Tree Slaughter

On a recent jog through the forest, I spotted this sign affixed to tape blocking the path:

In case you're wondering, the top part's in German, bottom in French

 I knew it meant they were doing something to the trees and that entering the area was forbidden, but I'd never seen the word abattage before.  


So I went home to consult my best friend, Google Translate.  And you know what it told me?

abbattage = slaughter!  They were slaughtering trees in the forest!

As much as I love Google Translate, I guess it does have its weaknesses.


(In all fairness, when I entered "abbattage d'arbres," it said "tree felling."  But I like "tree slaughter" better.)


 A few days later, the path was reopened and there were indeed piles of slaughtered trees everywhere.

Victims of the massacre

I must say, Luxembourg does an outstanding job of maintaining--grooming, really--its forests*.  I always see city workers in there, trimming trees, blowing leaves, doing... well, I'm not exactly sure what.  Perhaps this nice display I passed today explains it.

Or maybe not.  Since it's in German, I can't read it.  I guess I could head over to Google Translate... but I think I'll just let it remain a mystery.

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*So much so that last year the local news reported that six trees were missing from the forest and the suspects were still at large--which begged the question, how on earth did they notice six missing trees in a forest of millions??  Only in Luxembourg...

Football (Soccer) Tournament

This weekend was Will's first soccer tournament.  He's been playing on a team since October, and to say he's not very enthusiastic about it would be an understatement.  (As it would be to say he's not very athletically gifted in this area. Is that too mean to say about my own son?  The boy is no David Beckham, that's for sure.  It's not exactly surprising, considering his parents...) But it gets him out and running around, burning off some of that insane little boy energy, and in my mind, that's a good thing.

At the tournament this weekend, his team lost all of their matches and ended up in last place.  Well, in all fairness, they tied for last place.  I don't think the boys minded too much.  They had fun hanging around and being silly--something Will does excel at--even if they lacked a common language.

He looks surprised because he didn't know I was taking his picture.  That's the only way to get a shot of him these days! 

That's Will in the front.

Awarding of medals at the end.  Everyone got a medal! 

Will hiding behind his friend after he realized I was taking his picture.

The artwork Kate did on my iPhone during the FOUR hour-long tournament!

I'm of the opinion that kids need to stick with an activity long enough to ensure that they truly hate it -- several months at least -- and then they're free to quit and try something else. So, Will's counting down the months till June when I told him he could stop playing.  But -- shhh, don't tell anyone -- I think he might be having just a little bit of fun.  Not that he would admit it.  It helps that his best friend (who speaks English) is on his team, which has made it much more fun for Will.  It'll be interesting to see if he decides to continue when the time comes!

Kate

Guess who bought herself a new Disney Princess lipstick from a vending machine?

She put it on herself.  Can you tell?

The scary thing?  That's what she looked like AFTER I wiped it off.  I think she may have to go to school tomorrow like that.

It reminded me a little bit of this photo from the very first time I let her do art unattended.   Big mistake!

Note the blue tongue.  She didn't miss a spot. 

At least the blue stuff washed off!  Who would make little girl lipstick in such a bright color -- and one that doesn't wipe off easily!

One Year in Luxembourg

So this is it:  our one-year anniversary in Luxembourg.  One year ago today we -- and our enormous pile of luggage


-- arrived after a harrowing trip...

...halfway around the world.

I can't believe it's been a year!

Some highlights from our first year in Luxembourg.

January:
 We spent lots of time exploring the forest behind our house.

The kids were delighted by the first snowfall:

Their first snowman!

February brought many trips to Ikea and much furniture assembly!

Ack!  The cardboard!

But we also made time to explore our new home:

Luxembourg Centre Ville

March:

Our first trip to Paris!

View from the top of the Eiffel Tower

April:

A visit from Grandpa and Aunt Minnie

Trier, Germany

Jennifer annoyed her Facebook friends by endlessly gushing about the beauty of spring in Luxembourg.

 May:
A trip to Holland to see windmills and tulips.

Keukenhof Gardens

Kate appeared in a French newspaper:

And our home was invaded by bats:

Still makes me shudder even 7 months later!

 June:

We took advantage of the lovely weather and relaxed in our backyard:

 Our friends, Ted and Laura, came to visit.

Ted and Laura in front of Vianden Castle

 We celebrated Luxembourg's National Day:

July:

A trip home to see friends and family...

Will and Brendan

 August:
Gigi came to visit and we took her to Bruges, Belgium.

 September:
Our trip to Italy where we visited Rome, Pompeii and Sorrento

Will and Kate on the island of Capri

 October:
We started enjoying the fall activities Luxembourg has to offer:

Pumpkin picking in Sprinkange

Jennifer annoyed her Facebook friends by endlessly gushing about the beauty of autumn in Luxembourg.

C'mon!  Look at that.  How could I not gush!

 November:
The kids and I visited Nancy, France.

 Our family went to Tunisia for some sun and -- uh -- camel riding.

Ali Baba.

 December:
BRRR!!!

Snow, snow and more snow.

 We took also took a trip to Heidelberg where Will lost his first tooth and went ice skating for the first time.

What a year!
I can only hope the next one is as wonderfully full as the last...

Le Snowhall

This past weekend on what turned out, ironically, to be a beautiful, sunny day, we headed to Amneville, France for some indoor skiing.  This place is open 365 days a year and offers beginner as well as more advanced slopes, and it even has a sled hill!

This was Kate's first time on skis and Will's second, though it may as well have been his first since I think he was just three the last time we went.

This is the more advanced slope.  It's 620 meters long--not that I tried it out.  I stay firmly on the bunny hill!

Here's Kate all set to hit the slopes:

No pictures of Will.  Guess why?  As usual he tried to hide every time he saw my camera and I'm not talented enough on skis (actually, I'm a menace) to get any action shots.  Not entirely true, I guess.  I did manage this one:

Nice slow conveyor belt ski lift.  Just my speed.

 So, how did the kids do?  Great, of course.  Kate took to it immediately and after a few first shaky runs, Will loved it too.  Some of his friends were there and their dads, who are much better skiers than Roger or I, helped him down the hill.  By the end, he was zipping around with no problem.

As for me, I managed not to wipe out and take anyone with me, so I consider that a successful day's skiing!

Adventures in Food

Part of the fun of being an expat is exploring different kinds of food... but it's not without its rough spots.  Here, especially, there seem to be so many foods that I've never seen or heard of, or which look the same as at home but aren't.  At all.

Like the time I bought what I thought was bacon.  It looked just like it, only thicker, but when I cooked it, it shriveled up and turned gray.  It was disgusting, tough, practically inedible.  Yuck.  The kids were so disappointed.  (For your reference, it was lard maigre.  I still don't know what you're supposed to do with it, but don't fry it like bacon!)

And then there's the yogurt.  The dairy aisles here are overwhelming!  At home I used to make my own yogurt because I didn't like all the sugary, gelatin-filled options available.  Here, no way.  The yogurt is amazing!

And then there's the stuff that looks like yogurt but isn't:  fromage frais, something I'd never heard of at home.  It's delicious -- very thick and creamy (and probably full of fat, but who cares?  It's worth it!).

It confused me at first.  Remember this?

And this?

I finally asked someone at a grocery store what that Stoffi was and it turns out it's another kind of fromage frais, made in Luxembourg and very high quality, according to the woman I asked.  Plus, she said, you can get money back for recycling the glass jar which you can't for the other stuff.

Speaking of which, I'm getting very brave about asking random shoppers (who can ever find a store employee when you need one?  Plus, in my experience, they're not too friendly.) about mysterious food items.  Without exception, I've gotten a friendly, detailed explanation of the item.  I love it!  It makes grocery shopping so much more fun if I can learn something useful!  I've found French people give the best explanations.  They really know what they're talking about and they seem to love sharing their knowledge.

