A Week In Luxembourg On A $59,160 Salary

Occupation: Editor
Industry: Public sector
Age: 26
Location: Luxembourg
Salary: $59,160 ($51,000 + 16% expatriation allowance)
Net Worth: $127,022.43 (US checking: $8,264.40; US savings: $6,015.53; EU checking: $61,609.61; US Vanguard: $41,132.89; I Bonds: $10,000. It’s ridiculous to have so much money in my EU checking account, but being an American abroad makes it basically impossible to invest euros in the EU. I need to convert all that money into dollars and invest it through my US brokerage account as though I still live there because doing anything else will make either the EU or the American government fuck up my life, and I just haven’t dealt with it yet.)
Debt: $0
Paycheck Amount (1x/month): $4,128 (after taxes and the deductions listed below)
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses
Rent: $918.54 (This is for my share of a three-bedroom apartment. We don’t have a living room, and this includes all utilities, internet, and a cleaner who comes once a week to clean the common spaces.)
Health Insurance: $72.18 (deducted)
Accident Insurance: $4.25 (deducted)
Pension: $428.82 (deducted)
Netflix & The Washington Post: $0 (I mooch off my mom.)
Criterion Channel & Apple Music: (I mooch off my dad.)
The New York Times: $0 (I mooch off my mom’s partner.)
Patreon for Another Screen: $8
Cork Simon Community Charity: $8.44
Mutual Aid Circle: $20

Annual Expenses
The European Review of Books: $73.83 (includes contribution to its kickstarter)
1Password: $38
Carte Avantage for SNCF (French trains): $52.74
Chase Sapphire Premium: $95

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
Absolutely. I don’t think my parents ever sat me down and said, “You must go to college,” but I never considered doing anything else. I was very academic and high achieving, and both my parents have graduate degrees. I paid for my expensive Ivy League education with a mix of scholarships, financial aid, and extremely generous help from my dad and my maternal grandma, who enabled me to graduate without debt. I got better financial aid than I expected during my last year so I was able to use the remaining money my grandma had set aside for me to fund a master’s in Europe (waaaay cheaper than doing it in the US).

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent(s)/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
Both my parents are very frugal, especially after my parents got divorced. They talked to me and my brother about their relative lack of money compared to before the divorce. My mom was big on financial literacy in general throughout my childhood. She made us learn how to balance a checkbook (not a skill that has ended up being very useful, but it’s the thought that counts), she talked to us about budgeting, and she made sure we always compared unit prices at the grocery store. We got an allowance growing up (split into four categories: savings (20%); short-term spending (35%); long-term spending (35%); and charity (10%), and she taxed it. The taxes went into a communal fund to pay for things for the “community” (mostly family trips to the movies). We were not raised as libertarians, in short.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
I think it was babysitting and cat-sitting as a young teen. The summer before my last year of high school, I had multiple W-2 jobs: I did an internship at Microsoft through a summer employment program for teens and I worked two different jobs (with two different pay grades) simultaneously at the library, where my mom worked. I mostly started working because I felt like I should. I was kind of an obsessive saver so I wasn’t very motivated to spend money.

Did you worry about money growing up?
No. Even if there were times that my parents had less disposable income (my dad was broke for a while, but in the asset-poor kind of way), there was never any worry about the basic necessities.

Do you worry about money now?
Not really, but I should probably be doing more medium-to-long-term planning. As I mentioned in my net worth section, I have way too much cash sitting in my EU checking account because I was overwhelmed with figuring out exactly what I was allowed to do with it. I still haven’t gotten my act together, but I have somewhat of a plan now. If I stay in Luxembourg, I will never be able to afford to buy an apartment, so that’s a vague concern, but I don’t want to stay here long term so I’m not actively worrying about that right now.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I paid my own rent starting from the second half of my master’s, so since I was almost 23. I had been buying all my own groceries and that kind of thing since I started undergrad.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
I have received generous help from my family on many occasions, particularly with college tuition. Other than that, my mom set up a Vanguard fund for me as a kid. She put all monetary birthday gifts and that sort of thing into it. That’s not “inherited income,” but it did set me up with a decent investment account from the time I took it over at age 18.

7:10 a.m. — My alarm goes off, and I wake up with a start. I have no memory of my two previous alarms (at 6:50 a.m. and 7 a.m.), so the wine I drank last night clearly made me sleep like a rock. I haul myself out of bed and start my morning routine, which consists of brushing my teeth, washing my face, and putting on lotion with SPF. Then I make a moka pot espresso and eat the overnight oats I prepared last night along with the remains of a mango. I get dressed, say goodbye to my roommate, E., as she heads off to work, grab my lunch (leftover chili tofu and eggplant with rice, plus an apple), and leave.

