Introduction

Luxembourg is a real country. It's not part of Germany, at least not since the mid-1940's. It's not part of France, at least not since Napoleon. It's a very real, but very small country of it's own. It's a lovely little Northern European country, tucked between Germany, France and Belgium. There are parts of the European Commission headquartered here, and it is an important financial center. Therefore, the native Luxembourgers have a sense of importance, even though they live in a very small country. In area, Luxembourg is about the size of Rhode Island, the smallest of all the 50 states. The capital city, Luxembourg, has about 80,000 people. The population in the entire country is about 441,000 people. (For comparison purposes, Rhode Island's population in the 2000 Census was just over 1 million.)

The language here is Letzeburgesch (also called Luxembourgish or Luxembourgeois), which has it's roots in a low German dialect, but it's not German. French is the official language of the government, but it's the third language taught to the kids in school here, so not everyone speaks French. The people here are mostly Roman Catholic. There is a parliment and a Grand Duke, which makes Luxembourg a Grand Duchy and not a kingdom.

But this story isn't really about Luxembourg. It's about us: Catherine --- a 40-something, happily married mother of three who decides in a moment of temporary insanity, or maybe temporary clarity, or maybe a mid-life crisis, to leave my job with the U.S. government and work for a small private company in Luxembourg, taking my husband and kids along for the ride, and Darin --- the above-mentioned husband.

It's not a beautiful story, or inspirational, or romantic, but in our story you may find something useful if you are thinking about moving to Luxembourg, or changing jobs, or starting a mid-life crisis of your own.