A Season for Oven Mitts and Lipstick

     10 Things I've Learned in the First Few Weeks in Luxembourg:

1. If you need to start a kitchen from scratch – oven mitts should be your FIRST purchase!

2. Always make sure you make eye contact with the bus driver, otherwise you too may be stranded at an Ikea in Belgium as the last bus of the day drives by…

3. I need to invest in more heels and lipstick, ladies dress like ladies here.

4. People drive on the right side of the road but walk on the left side of the sidewalk…puzzling.

5.  Belgium waffles. Are. The. Best. Thing. Ever.

6. Luxembourgers may be more polite than Canadians….it's true.

7. You can have language overload. Sitting at the City Hall in Esch I noticed, all signs were in French, the locals were speaking Luxembourgish, a German TV news station was on and English songs were playing on the radio.

8. I am unashamedly becoming a ‘foodie’. Fresh cheese, great wine, rich chocolates. How can you go wrong? Dinner menu this week: homemade cilantro black bean cakes with a cayenne yogurt sauce and Dijon chicken in a garlic cream sauce with crimini mushrooms and toasted almonds.

9. "Mr. Clean” products are called “Mr. Proper” – I feel this is a much more suitable name being on this side of the pond.

10.  Water is LITERALLY more expensive than wine – case in point, 4€ for bottled water and 2€ for a glass of red wine from Bordeaux. It’s all in the sake of saving money right?!