LuxemBlog #2

Well I said in my first “LuxemBlog” that I’m going to try to post at least one blog entry a day but I’m already failing to keep that quota so I’m making it my New Year’s Resolution to post every day.

I think that taking the extra time to organize my thoughts into a blog post will actually save me time in the long run because every time I go online, I’m hit with a barrage of emails and IMs from friends and family asking how my trip is going. Most people ask the same sorts of questions, so I find myself copying and pasting my replies to everybody, but there is a certain amount of editing I have to do for each person in order to maintain the continuity necessary for a coherent conversation. I figure this blog is the best way to keep from repeating myself, but it’s totally rude to reply to a live question with “you’re not the first person to ask me that so just go read my blog...” so hopefully no one will get offended if I do direct them here and no one will get too discouraged to email or IM. I really want to hear what everyone back home is doing as much as you all want to hear about Luxembourg.

Anyway, enough with that disclaimer, on to LuxemBlog #2:

DAY 3
Saturday December 30, 2006
(continued…)

It’s been cold and rainy ever since I got to Luxembourg City but I went out exploring in the rain and walked the 2 miles uphill to the City Center. I wanted to bring my cameras but I didn’t want to get them wet.

The neighborhood has the typical European charm that I grew to know while in Germany during Summer 2002. Most of the buildings are multilevel homes and apartments. Even though Christmas has been over for several days, there were still dozens and dozens of little Santa dolls climbing rope ladders into the windows of many of the homes.

There’s a bus that goes to the City Center, and it passed me several times during my walk, which took about 30 minutes, but I figured I needed the exercise and I’d get a better feel for the terrain on foot.

Most of the shops in the City Center were closed but the restaurants were open. I got a tomato and mozzarella sandwich at a little corner café and though I ordered in German, the lady replied in French, which has been typical.

Most people here in Lux City are multilingual (French, German and Luxembourgish) but the default language seems to be French. I've been trying to speak to people in German, but they always reply in French, because they probably assume that I too am a bilingual, but I don't understand French at all. If I get confused in the linguistically-alternating dialog I will switch to English, at which point the other person will usually also switch to English and then the conversation will continue in a single language, unless the other person doesn’t speak English, and then I’ll speak English and they’ll recognize that I don’t understand French so they’ll speak French much more slowly and simply. So far though, there haven’t been any complete misunderstandings and I don’t expect my “naiveté Français” to pose any problems here.

I wandered around the City Center looking for a place to eat my sandwich and I ended up in a gazebo in one of the town squares. It seemed like the rain had kept the locals indoors and only a handful of tourists were willing to get wet to see the sights to the square was eerily empty.

When I got back to the hotel on Saturday, I got a call from Marci, the line producer, who had just landed in town and was headed to the mall. I was hungry and didn’t even know that there was a mall so I asked if I could tag along. Marci picked me up and before we went to the mall we stopped at Attitude Studios, which is literally 100 yards from my hotel. I had already stopped at the studio the night before to pick up a SIM card for my cell phone from the front desk, but it was after-hours so I couldn’t go inside and it was good to get a chance to see the studio with Marci before I start work tomorrow.

When we got to the mall, Marci said she was going to need 90 minutes to 2 hours and I was a bit worried because I don’t really like to shop and the mall wasn’t really that big, at least not compared to some of the malls in LA. Luckily I ran into my friend Shane, the director, and his wife, Sibyl, at the very busy department store. They had just gotten back from their vacation to Italy and they invited me over to their apartment for dinner and a movie, which was perfect because I was hungry and one of the main reasons I decided to come to Luxembourg was to hang out with Shane. They made pasta and we watched Layer Cake. It was late when Shane drove me back to the hotel and I was so tired that I managed to sleep despite the noisy AC.

DAY 4
Sunday December 31, 2006
New Year’s Eve

I spent most of the day unpacking and cleaning up room. Since it was still rainy and windy, I stayed in my room, even when the maid came in to clean, which was kind of awkward. The hotel has laundry service, which is really really expensive but I decided that it’s worth it to pay for the convenience of not having to lug my clothes to a laundromat (and I don’t even know where the closest one is) so I gave the maid my dirty clothes in the bag provided.

I tried to order room service for dinner, but it turned out that hotel kitchen was closed due to the holiday. Luckily the concierge was extremely friendly and he helped me order take-out from the neighboring Japanese restaurant, which we discovered was the only place that was open on New Year’s Eve after trying several other European restaurants. The concierge was really surprised that I tipped 2 euros for my sushi, which apparently is very generous in Lux, even though it was just barely 15%, because people in the service industry here are paid very well as it is so tipping isn't really even expected.

Shane and Sibyl picked me up for a New Year’s Eve party at Nick’s apartment in the City Center. Nick, the editor, lives upstairs with his wife and son in the penthouse suite of a building very close to the town square where I ate my sandwich the day before. Nick’s son, Connor, is a raging ball of energy who delighted in showing me his toys. Gilad, the assistant editor, brought his wife and newborn baby. Robert arrived straight from his madcap connect-the-dots drive thru Europe. Marci was there and so was one of the guys from Attitude, but I don’t remember his name or the name of his lady friend.

I was surprised to hear my cell phone ring when Sam called because I hadn’t activated International Roaming on my wireless plan but apparently Cingular activated it for me when I called them to “unlock” my phone. I still haven’t been able to use the new SIM card that work provided because my phone is still locked out from other SIMs, but Cingular is going to unlock my phone for me in the coming week so I will have a local cell number while I’m here. I’ve been carrying my phone around Lux partly out of habit but mostly I need it to keep track of the time because I forgot to bring the dual time zone watch that I got at the Aspen Comedy Art Festival. Anyway, I was surprised to get a call from Sam and she didn’t expect me answer, but it was totally worth the $1.25 a minute just to hear her voice for a little while. Sam and her friends were getting ready for a New Year’s Party in New York, which was probably way crazier than our little party in Luxembourg.

After the countdown, we had a great view of the fireworks from Nick’s balcony, but it was very windy and rainy so I didn’t get as many pictures as I’d liked. I think the highlights of the evening were a friendly debate with Robert as Nick and I tried to defend evolution, and a “Snake Master” battle between Connor and me as we passed Nick’s cell phone back and forth trying to beat each other’s highscore at “Snake” (I had the highest score by the end of the night but I have a feeling the competition will be ongoing).

Between the New Year’s Eve party and little get-together with Shane and Sibyl the night before, I feel like I’ve really had a chance to make myself at home and settle in before I start work on Tuesday.

DAY 5
Monday January 1, 2007
New Year’s Day

Since the hotel kitchen was closed New Year’s Eve, I didn’t expect it to be open on New Year’s Day, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the breakfast buffet was still open this morning. As usual, I stuffed my face. Aside for blogging every day, one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to get in better shape. I’m not going to stop eating as much because I’m still very underweight even though I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last year, but I am going to try to convert some of this recently acquired fat into muscle. I hope to go running on a regular basis, which should be awesome exercise around here because the city is very hilly.

I wanted to go running today, but it’s still raining, and though I love running in the rain (I did it all the time during my first year of undergrad at UCLA when we had an unusually rainy winter that year) but I just can’t afford to get sick and the weather has already done a number on my sinuses. My allergies have been fine so far, but I’m still very congested.

I guess the only thing to do is sit in my room and eat the leftovers that Nick and his wife gave me from the party last night because everything is closed today for the holiday.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

:wave: