February: The Month of Flying Time.

At the Embassy, life is perhaps best analogised by the Luxembourgish weather. One minute, there is rain, the next snow, then glorious sunshine, followed by some fog, and rounded off with a bout of gusty gales. The temperature is as changeable, too. But whereas this might be a bad thing for holiday-making hikers trying to travel light, it’s great for an intern drinking in new experiences. It isn’t just the workplace that’s varied, though; it’s the ‘extra-curricular’ stuff, too…

This bright sunshine followed a solid two-day stint of downpours.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a great event put on by Delano, an English-language magazine, in celebration of its third birthday. The event was named ‘Spice It Up’; everything was Indian-themed, including the canapés, and all guests were invited to have a bindi drawn onto their foreheads. The venue was one that I would perhaps cringeworthily describe as ‘cool’, and it was a terrific place to meet new people and fill more gaps in my overall understanding of how Luxembourg works. As I moved through the crowd, evidence of the smallness of the world came in the form of my meeting two people with connections to my home-city of Manchester, which was unexpected, but welcome! A friend then introduced me to another guest, telling me that ‘he’s a magician!’ I, having been so used to people telling me they worked for a bank, insurance company or law firm, didn’t really take this assertion seriously, and made the poor man perform a trick to prove himself. He obliged, and produced a coin out of thin air. Bravo. It was only afterwards that I found out he was the internationally renowned magician, David Goldrake, who goes on world tours and is essentially the Luxembourg equivalent of Derren Brown. Oops.

The following week was the week of Valentine’s Day, and the English-speaking Actors Repertory Theatre Luxembourg put on, appropriately enough, Love Letters, a play by A. R. Gurney. We were invited. The play was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama back in 1990, but in spite of its credentials, I must admit that I was not sure I was going to like it. Fifty years’ worth of love letters between two people, and only these two characters on stage at all times? It sounded so mushy. Fortunately, it was anything but! It was funny, moving, and engaging, and the production was simple but effective; the acting was understated, but sincere and convincing. In all, a play deserving of its renown.

Flyer for the Actors Rep production.

On Valentine's Day itself, there was an event held in the centre of town, which some Embassy staff, including myself, attended. It was called '1 Billion Rising for Justice', and was staged almost simultaneously in hundreds of cities across the globe. Organised by the American Women's Club of Luxembourg, it was done in conjunction with the global campaign, One Billion Rising. The campaign’s name comes from the appalling fact that one third of all women on our planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. That’s one billion women. These V-Day events, which take place on a yearly basis, give people the opportunity to raise awareness of this deplorable statistic, and to fight to end such widespread violence against women. Unfortunately, the weather on the day prevented a fantastic turn-out, but there was still a substantial number of attendees gathered in Luxembourg City centre. There were signs, music, photographs, and even some Zumba to rally the troops! The aerobic dancing was definitely welcome on such a cold afternoon. And it was good to see so much support for such an important issue.

A t-shirt on display on the day. Many were wearing them as well!

Last week saw my greatest challenge since starting at the Embassy. I agreed to give a quasi-motivational talk about London to a cohort of insurance salespeople; the company was planning a staff trip to London in celebration of hard work. My speech was meant to provoke excitement and give them a flavour of what they might expect from the UK’s capital. There was one complication, which only came to light once I had agreed to do this for them: the speech had to be in French. I speak French, but conversing and giving a speech are quite different things, and I had no previous experience of the latter. Fortunately, though, it turned out to be a worthwhile endeavour and an excellent experience: not only were my hosts delightfully encouraging despite my evident nerves, but I did not spontaneously combust mid-sentence, which I figured was the worst that could happen. Afterwards, conversation was facilitated by Guinness, which was served to further excite the employees to want to go to the UK and sample more British Ale [sic: I felt it was polite to refrain from mentioning that, actually, Guinness comes from a little place slightly west of Britain…]. What’s more, I then received a beautiful vase of flowers in the post after the event, which was a lovely surprise, and also served as yet further confirmation that Luxembourgers are an absolutely charming bunch of people.

Luckily, London is fab, so the content of the speech was easy.

And now it’s March! I can barely believe it; into the home stretch now. The speed at which these past two months have evaporated before my eyes certainly supports the old assertion that ‘time flies when you’re having fun.’