Luxemblog Part 1
Bonjour. Hallo. Moien. It’s been a while since I last posted, mainly because I spent the Summer penniless, dreaming about the trips to Poland and France I missed due to (student/graduate) poverty, but you all knew it wouldn’t be long before I hopped on a plane again! So here I am. After various motivation letters, translating my CV into French, transferring my fees (no thanks to my bank which charged £25 for every transfer on top of the exchange rate) and finally booking a one-way ticket to the Grand Duchy, I’ve just gone and moved to Luxembourg for my dream Masters in European Contemporary History (in French- I’m a glutton for punishment, I know). Now I’d never been to Luxembourg before. In fact, up until a few years ago I wasn’t even sure what Luxembourg was… and that’s coming from a self-professed Europhile and travel addict. You might be wondering then what exactly led to me deciding to study here for the next 2 years?! Well, apart from me always wanting to be different and never taking the easy route, my visit in February to Politico’s Brussels EU Stu
dies Fair was what made me think of coming here. Initially, I went just to find out more about a similar course at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, but my mind was quickly changed by how rude one of the representatives was there. Long story short she spoke to me in English and then had a hissy fit when I responded in English rather than French… makes sense. Anyway, I moved on to the next stall where two lovely ladies from the University of Luxembourg made me feel so welcome and so excited about the course at their university that I just knew I would have to apply. In the end, I wanted to go so badly that I applied to two different courses- and got accepted onto both… Just over half a year later, here I am, lost in Luxembourg- only joking, it’s too small to get lost here, trust me I’ve tried!
I only arrived Saturday night so everything’s still very fresh and exciting and stressful and terrifying- all the normal feelings when moving to a new city/country! And of course, in standard Jazmin-style, despite all of my preparation in advance, I messed up, realising too late that the accommodation office on campus closes at the weekend so I would have nowhere to stay for two nights. Cue frantically searching and harassing people on Couchsurfing. But it worked out great, as these things always do, as I met some wonderful people where I was staying, including a very international host and two girls who also just moved here. The second night was fine too as I stayed in a hostel (the only one in Luxembourg…) in a gorgeous part of the old city centre. Unfortunately, to get to it meant tackling maaaany hills- not ideal when you are carrying at least a year’s worth of luggage. Then Monday came- moving day! And now I’m all settled into my new home on campus in a city not too far from the capital, Esch-Sur-Alzette. Still haven’t met my roommates though, but I’m excited for all that this new experience will bring, especially the university’s equivalent of Freshers’ week in 2 weeks’ time.
Finally, just for good measure, I’ve thrown in a couple of things that confuse me in Luxembourg, so far:
-Languages. Ironic, considering languages are normally my forté, but it gets pretty confusing when people constantly switch between French, German and Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergesch), as well as a million other languages. On the up side, I love how international this place is. I also love how nice Luxembourgers (yes, I kid you not, that is their name) are when you try to speak French- no judgment or anything like that even when you inevitably slip up.
-Administration. This one’s an issue in pretty much any country but what’s annoying at the minute is that I have to legally register that I’m living here and obtain a residency letter, but in order to that I need a job or proof that I have literally like 5,000 euros. Then, I need that residency letter to open a bank account which I wanted to do before I got a job so that I would get paid into an account here and avoid international banking fees, blah blah, and so it goes around in a vicious circle, just like when a job asks for experience but you need a job first to get said experience…
I’m not giving up yet, though- Luxembourg isn’t getting rid of me that easily! 😉
