I went out this morning to buy my breakfast pastries. Normally I buy them the day before, but since I didn’t go out yesterday (and since most stores are either closed on Sundays or open until 13h only) I had to go out this morning. I should have done that much earlier! The selection is so much bigger at 7h!

A little later in the morning I had a meeting with Carlo (who is in charge of the study tours) and Raymond (who is going along on the trip) concerning the upcoming trip. It was impressive to see that they had planned everything out and even had contingency plans. Carlo had described the meeting as a “road book” discussion. Originally I thought this was an Italian expression that lost something in translation. I learned that Carlo had indeed compiled a book of tickets, reservations, phone numbers, maps and so on. If only he did taxes….

The dishwasher finally came back from the “hospital” today. Hopefully I’ll get to use it tomorrow. As they were leaving, one of the technicians gave me a mini-lecture. When he was done, he asked if I had understood him (he was speaking French). I told him that I didn’t think that I understood him because I thought he told me that a dishwasher is not a dog. Yes, that indeed was his point. It seems that whoever lived here before had put dishes with food still on them in the dishwasher (instead of giving them to the dog). This is the opposite advice that you get in the states, where you are told that pre-rinsing causes the detergent to eat away at the glasses etc. Oh well. I assured him that I was innocent of this crime against an appliance.

Tonight we were invited to attend the 25th anniversary performance of the Solistes Européens, Luxembourg. In attendance were His Royal Highness, Grand-Duc Henri, Luxembourg’s Prime Minister, his Excellency Mr. Xavier Bettel. The concert was held at Philharmonic Hall in Luxembourg City. The building itself is impressive (info here). If there was any additional security, it wasn’t obvious. There were no metal detectors or guard dogs. I saw two police officers the whole time I was there. I say all this because it was nice. Something is lost when public events require so much security.

I realized that I was close to the Grand-Duc than I have ever been to a US President, or even a member of Congress. Luxembourgers will tell you that one of the great things about their country is that the government is small and nimble. It’s apparently much easier to do business here because CEOs can meet with government officials without needing appointments months in advance.

I hope that last paragraph makes sense. It’s past my bed time.