First Day of Luxembourgish School

Monday was the first day of school.  It was also the first day of work for Pete.  I should have taken a picture of the three of them together, but alas, it was all we could do to make it on time.  We were still at our temporary apartment on Monday, so we drove over in the rental car and parked near the school.  Pete walked to work from there.  I ran some errands on the bus.  And I found castile soap.  This is a very good thing.

The kids were pretty excited to start.  I managed to snap a couple pictures before becoming a distraction.

The teacher pulled out puzzle for James when he came in.  Good call, teacher.

10 seconds in and she's found book and a stuffy.  About 30 seconds later she popped her head out of the door and yelled, "Mom, I already made a friend!"

Their schedule is:
Mon-Wed-Fri: 8am-11:40am and 2-4pm
Tues-Thurs: 8am-11:40am

During the lunch break I took them downtown on the bus for sandwiches.  I didn't want to try going all the way back to the temporary apartment, and we were out of food anyway.

ready to head back

By the time we'd walked to/from bus stops, ate lunch, found restrooms, etc. we made it back to school just in time.

A couple of discoveries this morning: On Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, they each bring a fruit to share with the class - the teachers cut them all up and distribute them.  They also have a snack of bread and jam, nutella, etc. provided by the school each day.  And on Monday for the afternoon session, all the preschool and kindergarteners go to the "gym" - to play on mats and and trampolines and such.  When I arrived at 4pm they were all on their way back to class.

Daphne headed back, next to her teacher, also named Daphne!

The hand holding is cute, but it's also required - two-by-two

All in all it was a good first day.  There was a birthday in James' class, complete with cake and a goody bag, so I think that helped.  I can already tell that the walk to and from school, especially on M-W-F when we do the whole thing twice, and when it's cold and wet and motivation is low, will be an ongoing challenge.  But we'll take it one walk at a time, one day at a time, right?

I'm praying hard for patience!

Parc Tony Neuman

Many people have asked us what kind of travel and exploring we have planned for our time in Europe.  Where are we headed first?  What countries are on our list?  Which famous cities, which historical sites, which castles?

But when it comes down to it, our little family is very easy to please.  Our idea of adventure is (aside from just making it to Europe in the first place) a walk to a spot on a GPS that we haven't tried before, and the possibility of finding a playground as kid-incentive.  Call it homemade-ultra-light-geocaching, perhaps?  Maybe boring-ultra-light-geocaching?

Whatever it is, we are perfectly content.

Saturday evening we set out from the temporary apartment to Parc Tony Neuman. (Hey, say, "Parc" with a really French/German "r," immediately followed by "Tony Neuman" in an American accent.  Go ahead, try it.  Paachhhkk Tony Newman.  This is also how we amuse ourselves.  Did I mention we are easy to please?)

On satellite view, the pacchhhkk was all treetops, with a small, sandy-colored clearing in the far corner - must be the playground.

finding the entrance

shortcut

a promising path

score.

dog chasing remote control car on the way back = icing on the cake of kid-entertainment

back to the entrance

we did it.

Walking Practice

The days leading up to moving into our real apartment are just crawling by.  Pete put it perfectly: it's like we're "engaged" to the apartment.  We're committed to going through with it, and now we're just waiting around to....well....consummate the marriage.  Pete's also sort of engaged to his job.  The kids are engaged to their school.  We are basically engaged to our real lives.  Being engaged is generally an odd, "tweener" kind of time in life - we thought so, anyway.  Once you're engaged, you really just want to get to the dang day.

After running some errands Wednesday, we found ourselves in our betrothed apartment's neighborhood.  We decided to park the car and walk down toward Pete's office, down the same path Pete and I took on our first day exploring the city on our preview trip - just the opposite direction this time.  Back then we didn't know our final apartment would be only a couple blocks from this path.

We gave the kids a pep talk first, as has become our custom. "Okay, kids.  You are European kids now, remember?  European kids are good walkers.  They walk a long way and don't complain, right?   You might even get a reward at the end if there's no whining.  We are going to have some good walking practice now, okay?  Okay, let's go!"

Walking with kids is inevitably slow, no matter how inspiring the pep talk.  There's always something that stops you every 10 yards.  A bunched up sock.  An itchy leg.  A rock in a shoe.  A rock in the other shoe. A rock in the other kid's shoe.  And so forth.  I mean, it's fine and all to take life slowly and and savor the moment but oh-my-word-get-a-move-on.

So, we walked the path down to the bottom of the canyon.

at the bottom

mom, can I climb this hill?

there they go!

into the Grund area by Pete's betrothed office

into the elevator and back up

looking back down at the path.  still a ways to go to get back...

Was there some limping and whimpering and shoulder-carrying by the end?  Maybe just a little.  We're working on it.

Outdoor Market

We'd call this a "farmers market," but I'm not sure what the official name is here.  It's an outdoor market with local vendors selling produce, meats, pastas, cheeses, oils, pastries, flowers, etc.  It takes place every Wednesday and Saturday morning in the city center, year-round, although it's apparently smaller in the colder months.

