Bruxelles = Brussels

We took an impromptu trip to Brussels this weekend. Our new friends, the Cordanis, invited us and we went for it.

First of all, Bruxelles is the same as Brussels. Just like Germany is the same thing as Deutschland. Just like Français is the same as French. I see signs for Bruxelles all the time in Luxembourg and I finally put it together. Great job, me. I am learning about languages and stuff.

Second of all, it's only 2 1/2 hours to Brussels. Huh? I thought it was four. Great job, me. Google map it, girlfriend.

So, we got up early on Saturday morning and were in Brussels by 10 am. Great job, us. This is all I want in life: to take full advantage of seeing new sights. It doesn't matter where I live, a quick jaunt down any new road always brings me new room to breathe. Exploring new places is my oxygen.


Just out of the car, Noah was immediately ticked. "I DON'T WANT TO WALK!" I forgot to set expectations early on. It was a rocky first hour or so.

The Grand Place was the grandest place I'd ever been. This building was my favorite.

Camping in Beaufort

We were so excited to get our sea shipment because that meant we could go camping finally! It turns out we didn't really need the tent, though. From my limited understanding about camping in Europe, it appears that people use mostly campers, small cabins, or mobile homes that are provided by the camp ground. Or, in our case, teepees.  My neighbor told me about this camp ground in Beaufort, a town known as "Little Switzerland" that is one hour north of us, still in Luxembourg but close to the Germany border . She said they loved it. Since it was so close to home, I thought it'd be a great jumping off point for figuring out how to Euro-camp.

The campground was enormous and these were the only five teepees. I chose the teepee route because it was the cheapest, 120 euros for two nights, and we could rent cots. We could have used our tent and it would've been even cheaper but we couldn't have rented cots. Our camping mattresses all popped last year and we haven't replaced them yet, so cots were necessary. They gave us the largest teepee.

 It had a luxurious wood chip floor. All four other teepees had smooth wood floors. ??????

 These were our neighbors. More on them later.

Our Place, Our Stuff

When I lived in Taiwan at age 23 I wasn't interested in interiors or design of any kind. Because of my lack of interest in those things, I didn't take any photographs of my living areas. I so wish I had. I'd love to have pictures of the kitchen I shared with five other people, where we had to boil our drinking water and where one of my roommates whipped up the most amazing American meals for us once a week; I wish I could see my balcony where we did laundry (or didn't do laundry, depending on whether the machines were working or not); my tiny bedroom then my bigger bedroom and the hard mattress I slept on that had a top layer of grass cloth; the bathroom that had a drain in the floor where I took showers with no shower curtain and had to put used toilet paper in the trash; the hallway area with the full length mirror where I got ready every day; and the hodge podge selection of books on the first floor bookshelves where I first picked up The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, a book that would become one of my all-time favorites. These are the mementos of daily life that I don't want to forget.

Now in Luxembourg we've been ever so slowly piecing together a world that resembles home. I took tons of pictures of our apartment when we first saw it while house hunting, and you can see those on my other blog. 

I'm taking it from there now ...

This is the apartment on the day we arrived. The rental furniture company was in the middle of unpacking everything that was meant to hold us over until our sea shipment would arrive two to three months later.

 The kids' room with the rental beds.

I thought I took a picture of our bedroom, but I didn't. 

Catching Up

Some of these pictures are at least a month old, so let's play catch up. On a particularly hot day, we decided to try the pool with a view in Vianden. 

 What. A. View. It was stunning.

 Noah got to show off his new Euro trunks and swim cap.

Grocery Shopping in Germany

I know what you're thinking. Another grocery store blog post already? Lucky me! This may not be interesting to anyone else but this is my daily life and I want to document it. I just know myself and I know that in 20 years I'm going to want to look back and see what I ate when I was living in Luxembourg. The not so exciting thing is that it is much the same as what I ate in America. Did I just say "not so exciting"? What I meant is the exact opposite. Being able to find things here that are similar to what I can find in America is the very definition of exciting. The grocery store is the haystack and every time I go I am hunting for a lot of little needles. You'll look at all of these foods and shrug and say, "Big whoop, I can get that at Walmart." EXACTLY. That's precisely the point. What you don't see is all the millions of things I had to compare side to side to make just one decision. Grocery shopping is serious brain drain. And just when I thought I had a lot of it figured out, I decided to try doing it in another country. 

Some of my friends go just over the border to Perl, Germany, to shop in bulk at Lidl, Aldi, and DM, all discount grocery stores. It takes 30 minutes to drive there. After a pep talk from my friend about what I could expect, I set off with the kids to conquer all three.

 Here's what we found:

 

 PEANUT BUTTERRRRR. You take it for granted, but peanut butter happens to be equivalent to gold in its rarity and value. Also, rolled oats, flour, cereal we recognize and like...