Friday is my busiest day, at least as far as teaching is concerned. Both of my classes meet in the morning (there are no afternoon classes on Fridays to encourage students to travel).

I have a meeting and a reception this afternoon, and then…probably more grading.

A couple of us noticed how the Delhaize lion looks a lot like the Food  Lion logo. I’m not sure why I did this, but I happened to look in Wikipedia and Delhaize owns Food Lion.

Anyway, I had to go to Luxembourg City to be tested and x-rayed for tuberculosis. There are about seven different pieces of paper you need to pull together to get your residency permit (essentially you need to prove that you’re healthy, have a job and a place to live, and that you’ve registered with your local city hall). I’m almost done!

I spent most of the morning and early afternoon walking around Luxembourg City. I finally found a place that serves coffee and nothing else. It was wonderful!

I just hope I can find it again! It was tucked away in a courtyard of sorts.

I happened across another curious sign:

I’m not sure what that business does, but I was not expecting to see Kokopelli in Luxembourg.

Still no luck on the jacket/coat front, in case you were wondering. Saturday is the farmers’ market, so I’ll be down there again soon.

I am so far behind in posting that the next few posts will be brief. Besides, my main activities have been grading papers and preparing for my classes.

On Sunday (AKA the appliance day), I tried out the dishwasher in my apartment only to discover that it didn’t work. When the facility manager could not fix it, he called the technician. I expected one guy with a bunch of tools. Nope. Two guys, a pair of pliers, and a stair climbing dolly. This is what they did:

Cultural lesson #478: At least in Luxembourg, they commonly fix your appliances off-site. I suspect that my kitchen area is bigger than many, primarily since it’s also a dining room and living room. So that’s one reason for doing things this way. It probably saves time since the repair man doesn’t have to drive back-and-forth between his shop and the appliance.

“What do they do when your refrigerator breaks?” you might ask, thinking that it would be difficult to move a refrigerator. I suspect that most refrigerators in Europe are much smaller than the ones in the US. The refrigerator in my apartment is roughly 6′ high, 2′ wide, and probably 30” deep. That’s significantly more narrow than most US refrigerators. It’s plenty big for me, especially since I go to the store almost every day.

Yesterday I continued my quest for a winter coat. I’ve decided that it might be too early. What is disappointing is that many clothing stores either do not have men’s clothes or don’t have any for men over 25. I went all the way down to Luxembourg City to check out a coat I had seen online at Monoprix, and they not only didn’t have it, but they didn’t have any men’s clothes at all. So I went to Esch today, only to have the same thing repeated—stores without men’s clothing or with just a small selection. One thing I have learned on by visiting many stores in Luxembourg is that either the men here think differently about shopping than they do in the states, or men just don’t shop for clothes in Luxembourg. Maybe they go to France or Germany. I say this because if you’ve ever been to a department store in the states, you know that the men’s section is always by a door. Why? Because men like to dart in and dart out. Put the men’s stuff in the back and we won’t go in. Well, that’s not what they do here. Most of the time the men’s clothing was in the back of the store.

On my way home from Esch, I decided to see what the other terminus was like. Rodange seems  like a suburb—there are few shops than there are in other towns and more houses, which isn’t to say that it’s not beautiful:

I’m not sure why I like this but I do:

Strangely, Luxembourg Google doesn’t include maps.

Anyway, after I returned home, it was time to grade papers, which I did until nearly 23h. And now it’s time to sleep before the roofers return shortly after sunrise…

This morning I went to the Belval Shopping Plaza, which is only 12 minutes away from Differdange by train. If you look at TripAdvisor, people do not like the Plaza, primarily because not all of the shops are occupied and because there are not many people in the Plaza. One person thought it had a post-apocalyptic feeling (wie aus einem Endzeit-Drama). It is true that if you like your shopping to be cheek by jowl with other shoppers, you will not like the Belval Plaza. I personally prefer it when the number of customers is approximately equal to, or even less than, the number of employees. So I liked the Plaza. True, the stores are not very exciting, but they have solid offerings. The Delhaize that anchors the mall is definitely worth the trip from Differdange. Perhaps best of all, the Plaza is attached to the train station by enclosed walkways.

The walk from the Château to the train stop (it’s not a station) is very nice. There’s a shortcut to the stop through a park, and on the way home, most of the walk is around this school:

I believe the school was originally a house built by a steel magnate, who then decided (or his wife decided) after the house was built not to live in Differdange. Apparently the house has marble floors and whatever else was en vogue among the wealthy a century (I’m assuming) ago. It’s funny to picture pre-schoolers running around in such luxury.

I was poking around in the Château’s library today, and what should I see but this:

I have no idea why they have nearly a decade of Arizona Highways, but there it is.

Oh, and today was the first day of class. And the last day that MUDEC was philosophy class free.