8:10 a.m. — I’m running slightly late (a Monday morning classic). Usually, I grab a bike from a city bike share station (the yearly subscription is free through work, but it only costs $19 anyway) and ride to work. Shockingly for this hour, there are no bikes at either of the stations near my apartment. The timing works out fine, though, because a bus arrives after only a minute or two. Transportation throughout the whole country is free (buses, the tram, trains, and the funicular), which is super nice, but it’s also used to bat away concerns about the actual provision of services — try getting a bus on a Sunday — but anyway, that’s a whole other thing. I get off in the city center and grab a bike to get to my office. I could have changed buses or grabbed the tram, but I usually find it quicker and more pleasant to bike. I’m only a few minutes late for work in the end, and since my boss is based in another city, it doesn’t honestly matter.

10 a.m. — I’m revising a few documents for our new trainee, who hasn’t quite learned how the job works yet (understandable), but that means that the revision takes me longer than I had anticipated. While I’m revising, my boyfriend, C., pays a quick visit to my floor (we work at the same organization, which is, unsurprisingly, how we met) to drop off a bag of chocolates I accidentally left at his apartment yesterday. I bought them in Turin when I was there on vacation a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share them, not give them all to him LOL.

11:55 a.m. — I grab my notebook and leave the office. I take the tram to my German class in the city. Technically, we’re supposed to be allowed to take language classes at work, but for convoluted reasons, I cannot. However, my boss did give me permission to take a class at lunch (there aren’t any after-work classes for my level). I’m now in B1.2 and I do feel like my German is getting better, albeit very slowly. The class was already subsidized by the Luxembourg government, but I also signed an integration contract that gives me three language vouchers. I used my second voucher this semester, so the whole course only cost me $10.60, which is honestly wild (paid when I enrolled in the class last month).

12:30 p.m. — We spend a chunk of the class talking about politics (to the extent that we are able) because Luxembourg just had its national elections (as a non-citizen, I couldn’t vote, although I did vote in the municipal elections) and there were some important Bundesland [state] elections in Germany as well. Our professor is very spirited and easy to get going on the subject. Overall, I quite like him and I hope that I’ll make good progress in the class this semester. I didn’t do the homework for today, though, because I haven’t been able to buy the textbook yet. I make a note to quickly swing by the bookstore after work and see if it has come in. Afterward, I bike back to work and heat up my lunch to eat at my desk.

3 p.m. — I haven’t been extremely productive because the assignment I currently have to work on is a set of minutes to be edited for next week. Minutes are the woooorst (so boring), so I’m procrastinating.

3:30 p.m. — Coffee time! I go to the coffee vending machine on my floor and get an American-style coffee. I also eat one of my chocolates (milk and salted caramel). $0.95

5 p.m. — I coordinate with a coworker about a technical task. Then another coworker comes to my desk to gossip because we were both just cc’d on an angry email related to a work soccer tournament we participated in last week. Some people definitely take these things too seriously! I also help the trainee with another task she needs to learn how to do. Afterward, I close the door of my office and give my mom a quick call. We have a nice chat, and she recommends a mystery series to me. I then have another quick discussion about a technical task with my colleague right before logging off at 5:45 p.m. to make it to the bookstore before it closes. My German textbook still hasn’t arrived, and, in the three minutes I’m in the store, someone grabs the bike I docked, and there aren’t any others. I walk over to the nearest bus stop and take the bus.

6:25 p.m. — I stop by the grocery store on my way home. I only need a few things: dried cranberries, banana chips, mozzarella, a croissant, and a bread roll. While in the store, I decide that I’m going to eat my frozen pizza for dinner because I don’t feel like cooking in a real way. On the way home, I achieve Queen Bee on the NYT Spelling Bee. $5.92

7 p.m. — I pop on a Move with Nicole pilates workout and do that for 35 minutes. I turn the oven on to preheat and jump in the shower. My hair suffers with Luxembourg’s extremely hard water, but still I persevere. My evening skincare routine tonight is face wash, retinal serum (only on the days I shower), and fancy French moisturizer made with royal jelly. I also put a little mousse in my hair because the internet tells me that’s what I should do as someone with semi-wavy hair, but I can’t say that it obviously does anything.

8 p.m. — Pizza time, and I thoroughly enjoy it. I chat with E. and my other roommate for a while as they cook. I then also cook up rice for the other half of my tofu-eggplant leftovers to eat for lunch on Wednesday and prep my overnight oats with chia seeds, dried mango, banana chips, and oat milk. E. and I have a long, fun conversation about books, and I dig out a silly romance novel (not my genre) that I was given as a gift and a Barbara Pym novel (queen) to lend to her. I think she’ll enjoy them both.

9:30 p.m. — I bid my roommates good night and settle into bed. I do my Duolingo (a little Greek, a little German), the Wordle, and three Wordle derivatives involving history, pop culture, and geography. Then I read Speedboat by Renata Adler on my e-reader. I love mid-century women authors who write about complicated and difficult women. Lights out at around 10:45 p.m.

