for a few days. But I will still be able to check my emails, etc, at work.

I will be right back on Thursday with some more updates. See you then!

Moien (Hello), Luxembourg

So one week down, about 75 more to go. :)
Everything is going well so far. The weather has been decent, with a little rain each day. During the first two days here, I saw a car, 10 apartments, and basically acclimated myself to the city. It was quite fun, but very tiring. I found an apartment in a northern part of the city called Bereldange (pron. Bear-el-donge). It is really really nice and I can't wait to show it off to all of you when you come to visit....(either way I will post pictures). I move in next Friday, October 28.
I also got a car, which is a very good thing, according to my co-workers here. I test drove it on Monday and it is very nice. The seller went on vacation earlier this week, and I didn't get a chance to set up a bank account (to pay him for the car), so I will actually take possession of it on November 1 when he gets back and I get my account set up.
I also got a cell phone, as well as got all set up with a phone number, fax number, desk, computer, etc at work. I will continue to update all this type of information on my "How to Stay in Touch With Me" posting.
So...things are falling into place and I feel like I've accomplished a lot for one week. I've been able to get out on some nice runs, and I've been learning a little French. I can function in a restaurant with my French, which as you all know, is one of the most important things for me!
So hopefully things will continue to go well here over the next couple weeks. I'm feeling more and more comfortable every day and I'm hoping that trend continues. 

So Long Chicago

About an hour to go before I leave for Luxembourg. Just a quick thanks to all of my friends, family, and co-workers. You are all very special to me and I am truly grateful for all the wonderful times that we've had together over the past years. While I feel very sad to leave, I'm also very excited (and, I can't lie, pretty darn nervous) about what lies ahead. I see this as an adventure, and I hope that I can make everyone very proud of me.

So peace out, word up, and, in the words of the great Lloyd Christmas, "Welp, see ya later."

{make sure to visit the "How to Stay in Touch With Me" post under the October 2005 archives for all my contact information} 

Pictures!

So I've figured out how to post pictures to my blog...how exciting! This particular one is of (from left to right) me, a burrito, and my girlfriend at the Coldplay concert in Alpine Valley, WI during the summer of 2005. I promise that future pictures will be better...I just have to get out there and take some more. But for now, enjoy.

Only a week to go before I ship out! Don't forget to visit my "How to Stay in Touch with Me" posting in the October 2005 archives. 

The Latest

Welp, I got news today from our HR team in Luxembourg that my work permit has (finally) been granted and I can officially step foot in our offices there. So, I can truly say now that I will be leaving Chicago on Sunday, October 16 and arriving in Luxembourg on Monday, October 17. I will be staying at the Hotel Parc Plaza, near the center of the city at 5, avenue Marie Therese (phone: 011.352.45.61.41).

I plan to take about a week off when I arrive and then get going with work around the 24th of October. During the week off I'll be apartment hunting, setting up a bank account, getting a mobile phone, and taking care of other administrative things.

Until then, I'll continue to give updates on this website. As always, please visit the "How to Stay In Touch with Me" posting in the October 2005 archives.

Stay Tuned

About a week left to go before my departure. Check in regularly for more updates, as they become available.

How to Stay in Touch with Me

You can get in touch with me in a variety of ways. Email and phone will work. Also, if you haven't heard of Skype, you should check it out. It's a completely easy, completely free, and completely convenient way to talk over the internet. Just click the "Talk to Me for Free!" link on my homepage, create an account, and download the software. Within five minutes, we can be chatting live!

Either way, here are my vitals:

PERSONAL
SkypeName: matthewmarcum
Email: matthew.marcum@gmail.com
Mobile Phone: +352.091.830.617
Home Address: email me for my home address, as the order of the address components can be confusing
US Mail forwarding address: P.O. Box 895, Rutherford, NJ 07070-0895 (no packages!!)
PROFESSIONAL
Address: Ernst & Young, S.A., 6 rue Jean Monet, L-2180 Kirchberg, LUXEMBOURG
Email: matthew.marcum@lu.ey.com
Phone: +352.42.22.33.8617
Fax (comes directly to my work email): +352.26.70.23.8617

Hope to hear from you!