How i got here
I am one of those people who actually chose to come and live in Luxembourg.
The first time when I set foot on this land was during what is now known as the “European heat wave” (2003). That was, ironically, my first road trip across Europe. After a week in Paris during which the air conditioned got broken and on the way home, the driver wanted to fill up the tank with cheaper petrol, so we stopped in Luxembourg where the heat wave was less strong than in Paris, and where we could actually breath for the first time since we left.
That was my first memory of Luxembourg: a breath of fresh air. Sometimes I still feel the same.
It was by chance, years after, that I ended as an Erasmus student in Metz (around 60 km away from Luxembourg). I didn’t choose Metz, it was where I got a place. I still recall those crazy days spent in a student residence (a reconditioned military building) without Internet, common kitchen and shared bathrooms. That was one of the best years and memories pops out often in my thoughts and consequently in my writings. It was in Metz that I took the decision to move to Luxembourg. During a few months I commuted with a shared car or with the train and I started my first blog to document the experience – it was called journal transfrontalier.
I went through the painful and frustrating process of getting a work permit. And finally, in 2008, just a few days after the bankruptcy of the first big bank, just while the financial crises started, I started to work here (in a bank) and at the same time to live here.
Ever since, I’ve been observing, I learned all the nuances, the dark and light sides of this place which fascinated me during that heat wave, I met people, I started to understand the social structures and I did my best to make beautiful memories here.
The name… well I like to think about Luxembourg as a picture with high contrasts, in some parts overexposed, in other corners shadowed. However, I express myself better through words than through pictures, otherwise this would have been a photo blog. It’s also an exposure of some very personal stories and thoughts, to share with those who could be interested.
I would like, through my writing, to add something to the collective memory of people living here: from locals to expats, immigrants and, why not, cross-boarders, of all those who spend some time in this country and create its human layers. This is for all those who not only work here, but also live here.
In the end, what I learned was to live here and these are my experiences.