We are back folks! The past few weeks have been very busy for us to say the least. We know we have been 110% slackers with our blog, but our excuse is that we have been BUSY and haven't had an internet hookup at home until this past Wednesday night.
Way back in April, I had a few really busy weeks ending things at the Lux E&Y office. Long story short, things went fine and I accomplished just about everything that was tossed at me throughout my 1.5-year rotation there. The experience of working at that office was definitely challenging (at times overwhelming), yet rewarding.
One of those last evenings, some of my close friends from work took Aggie and I out for a"going away" dinner. We went to this great French restaurant in one of the villages near our office. The 3 guys that hosted the dinner were Luc (Belgium), Robert (Scottish) and Nicolas (French). Also in attendance were Luc's wife, Bea and Robert's girlfriend, Alexandra (Portuguese).
For a going away gift, each decided to put together a "basket" of things that are traditional and meaningful to their respective countries. Luc and Bea gave us delicious Galler chocolates, refreshing Belgian beers, an Arlon hat (Arlon is his town), etc. Robert and Alexandra gave us sardines, a raw fish, a bottle of Scotch, a head of cabbage, etc. Nicolas gave us a baguette, a really nice bottle of Burgundy Grand Cru wine, a jar of duck livers, some pate, etc.
The evening was a blast and I am really happy I made such good friends with these guys and their families. On my last day, I showed up at the office with three handles of Jack Daniel's, one for each of them!
While I was trying to finish everything up at the Lux office, Aggie and I made two trips to Zurich. (You read about the first trip in our previous blog.) For the second trip, we went down April 19-21st. Aggie was meeting with Renate (our relocation lady) to set up a bank account, get the keys to the new apartment and do a walk-through for it, etc. I had to go to an all day training for E&Y Zurich and had a chance to meet some of my new co-workers. The trip was short and sweet, and it was a success. We stayed right in downtown Zurich at the Sofitel and were walking distance to everything, which was great!
On Friday after the training, we went to dinner at a delicious Swiss restaurant right in town off the main strip (the Bahnhofstrasse) with my new co-worker, Jen and her husband Bryan. On Saturday morning, Aggie and I went to Ikea to order our couch and bed.
For those of you that have been to Ikea, God bless you! I HATE Ikea. Unfortunately, it's one of the main furniture shops here in Europe and all the other shops are really expensive. And I shouldn't say I hate it. Aggie and I agree it's fine for what you need, but the place is just a zoo. Not exactly where I want to shop all the time. With Ikea, you get average quality products and products that you can use in any room of the house. From lawn furniture, vases, plates, lamps, beds, couches, kitchen stoves, bathroom sinks, chairs…you name it, they have it! The one catch is that you buy everything in a box and then you assemble it yourself. EVERYTHING!
Anyway, we figured we would order our big stuff (couch, bed, etc.) and then it might take a week or so to get them delivered. Once we decided what we wanted (it took us 2 ½ hrs to decide!), the sales lady told us it would be 5 weeks for the delivery. We were moving in a week! Oh well. We couldn't do anything about that and decided to go ahead with the order.
The other thing about this particular Ikea location: we think that Swiss families decide to go there as an all day event...to get out of the house, for the 1-franc hot dogs, and to just walk around really slowly in front of me! AAhhhhh!
We got out of there and made it home Saturday evening rather late due to an accident on the highway in Germany. The wait was so long that people were out of their cars, peeing on the side of the road, etc. We noticed some cars trying to pass everyone in the "pulling over lane". Well, these carswere trying to get to a path on the side of the road that led them into a huge cornfield. People were literally driving through this field to get off the highway! I bet that farmer was fired up.
On Sunday, April 22 we were supposed to drive up to Brugge, Belgium and then on to Amsterdam to have one last visit with our friends Jacob and Annette. Well, that trip was cancelled b/c I had a few things that came up with work and Aggie got an email from the lady we were going to buy all our other furniture from.
Long story short, we were going to buy all this dark, classy furniture for super cheap from this wealthy lady in Lux. (We think she just wanted someone to get it out of her place for her!) Unfortunately,the woman's mother-in-law passed away and she had to go to Scotland (where she is originally from). She was not going to be back in Luxembourg before our movers were coming to our apartment to take all of our stuff to Zurich, so it made no sense to buy it from her (we couldn't move it all ourselves). This was a big disappointment to us b/c we LOVED her furniture, but obviously her problems were infinitely worse so we can't really complain.
Sunday evening we spent cleaning and packing at the apartment. For dinner, we decided to do some fine dining and headed down the street to the only store that's open on Sundays: the gas station. Serioulsy, EVERYONE hangs out at the gas station on Sundays. It's always packed and now we know why. The fresh baked bread and baguettes they make in the back are actually delicious (I know, strange, right??). Plus there is a lady that sets up in the gas station parking lot every Sunday and sells rotisserie-style chickens. We felt that since it was one of our last evenings in Luxembourg, we had to buy a chicken from the Chicken Lady truck.
