Chateau de Bourglinster

We had a Unit R1 meeting in the Chateau de Bourglinster. We meet here at the office and then took a ride my head of unit. We had a very nice lunch consisting of pastries and croissants (what else?!). Then came the meeting…Everybody had to do a presentation about what they were doing. Thank God mine was after lunch so most of the people were half asleep :). It was easy and I did it well…I don't fear public speaking. What I liked the most was, THE FOOD!!! We didn't get that much wine because we were working and the waiters received orders to limit it… Le Prélude: Thon rouge et crabe « Tout en contraste de parfums, de goût, de couleurs» Dans l’esprit d’un cannelloni, texture d’avocat, feuilles de thon frais, chair de crabe relevée de jeunes pousses, graines et fruits crabe glacé, air de kéfir au caviar. Les Plats: Boeuf « Saveurs d'hier et techniques d'aujourd'hui» Noisette de boeuf rôtie en croûte de truffes, jus d'herbes fraiches terrines de pois et carottes caramélisées aux spéculos. Le Desert: 1- White chocolate mousse with lavender sorbet and a chocolate covered pansy. 2- Mint mousse and milk chocolate 3- Trio: Dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate mousse 4- Pear mousse and liquid milk chocolate We also work very hard… Oh! I almost forgot…here is where the Luxembourg government took the King and Queen of Spain a week before. If any of you doubt it...I was the official photographer of the meeting!

Parc Le'h Adventure- Dommeldange

As part of the Sports Sub-Committee that I lead, we went to this adventure park. People either thought it was dangerous or that it was for kids. Tant pis pour eux! The trip was shot, only 15 minutes from Luxembourg Ville to Dommeldange, including the change of train we had to do. From la gare we had to walk about 10 minutes to get to the forest. Our adventure began!!! After a few minutes of safety techniques and how you were supposed to hold the harness, we practiced in a small circuit. We climbed one by one a tall wooden climbing wall and for 2 hours we didn't touch the ground. Some of the parcours were fun and easy, but for others I needed moral support from Wolfie and Titta…Thank you guys. I remember the Saute de Tarzan. You have to jump off a platform holding the cord. From that first impulse you have to grab the net in front of you and climb it. It sounds very easy, but the platform is very high and it took me over 10 minutes to jump off that platform. When I finally decided to jump "y que sea lo que Dios quiera" people started to applaud. At least I grabbed the cord at once and the instructor didn't have to come swing me. After having done that much exercise we went to a well deserved glass of beer

Trier, Germany

We woke up very early, some of us even earlier than when we go to work. We took the train at 8:20!!!! The trip was short, about 40 minutes. We were excited because it was our first trip as a group. Caroline was our tour guide for the day, because she lives there. After visiting different monuments, we had lunch in my favorite place "Sisters Bagel" Mmm, I had a turkey bagel with honey mustard sauce and salad and a Latte Macchiato… Then we went for a little shopping and ice cream!!! The cones are wonderful…there is this ice cream parlor where the cones are made on the spot, right in front of you. We left at around 5 something because it was raining and we were tired.

Museum Open Day

Today it was Museums Open Day and we decided to go to the museums that normally don't have a free entrance day. We only went to two museums and that was more than enough for a day! Our first stop was the Casino Luxembourg. It was built between 1880 and 1882. It was formerly known as Casino Bourgeois and besides the gambling; it also had reading rooms and hosted many events such as: conferences, theatre and cabaret shows, concerts and artistic circles. Here, we saw the exhibition "L'œil- écran ou la nouvelle image:100 vidéos pour repenser le monde" It was interesting, but impossible to watch them all!. The video were rather awkward and some even disturbing. For example, there was a video of a hare against a wall discomposing next to a peach. Another video that I remember is a about a Mexican o South American family. They came, stand still and danced! That was it….or a thriller. At the beginning it seemed interesting, but it was disappointing. Like every other thriller, the set of the story is the forest. There is a disturbing girl lying on bed. A guy and some girl are picking up branches while his sheep is tied up on a tree. Then the guy takes his sheep and goes to a cottage next to a lake. Ties his sheep and takes a row boat. The crazy girl came running and enters the cottage. She found a gun! At this point we all thought she was going to kill the guy, but no! The only victim here was the poor sheep that was shot in the head!