7 a.m. — My alarm goes off, and I make the snap decision to work from home this morning. I snooze the alarm.

8:40 a.m. — I wake up for good and log on to my work’s virtual desktop from my personal laptop, since I always leave my work computer at the office. I check emails and then brush my teeth and wash my face.

9:30 a.m. — I make a good ol’ cup of American filter coffee and eat the croissant and my oats. I’m still procrastinating on the minutes, so I read social media and then check on the trainee to make sure she’s good with the task she has to finish. I tell her I’ll be in the office around 11 a.m. and can show her the finalization process when I get there.

10 a.m. — I make a sandwich for lunch with the bread roll, pesto that I need to use before it goes bad, lettuce, and half the mozzarella. I also pack two apples and tofu leftovers along with clean clothes for tomorrow because I’m staying over at C.’s apartment tonight. There’s a bike at the stop near me, so I grab it and go to work. The nice thing about going in late like this is that there’s way less traffic on the roads, so it feels safer (I wear a helmet, but that’s cold comfort when being overtaken by an SUV).

11 a.m. — No one from my team is even in the office today LOL. I help the trainee with the task I need to show her. It’s pretty straightforward, but it’s definitely best to watch someone do it first.

12 p.m. — I get a notification that a document is ready for me to revise. It’s another set of minutes that a coworker edited, and this document is due much sooner than the other one I’m working on, so I focus on it first.

12:30 p.m. — I go to lunch with a coworker who is lovely and has an office a few doors down for me. I have one of my apples and my sandwich. I also buy the dessert of the day, which is a piece of walnut cake, although I save that for an afternoon snack. $1.47

2 p.m. — It’s time for the minutes! My coworker is working on a third set of minutes that I will also have to revise when she finishes because she’s still relatively new (almost nothing I edit gets revised at this point). I should try to crank out the first revision this afternoon. It’s a pretty well-written document, so it shouldn’t take too long (unlike some minutes I’ve worked on, let me say).

3:15 p.m. — Kaffee and Küchen time! I get a coffee from the vending machine to have with my walnut cake. It’s delicious, but the slice is too big, so I snack on it throughout the afternoon. $0.95

5:30 p.m. — I finish with the revision of my coworker’s minutes and send it back to her. Part of the problem with this type of document is that in other languages (French and Spanish, for example), minutes are drafted in the present tense. In English, however, they’re always in the past tense, so when non-native speakers are drafting minutes in English, the tenses tend to get very wonky. I’m not going to start anything new in the 15 minutes left in the work day, so I look at LinkedIn to see what unhinged posts I can read.

5:50 p.m. — C. messages me that he’s going home to check on his cat before our dinner date, so I head to the grocery store near the office to buy snacks for a work party tomorrow. I grab a bottle of cava, a bag of tortilla chips, and a box of chocolate digestives ($11.20). Afterward, I meander my way over to the restaurant on foot, so I queue up an episode of my favorite leftist baseball podcast, Tipping Pitches. I almost immediately make a wrong turn and have to double back. $11.20

7 p.m. — I meet C. at the restaurant. It’s the equivalent of Luxembourg Restaurant Week right now, so there’s a set menu (with a few options for each course) for a set price. I have mozzarella carozza as my appetizer, pumpkin gnocchi with ricotta for the main, and a pumpkin mousse with caramel for dessert ($41 per person). C. had a bad day at work, so he wants to get a little drunk, and I join him, because why not? We each have a spritz as an aperitif (I have a delicious bitter limoncello; one for $11.57) and do the wine pairing ($15.77 for two glasses). The meal is delicious. We succeed in getting a little drunk and argue about politics (in a fun way). Also, for some reason, going out to dinner puts me in francophone mode (C. is French), so our conversation for the whole evening is in French. C. pays because he offers and, since he makes more money than me, I let him! He does ask me for any cash I have to add to the tip, so he takes $2.10 off me for that. $2.10

9:30 p.m. — We take the bus back to C.’s apartment. I play with his cat for a few minutes and then, comfortably tipsy, C. and I (redacted). Afterward, I brush my teeth and wash my face, drink two glasses of water, do my Duolingo and other games, and we turn off the light before 11 p.m.

7 a.m. — I didn’t sleep very well last night, but I wake up feeling fine. I do my normal morning routine and have a coffee and a piece of cake for breakfast. C. made the cake over the weekend, and I enjoy it very much. We take the bus and then the tram to arrive at work because I tell him I’m feeling too lazy to bike (biking from his place is slightly more involved than biking from mine).

9 a.m. — I have a document that I basically just need to do a technical check on, so I deal with that. I also catch up with Ask a Manager, as I do most mornings.