On Monday we decided to head back to Ikea (this time the one in Arlon, Belgium...Luc's town) and get everything we needed for our place. The plan was for us to buy it all and have our movers transport it to the new apartment. The Ikea in Zurich tagged on an additional 10-20% of your total bill for a delivery charge so we thought we should avoid the extra fee if we could.
This experience at this Ikea was a little bit better than the last time, but we still had a few issues. For instance, we found a huge shelf unit in the clearance area and bought it, because basically it was going to be perfect in one certain part of our apartment in Zurich. The shipping guys loaded it up on a big cart and told us to head over to customer service after we paid, where they would take it apart and load it onto a rental truck for us. Fine.
This thing was massive...as I wheeled it over to the check out lane, I basically couldn't see where I was going. In the meantime, Aggie waited with our other cart (we still had more shopping to do). After I went through and paid, I headed over to customer service. I kind of walked up with a "here I am" look and the lady kind of stared at me like "What?" I explained to her in broken French that I needed this thing to be taken apart and she seemed to understand and headed into "the back" area. A couple minutes later, out she comes with a smile and a toolbox. Yup, this was going to be a "self-dissassemble" exercise.
I come running back to Aggie to tell her I have to take the whole thing apart, and that she should go get the rest of our stuff and bring it over to me. So while I set up shop in the "kiddie's play area" and was working on this thing, Aggie was running around trying to find the other items we wanted to buy. She would load up a cart, pay for it, drop it off by me and then head back with another cart and start all over again.
It was really comical and I have to say, even though it took a long time, it ended up being a total success! The Ikea in Belgium has little trucks that you can rent for 5 euros an hour. We lived not even 20 minutes away so after we got everything together, we packed up the truck, took everything to our garage in Lux and then came back to drop off the truck. Seven hours later, we were done with Ikea!! Hooray!! (and Whew!)
To celebrate, we decided to head to Trier, Germany for dinner at our favorite joint, the Bitburger Haus. The beer that day was one of the most refreshing I have had in a long time!!
Tuesday I went into work and Aggie finished getting things packed up at our place. Wednesday, April 25th, the movers came in the morning and packed up our fudge. I went to work that afternoon and had some meetings. Thursday, Aggie and I went with Nirma (our relocation lady in Lux) to "sign out" from our village, Bereldange. Once that was finished up, I went to the office to turn in my computer and clean out my desk and off we went to Zurich!
Way back in April, I had a few really busy weeks ending things at the Lux E&Y office. Long story short, things went fine and I accomplished just about everything that was tossed at me throughout my 1.5-year rotation there. The experience of working at that office was definitely challenging (at times overwhelming), yet rewarding.
One of those last evenings, some of my close friends from work took Aggie and I out for a"going away" dinner. We went to this great French restaurant in one of the villages near our office. The 3 guys that hosted the dinner were Luc (Belgium), Robert (Scottish) and Nicolas (French). Also in attendance were Luc's wife, Bea and Robert's girlfriend, Alexandra (Portuguese).
For a going away gift, each decided to put together a "basket" of things that are traditional and meaningful to their respective countries. Luc and Bea gave us delicious Galler chocolates, refreshing Belgian beers, an Arlon hat (Arlon is his town), etc. Robert and Alexandra gave us sardines, a raw fish, a bottle of Scotch, a head of cabbage, etc. Nicolas gave us a baguette, a really nice bottle of Burgundy Grand Cru wine, a jar of duck livers, some pate, etc.
The evening was a blast and I am really happy I made such good friends with these guys and their families. On my last day, I showed up at the office with three handles of Jack Daniel's, one for each of them!
While I was trying to finish everything up at the Lux office, Aggie and I made two trips to Zurich. (You read about the first trip in our previous blog.) For the second trip, we went down April 19-21st. Aggie was meeting with Renate (our relocation lady) to set up a bank account, get the keys to the new apartment and do a walk-through for it, etc. I had to go to an all day training for E&Y Zurich and had a chance to meet some of my new co-workers. The trip was short and sweet, and it was a success. We stayed right in downtown Zurich at the Sofitel and were walking distance to everything, which was great!
On Friday after the training, we went to dinner at a delicious Swiss restaurant right in town off the main strip (the Bahnhofstrasse) with my new co-worker, Jen and her husband Bryan. On Saturday morning, Aggie and I went to Ikea to order our couch and bed.
For those of you that have been to Ikea, God bless you! I HATE Ikea. Unfortunately, it's one of the main furniture shops here in Europe and all the other shops are really expensive. And I shouldn't say I hate it. Aggie and I agree it's fine for what you need, but the place is just a zoo. Not exactly where I want to shop all the time. With Ikea, you get average quality products and products that you can use in any room of the house. From lawn furniture, vases, plates, lamps, beds, couches, kitchen stoves, bathroom sinks, chairs…you name it, they have it! The one catch is that you buy everything in a box and then you assemble it yourself. EVERYTHING!
