Luxembourg: the Singapore of Europe

As you have hopefully inferred from the title, I have come to the shocking realisation that Europe is playing host to a city-state bizarrely akin to the one in which I spent my formative years. This is, in a word, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I've spent a fair amount of time missing the quirks of my seemingly unique (closest thing to) home, so imagine my surprise and excitement at finding something remarkably similar and significantly closer to my current place of residence. But of course, let me justify my claim, as on the surface Singapore and Luxembourg may not seem so comparable. Of course, they are both city-states, conveniently situated in their respective continents to maximise trade and business and thus bring in a lot of wealth and wealthy people. Both have high expatriot populations, because of international businesses and governments and because they are both flanked by multiple countries. The result is the delightful ability to walk down any street at any time of the day and be able to hear at least 4 different languages being spoken within a space of 3 blocks. I love that. Both countries are ruled by monarchical families, Luxembourg by an actual royal family and Singapore under the guise of extremely nepotistic democracy. Despite whatever qualms your may have about these political systems, both countries are extremely stable and extremely safe. Charming as they may be, there is relatively little to do in either country tourist-wise, but have the air gemütlichkeit for actual residents. Hopefully one day I'll be able to compare the two as a resident of both. After the 110% humidity and fantastic Indian food, my comparisons are exhausted, but hopefully I make a pretty convincing point.

Tragically, the one thing that Singapore and Luxembourg don't have in common is Christmas markets. What I would have given to have had that experience as a child. Being able to walk around in the crisp air ("nice and chilly"), moseying from quaint stall to quaint stall, sipping hot drinks and singing along to Christmas carols with someone you love; it was amazing. And I was so lucky to have the chance to go to my first Christmas market with my wonderful boyfriend. It sounds sappy, but being able to share that moment, the first real, perfect moment of Christmas, with someone I love that much, was such a gift. For that moment, I forgot about all the loneliness and the homesickness and the stress and could just be. So thank you, those moments are rare for me. I get a little lost in my own world sometimes. Anyways...Merry Beginning of the Christmas Season Everybody! Hurray for Luxembourg.

Just when I thought it couldn't get worse...

I know it's been a while since I last wrote, so let me catch you up briefly...still stuck in Stenay, still have no friends, one of my married colleagues is in love with me and seems not to understand any variation of the words "no" or "stop". I'm bored, lonely, frustrated and tired of people talking about me instead of to me. I foolishly thought that I was on an upswing when my ATM card finally came after 2 months of waiting and several trips to and arguments with my bank. I was so excited by the possibility of going grocery shopping and being able to buy stuff that I want, not just need, and being able to buy train tickets at the little yellow machines in the train stations, instead of having to wait for the infrequent times in which ticket counters are open (open late, closed early, 2 hour lunch breaks. seriously, do these people even work?). I'd planned a nice meal in my head. I was going to take some time today to actually make myself a meal, maybe even dessert, thus temporarily alleviating the soul crushing boredom of the day. But when I got to the supermarket and tried to take out money with my new card, I realised that I couldnt remember the pin number they had assigned me. So I walked all the way back to my apartment, found the slip of paper with the number and walked back to the supermarket. Attempt 2 didn't go better. I inserted the card, I typed in the pin number. The machine told me I had made an error. I was pretty sure I had typed it in correctly, but there's always room for human error, so i tried again, very carefully this time...YOU HAVE MADE AN ERROR. YOUR CARD HAS BEEN RETAINED. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR BANK. So I called my bank. No answer. I trekked all the way over to my bank. Closed until Tuesday. I emailed my bank. No answer. So now I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere with no money and no food until Tuesday, when I'll be busy at work the whole day. Considering it took them 2 months to send me the card in the first place, I don't have high hopes for how long it'll take for me to get the replacement card. The cruel thing is that I get paid this weekend. So I know I have money in my account, but I still have to starve because I can't access it.