So it's my new mission to ask about one mysterious grocery item every shopping trip.  Today it was this, galette des rois.  I've noticed they're all over the stores now.  I thought it must be some kind of cake for New Year's, but it's not.  It's for the 6th of January, Epiphany, the day the three wise men (kings?) brought gifts to the baby Jesus.

Oh, the things you learn living in such a Catholic country.  The woman I asked was really surprised I didn't know about it.  "Aren't there Catholics in the U.S.?," she asked.  Sure, but I don't think I've ever seen one of these cakes there.  Have you?

Here's what ours looks like:

We're not Catholic.  We'll be eating this on New Year's.  It'll be stale by Jan. 6!

There were two flavors, frangipane, which I had to ask about (almond powder, mixed with cream and sugar) and apple.  We went for the apple.

Anyway, there's a little object (the one she showed me was a baby) hidden in the cake and whoever gets it in their slice becomes the king or queen and wears the crown.  Sounds like fun...as long as you don't choke or break a tooth.

On second thought, I think I know why I've never seen one of these cakes in the U.S.

Since there are dozens of unfamiliar foods, I often end up googling my purchases.  Next on my google list:  

 Unfortunately for me, everything's on this one's written in German, which may as well be Greek to me.  So off to Google I go.  I'm sure hoping this is chicken stock because jarred or canned broth isn't available here.  Everyone uses bouillon cubes or these little gelatin things that you mix with water.  They're delicious but not very convenient when you just need a cup of broth.

Oh, and these things:

I'm not sure what they are (parsnips?) but I put them in a chicken pot pie last night and they were pretty good.

And then there's our New Year's Day meal.  Since Roger's from Texas, I usually make the traditional southern meal, ham, greens and black eyed peas, all foods supposed to bring good luck in the new year.

Fortunately, I was able to find all these things here in Luxembourg... or at least I think I did.

Do these look like greens of some kind to you?


Whatever they are, I'm planning on chopping them up and cooking them with some lardons, one of my favorite discoveries here.

And this.  I'm pretty sure it's ham, I know it's pork, let's just hope I'll be able to figure out how to cook it. I really hope it's not a huge hunk of lard maigre.  I need to google this one right away.


The black-eyed peas were no problem.  Those I found.  Since I didn't see any friendly shoppers to ask about these other things, I'm just going to experiment and hope for the best.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Où sont les pelles à neige?

That's a question I've perfected over the last couple of weeks.

What's a pelle à neige, you ask?

This:

Not one to be found in the whole city of Luxembourg!!

And I really need one!  The never-ending snow we've had over the past few weeks means a lot of sidewalk to be cleared.  By law, residents have to clear the sidewalk in front of their houses by 7 a.m. or they risk being fined.  I've also heard you can be liable if someone falls and is injured but I'm not sure if that's true.  So there I am each morning with my rake and broom trying to clear a path for pedestrians.  Not too bad if the snow is light and powdery, but if someone's walked on it -- and they usually have -- it's packed down and frozen solid, pretty much impossible to remove with a plastic rake and a broom.

So I need a snow shovel!  But every store I've visited (five at last count) has been sold out with no delivery date in sight.

Will someone please send some snow shovels to Luxembourg right now?  We really need them!  And maybe some salt too.  They don't have that either.

Being a California girl, all this is new to me.  In fact, I was surprised to learn that dumping salt on icy steps removes the ice and makes them safe to walk on.  Who knew? (I know, everyone but me).    I guess I should've paid better attention in chemistry class.  They probably told us the effect salt has on ice.

Anyway, it doesn't matter because there's no salt in Luxembourg either.  I did figure out, though, that the salt you have to dump in your dishwasher (this stuff) works pretty well on icy steps.

In the meantime, as I scrape the ice away with my plastic rake, cursing winter under my breath, I'll keep repeating to myself... Only three more months till spring, three more months till spring...