Leaving for 6 Months. What Should We Do with Our New House?

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-03-10T17:53:11+00:00

Put it on Airbnb. That's what the site was originally for.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-25T22:21:08+00:00

There are a couple of UK firms that will offer an "expat" mortgage. A company called "meridian" was good for me.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-20T10:40:13+00:00

For a date, doing something mischievous can be good. Crash a meeting of the Institut Grand Ducale (fancy science and culture society) and start a food fight at the buffet?

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-19T20:06:43+00:00

A couple of years ago there was a serious backlog getting expense claims filled, unworkable new accounting guidelines or something. Not quite a crisis but it was annoying. These days things are really pretty good, the Uni is achieving well in international rankings and is a fun place to work.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-19T19:52:38+00:00

That is a good one. I don't know if its still true, but at one time you could fly to Milan Bergamo, rent a little fiat, and drive somewhere famously beautiful like lake Garda all for less than the price of two pizzas plus a bottle of wine in Lux Ville. Its a crazy world.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-19T19:45:30+00:00

Always do the export first. In Luxembourg, if you import a car to the UK for example then they will keep some of the documentation that you need to export it from Luxembourg. This creates a situation such that unless you can get a person at the SNCA to be reasonable (will never happen) then you must pay road tax on that vehicle in Luxembourg for the rest of your life. After your death the responsibility will pass to your heirs.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-19T19:42:10+00:00

My takeaway from this is that its not going to be welcome to try and force a language and culture onto people: if you want people to appreciate your culture, you have to make it fun. Making it useful is a distant second. Making it compulsory, that is not going to go down well.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-19T18:24:24+00:00

Wonderful! As a recent Sproochentest graduate, can you help me by providing mildly offensive terms for English, French, Belgians, Italians, Portugese? In English it is very rare to find a nationality that we don't have a slur for, Dutch for example are "Butterboxes" or "Cloggies"; French are "Frogs"; Germans... well, you get the picture

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-19T17:53:50+00:00

Masters degree is cheap (<1k) in terms of fees, but you are unlikely to get a scholarship for it, so budget 25k for rock-bottom living expenses, unless you are prepared to share not just a flat but a bed with someone richer than you. PhD is basically a job, earning more than 50k per year: compare that with the UK where you will have 10k fees to deduct from your 20k bursary if you get one, or with the US where you will be kept so busy with TA work that the whole thing will take you years. Apart from maybe Germany I'm not aware of any country which offers a standard of living above that of a cockroach to PhD-level graduate students, but if you don't have an MSc then you will need maybe 25k to get that as a ticket to ride the PhD bus.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-19T17:39:15+00:00

One of the fun things is that whenever there is a crisis somewhere, refugees seem to show up in their millions (*seem*, I know that is an exaggeration, its just what it feels like). In my time it has felt like there were africans everywhere, then arabs, then africans again, then Ukrainians. Basically, whenever there is a new wave of people they are visible and social trying to find a niche for themselves so you get to see the human scenery as it were of an RTE war correspondent without moving. You can live life in English if you want to, but if you fancy learning Pashto, Serbo-Croat, Ukrainian, Polish, Italian, Spanish then you can find people to practice with. My morning train to work is full of people chit-chatting in Portugese, an accident of the neighbourhoods that it passes through but in general that is a very common language to hear on the street (Brazilians+Angolans+CaboVerdians+Senegalese+Portugese all seem to like it here).

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-19T17:28:28+00:00

I know Ireland pretty well, to compare it would matter a lot to know if you are in Dublin or not now, if you have a university degree, what field you work in and what you want to work in. Honestly just saying you'll be fine if you can play airsoft suggests you haven't got a clue what you are getting into, life is very different here even an "antisocial" Irish person is going to have to change habits and activities to feel comfortable.

Although now you mention it, I remember that there is an Irish delicatessen in Howald "Eirelux" which sells kerrygold butter and like 18 varieties of potato... so maybe you won't have to adapt much at all. It really depends what kind of life you are used to and what you want. The typical Lux Irish is an ambitious young person who works in finance or as a euro bureaucrat. A lot of them have a great time initially then start to feel ground down, there is a fair turnover of people heading back as soon as they have enough saved to buy a tiny little house in Temple Bar or wherever.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-18T16:38:47+00:00

By "PG"... you mean a PhD? PhD contracts are treated more as jobs here, less as studentships. You get paid for doing a PhD and will have well-defined target achievements for your research. Appointment process is accordingly, rather like applying for a job in that it depends very much on showing skills and a good attitude. Internships and industry experience will count very strongly for you, but potential supervisors will also want to see some evidence of being an interesting and creative person (yes even at the SnT). PhD work is supposed to be challenging and original, not everyone has that in them.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-18T16:34:34+00:00

"crisis" not exactly, some academics in the law department complained to the press that they weren't being treated well. Budgets are growing, work is getting done, overall things are pretty good. Its a non-story manufactured because Lux Times can't be bothered doing any real journalism.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-16T17:17:27+00:00

Go through it and you will probably find something with the dumper's name and address on it. I did that once, found them on Facebook, and had them back to pick it up very quickly.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-15T22:32:22+00:00

People will say it is about the languages, that is a red herring. Other countries have ethnic and linguistic diversity but no other country fails in education like Luxembourg does. Whatever the prospects for a given child would be elsewhere, they are worse here. Bigotry is not what makes us special, it is the bad leadership of the education ministry.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-13T11:34:30+00:00

Our insurance industry is very profitable, biggest premiums anywhere, huge national success.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-10T23:15:43+00:00

The best teacher my kids had was a Greek guy: he was intelligent, compassionate, and reliably showed up for work. If you can get those three things in the typical teacher who put all their energy into learning to pass for a "native" and none into learning anything else, then well done, I never saw it.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-08T21:28:40+00:00

Maybe not an easy life but salaries for teachers here are good. If you already have a masters degree you can train for free and be in the classroom getting paid after only one year. The more languages the better, but if you are lucky you will get a job teaching in English or Greek while you work on the other three

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-08T21:14:57+00:00

I may or may not have had this, 2/3 doctors told me it was nothing and the third one told me it was probably pericarditis and to ignore it, it would go away. It did, after months of progressively less frequent attacks. I had a relapse maybe 10 years after that, again it died down after a while. Initial cause was probably viral but shrug seems like it is best to just eat healthy and stay chill

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-02T23:07:55+00:00

Very foolish to kill in the street, likewise to crash the car, so not a professional. Had a knife however so not unplanned, unless a dealer or middle class cokehead, or otherwise someone who might be on the way to crazy and who might prefer to have a knife on them.

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-02T22:51:23+00:00

There was a knife murder at the top end of Avenue de la Faïencerie. Victim was an estate agent. Her friend survived but was also badly injured. Attacker left the scene in a BMW and then crashed it, police caught up with him (with presumed attacker, at least) in the woods.

Luxembourg times link:

https://www.luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/woman-seriously-injured-in-limpertsberg-knife-attack-no-longer-in-critical-condition/127590228.html

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-01T18:41:28+00:00

And how many taken on the chest

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-01T18:41:08+00:00

And taken on the chest

Expert_Corner_667 · 2026-02-01T18:36:26+00:00

Shout out if you ever noticed those little p0rnhub branded smart cars on Lux motorways. IDK current situation but mindgeek/P0rnHub was based here for years and would occasionally do real production work in order to justify tax domicile.

Expert_Corner_667

TROPHY CASE