Anyway, we figured we would order our big stuff (couch, bed, etc.) and then it might take a week or so to get them delivered. Once we decided what we wanted (it took us 2 ½ hrs to decide!), the sales lady told us it would be 5 weeks for the delivery. We were moving in a week! Oh well. We couldn't do anything about that and decided to go ahead with the order.
The other thing about this particular Ikea location: we think that Swiss families decide to go there as an all day event...to get out of the house, for the 1-franc hot dogs, and to just walk around really slowly in front of me! AAhhhhh!
We got out of there and made it home Saturday evening rather late due to an accident on the highway in Germany. The wait was so long that people were out of their cars, peeing on the side of the road, etc. We noticed some cars trying to pass everyone in the "pulling over lane". Well, these carswere trying to get to a path on the side of the road that led them into a huge cornfield. People were literally driving through this field to get off the highway! I bet that farmer was fired up.
On Sunday, April 22 we were supposed to drive up to Brugge, Belgium and then on to Amsterdam to have one last visit with our friends Jacob and Annette. Well, that trip was cancelled b/c I had a few things that came up with work and Aggie got an email from the lady we were going to buy all our other furniture from.
Long story short, we were going to buy all this dark, classy furniture for super cheap from this wealthy lady in Lux. (We think she just wanted someone to get it out of her place for her!) Unfortunately,the woman's mother-in-law passed away and she had to go to Scotland (where she is originally from). She was not going to be back in Luxembourg before our movers were coming to our apartment to take all of our stuff to Zurich, so it made no sense to buy it from her (we couldn't move it all ourselves). This was a big disappointment to us b/c we LOVED her furniture, but obviously her problems were infinitely worse so we can't really complain.
Sunday evening we spent cleaning and packing at the apartment. For dinner, we decided to do some fine dining and headed down the street to the only store that's open on Sundays: the gas station. Serioulsy, EVERYONE hangs out at the gas station on Sundays. It's always packed and now we know why. The fresh baked bread and baguettes they make in the back are actually delicious (I know, strange, right??). Plus there is a lady that sets up in the gas station parking lot every Sunday and sells rotisserie-style chickens. We felt that since it was one of our last evenings in Luxembourg, we had to buy a chicken from the Chicken Lady truck.
On Monday we decided to head back to Ikea (this time the one in Arlon, Belgium...Luc's town) and get everything we needed for our place. The plan was for us to buy it all and have our movers transport it to the new apartment. The Ikea in Zurich tagged on an additional 10-20% of your total bill for a delivery charge so we thought we should avoid the extra fee if we could.
This experience at this Ikea was a little bit better than the last time, but we still had a few issues. For instance, we found a huge shelf unit in the clearance area and bought it, because basically it was going to be perfect in one certain part of our apartment in Zurich. The shipping guys loaded it up on a big cart and told us to head over to customer service after we paid, where they would take it apart and load it onto a rental truck for us. Fine.
This thing was massive...as I wheeled it over to the check out lane, I basically couldn't see where I was going. In the meantime, Aggie waited with our other cart (we still had more shopping to do). After I went through and paid, I headed over to customer service. I kind of walked up with a "here I am" look and the lady kind of stared at me like "What?" I explained to her in broken French that I needed this thing to be taken apart and she seemed to understand and headed into "the back" area. A couple minutes later, out she comes with a smile and a toolbox. Yup, this was going to be a "self-dissassemble" exercise.
I come running back to Aggie to tell her I have to take the whole thing apart, and that she should go get the rest of our stuff and bring it over to me. So while I set up shop in the "kiddie's play area" and was working on this thing, Aggie was running around trying to find the other items we wanted to buy. She would load up a cart, pay for it, drop it off by me and then head back with another cart and start all over again.
It was really comical and I have to say, even though it took a long time, it ended up being a total success! The Ikea in Belgium has little trucks that you can rent for 5 euros an hour. We lived not even 20 minutes away so after we got everything together, we packed up the truck, took everything to our garage in Lux and then came back to drop off the truck. Seven hours later, we were done with Ikea!! Hooray!! (and Whew!)
To celebrate, we decided to head to Trier, Germany for dinner at our favorite joint, the Bitburger Haus. The beer that day was one of the most refreshing I have had in a long time!!
Tuesday I went into work and Aggie finished getting things packed up at our place. Wednesday, April 25th, the movers came in the morning and packed up our fudge. I went to work that afternoon and had some meetings. Thursday, Aggie and I went with Nirma (our relocation lady in Lux) to "sign out" from our village, Bereldange. Once that was finished up, I went to the office to turn in my computer and clean out my desk and off we went to Zurich!
1 comment:
Jack Daniels Marcum? Do they not sell LTD in Luxembourg?
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