Conservatoire de Musique

I went to the Conservatory of Music with a small group of stagiaires. As it usual in me, I arrived late thanks to my bus. In Place Hamilius I found another group of stagiares that were going to rollerblade and invited me over. I didn't know what to do!!! I felt so tempted,…I was going to be 10 or 15 minutes late and I didn't know if they would let me get in late. Well, I saw my bus and hopped on! The concert was fabulous! First the older students played and later on the younger students, around 7 years old, joined in with their little tiny violins. It was very cute and they were very professional. It made me jealous; I want to play some instrument! The second part of the concert was a group of adults. I don't think they were students because they played just perfect (at least for me) The fun part came after the concert. We went to check out the Instruments of the World museum. It was quiet interesting! They have instruments that are not longer in use…or that have evolved into modern instruments.

We also saw a conference about different Norwegian instruments. The luthier explained the differences between their instruments and other cord instruments such as violins and guitars. At the end of the conference the luthier and his band played a couple of traditional songs. It was very nice and the instruments were very expensive, the cheapest being 5,000€ We were about to leave when Polish band dressed in traditional attire started singing and playing their violins. The songs cheerful and invited you to dance along. The place was empty, only two old Luxembourg ladies that were more energetic than the three of us combined. They kept asking the guys "How do you say Thank you in Polish" and one of the guys told her, I'm sorry Ma'am but I'm Belgian! Hehe…Most of them were of Polish descend and spoke Polish. The party got started and all the alcohol they have drunk was already kicking in ...Even Marek and Laura sang Slovakian songs along with the band!

SSS- Spring Snow Storm

My favorite day so far!!!! When I woke up it was snowing, but I thought that it wasn't going to last all day. It was snowing so hard that you couldn't see the building in front of my office and it is only 300 meters away! When I got home, after doing some shopping at Delhaize, I went for a walk around the forest in front of where I'm living. As you all can see, I had a lot of fun just by myself. It was awesome!!!! I threw snowballs, took some pictures, and made a snow angel with my working cloth on! I was all covered in snow afterwards, but it was worth it! I even ate some snow!!! And it was not yellow! I'm like a little kid when it comes to snow. I don't know… I just love it!

Last day of winter

Yesterday I woke up and the second thing I did, after complaining that is too early to be awake, was look out the window to see how the weather was. What a surprise!!! The field was covered with a white blanket of snow. That cheered me up! Today we finally give our farewell to Mister Winter, but is it really a farewell? Ela asked me this morning, How long this cold weather is it going to last? I got the response from Catalin yesterday "We are going to be wearing jackets until June!"

St. Patrick's Day

I love St.Patrick's Day! Is my favorite saint! We had a lot of fun, but still I missed my green beer and a parade. We arrived around 4:30 in different groups. We were supposed to meet at 2, but oh well. At least is such a small town that we are bound to run into each other. We had a Guinness and our faces painted with the famous clove. It was funny trying to explain that we wanted a green clove in French to a German! We figured that after... The show was free until 6. Some guy made an announcement in English, French, and German that if you got in for free you were not allowed to come back in for free, you had to pay the 12.50. Than was big shock because after a pint of Guinness, the weather and just the saying that you can't go to the bathroom, makes you want to go to the bathroom! Our dear friend Virginia wanted to go to the bathroom right after the announcement. She sneaked out through the backstage curtains went to the bathroom and came back in!!!! We were starving and she later confessed that she even had some chicken McNuggets on her way to the bathroom!

The first band we saw was The Old Firm from Netherlands. They were good! The poor singer was working so hard to motivate the audience. It was impossible because the few people that were there were more interested in their Guinness than in the music. Then we saw an Irish Dance troupe called Celtics Borders that came from Ireland and the Netherlands. They were kids ranging from the age of 7 to about 17 (judging by the size of their boobs…some of them should even be jumping up and down!). Boobs apart, they were very good dancers, especially this little chubby girl. Then came my favorite band from Limerick, Ireland Dublin City Workingman's Band. They were awesome and their accent was fascinating. I love Irish! My night ended here, but some others continued….

After work drink at Scott's Bar

We went to Scott's Bar for an after work drink. I don't know how we didn't get lost, because the bar doesn't even have a sign at the door. We ordered a bottle of Luxembourgish white wine. The bottle had 100cl instead of the regular 75cl, at least you get more for your money in this expensive city. These public relation guys lent us his big Irish hat and took pictures of us. Martina asked if she can get something for free and he gave her a triangular match box with a little sperm that said something like "it's time to come!". I loved it, so I asked him for one and apparently he didn't have more because he gave me this plastic sperm with a smiley face. He took a picture of me with the sperm and he wanted it back, but I told him NO! The sperm's head is a little bottle; you have to remove the head in order to open it. You can see Elena using it as microphone and Martina loving it! We had fun, but of course, It was time to go back home at 10:30….My own Cinderella story!