This past Wednesday morning we took an exploratory look, no purchases.

James and flowers

James and rotisserie chickens.
He was in a photo posing/mugging mood.

see?

The first step to not owning a car

I bought a bus pass today!  I am disproportionately excited about this!!!

City bus lines.
Our apartment is in Hollerich.  You can click this image to enlarge.   I know, only my mom is interested at this level of detail.
 Hi, mom!

Pete will walk to/from work beginning next week.  We have our rental car for awhile longer, but in day-to-day life we will leave it parked so we can test out the no-car plan.

a manual diesel Mercedes something-or-other-euro-car

Pete has been our designated driver since we arrived, and I have no desire to drive here.  It's not super crazy, but it sure doesn't look super fun either.  Our motivation for no car is dual: finances and lifestyle.  We were a one-car family in the suburbs and we're hoping that was good training for no-car in the city.  Opting for a close-in apartment in lieu of a larger house outside of the city was a significant piece of this plan.

Headed under the city to the bus pass kiosk.  James in orange.

A bus pass that covers the city and immediately surrounding areas is 22.50 Euros per month.  If you sign up for a year, the 22.50 is automatically debited from your bank account each month, and every fourth month is free.  So an annual pass is about $200 Euros (around 250 dollars).  For context, in Portland, an annual TriMet pass is about $900-$1000, depending on how many zones are covered.  But to be fair, Portland and the immediately surrounding suburbs is about the size of all of Luxembourg.  To get around the entire country by public transport, the pass is 400 Euros (500 dollars).

Another great thing about the Lux bus pass: Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, another adult can ride along with me at no charge.  So for example, Pete can hitch a ride to church every week on my pass.  He may end up getting pass through work, but mine should suffice for now.  Oh, and kids under age 12 ride free (in Portland it's free under age 7, 7-17 are discounted).

We plan to rent a car once a month or so, as needed.  Still working on a system for emergencies - more research and networking required.  Right now I feel the security of the rental car - I may completely freak out when it's gone.  And in the dead of winter.  (It's barely even rained here yet, so yeah, we've been spoiled.)

Again, we haven't met or heard of an American family with kids without a car here yet (although we did already have an American try to sell us a car at our first church visit), but we're assuming they do exist?  Maybe exist?  Either way, we continue to embrace our own oddball-ness.  We'll, we're learning to, anyway.

Parks!

With the beautiful weather since we arrived, exploring parks is our main activity when not running or recuperating from errands.

Across from our temporary apartment is a great little playground...

Dutiful big sister doing the pushing

watching the kids from our balcony

We also like to park by our soon-to-be apartment and walk to Parc Merl from there...

These giant tube slides are ubiquitous in Luxembourg.  Here's Daphne popping out at the bottom.

D on the zipline

J on the zipline

looking at a caterpillar with some American kids

cafe by the water

ice cream break at the cafe

ducks and big fish in the pond

This whole week is a school holiday, so we did a trial-walk from our soon-to-be apartment to their school playground.  They will start school Monday next week.  Pete will start work on Monday as well, and we move in on Tuesday.

the only kids in sight

And, the grand-daddy playground of them all....

(I let Youtube fix the shakiness of my video, but now it looks like I took it on roller-skates....)

First Ventures into Grocery Shopping

Locating and purchasing sustenance has been first on the agenda most days since we arrived.  Sure, fridges are small, food spoils more quickly as a general rule, and shopping close to daily is sort of the European thing to do.  But the real reason for our frequent short trips is that our collective meal planning and shopping stamina is very, very low.  It's all we can do to find the store, find a few things we recognize, and find our way home.

We've been eating a lot of pasta, eggs, yogurt, fruit, and bread so far.  Household products such as cleaning supplies are a mystery, since back in the US I had become so accustomed to making my own out of vinegar, baking soda, castile soap, essential oils, etc.  It feels strange and like a "regression" to buy things like Shout and Ajax, but they are easy to recognize and immediately know their function.

I'm also accustomed to buying many organic food items and knowing exactly what's in anything else we consume, but there's no time to figure that out now.  The current strategy: That's yogurt - buy it, that's pasta sauce - buy it.  Hope it tastes okay.  The fine tuning of price and ingredients will come later.  Overriding the picky/worried part of the brain is tricky for me, but we're here to stretch ourselves!  Right!

(And I'm fully aware that this is a "first-world problem," yes?  We have food - I'm grateful.)

A few shopping shots:

at Naturata, an organic/natural store, we didn't buy anything, will probably take us awhile to figure that one out

random "Trader Joe's" nuts at a Grocery Outlet-type store called Aldi

Cora (on the right), a grocery/household store inside a shopping mall (similar to Fred Meyer or Walmart)

Delhaize has been our most "comfortable" store so far, a bit like a Safeway I suppose

Pete grabbing yummy bread

returning cart to the parking garage