10:30 a.m. — I teach a trainee from another team how to use our terminology database, which she seems amazed by. Afterward, one of my coworkers invites me and another guy in the office to have a coffee in the café. I eat a praliné croissant (basically a croissant with Nutella) and have an Americano. My coworker very kindly pays for me. We often cover one another, which I think is nice, and it’s always for quite small amounts (the total was $4.63 for my stuff and his cappuccino).

11:55 a.m. — Time for German class! I take the tram as usual. We have a substitute teacher today, so we do some random activities around the theme of friendship — freundschaft! I have to leave class early today in order to be back at work by 1:45 p.m. because we’re expecting a series of politically sensitive documents with short deadlines this afternoon. Naturally, the documents we’re supposed to be receiving don’t arrive on time, so I could have stayed for the whole class, but whatever. I eat my lunch, plus the second apple from yesterday, and a piece of chocolate.

3 p.m. — Still no sign of the documents, but I have something else to revise for someone, as well as that other set of minutes, so I get through both of those during the afternoon. I still haven’t dealt with my own longstanding set of minutes, but I have plenty of time and there’s not much currently on the docket for tomorrow, so I’ll finish them then. I also work on the Spelling Bee.

5:45 p.m. — My boss lets me know I don’t have to work late tonight, which is a win, because it means I can attend a work party for the incoming trainees. I will definitely have to work late next week based on our preview of upcoming work (Monday is going to be crazy). I head up to the party with the stuff I bought yesterday.

8:30 p.m. — After drinking two and a half glasses of crémant and a glass of sparkling apple juice and eating several thin slices of pizza and countless pieces of cheese with truffle and tortilla chips, the party winds down. I help clean up and then join a few others for a drink at a bar. I’m just going to be social, and I don’t order another drink. After some meandering conversations on language and history and office politics (of course), I say my farewells, grab a bike, and head home.

10 p.m. — I take the longer but more pleasant route home through the park. When I arrive, I catch up with E., who shares fun gossip about someone we know while panicking about packing for a work trip she’s going on tomorrow (as she always does). I prep my overnight oats, do my normal evening routine, and go to sleep around 11:15 p.m.

7 a.m. — My alarm goes off and, once again, I decide to work from home! I’m lazy, and today is going to be slow anyway.

8:30 a.m. — I actually wake up and log on. Then I do my normal routine and eat my oats and have a cup of filter coffee.

11 a.m. — To be honest, I have not done any work this morning. I did, however, spend way too long reading about Israel and Palestine and getting worked up. I try to redirect my deeply negative orientation and donate $100 to both the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and the Middle East Children’s Alliance. $200

12 p.m. — My head boss calls me because she wants me to proofread an email she’s about to send, so I help her with that.

1 p.m. — My landlady comes in because she needs to show the substitute cleaner around (our normal person is off for a few weeks). She also brings us a bar cart, which is nice, except that she bought it because she wants to micromanage how we organize the apartment even though she doesn’t live here, but whatever. I make pasta with pesto for lunch and then retreat to my room to get out of the cleaner’s way.

3 p.m. — I remember that I haven’t bought my train ticket for my work trip on Monday, so I book it. I pay for it upfront, but it will be reimbursed when I submit my expenses. I use my train discount card; I might as well save my organization $12.62. I book first-class because they reimburse for that. $28.39 (expensed)

4 p.m. — A very unproductive day! I blame the weather and my procrastination, for which I will face no consequences. C. and I make plans to go see a movie that’s playing as part of the Central and Eastern European film festival that’s on right now. I was going to cook tonight, but he suggests going for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant I like beforehand. How can I say no to that? I do need to prep my lunch for tomorrow, though. I run to the grocery store because I realize I don’t have breadcrumbs for the tofu burgers I want to make. While there, I decide to pivot and have the same lunch as Tuesday to use up stuff in my fridge, so I grab the breadcrumbs, a bread roll, a croissant, and a frozen pizza. $6.48

5 p.m. — While still keeping an eye on my email, I chop up veggies to make a slaw. There’s nothing like trying to thinly slice a carrot to make me come to terms with my weak knife skills, but I manage in the end. I also buy my ticket for the movie ($9.46). I opt to take a shower now because I know I’ll be back late, and my hair can’t survive another day without a wash. After I do that, I practice guitar. I don’t play enough, so it always feels good to set aside some time for it. $9.46

7 p.m. — I bike over to the restaurant. I get there early, so I do my Duolingo while I wait for C. We order various small plates to share: hummus, falafel, cheese rolls, muhammara, spinach, fried potatoes, and halloumi. I drink a delicious lemonade, and he has an iced tea. He gets honey cake for dessert, and I order baklava that never arrives, which is fine because a few bites of his cake is enough sugar for me. I pay. $70.98

11 p.m. — The movie, The Invisible Fight, is very strange. It goes in a far more religious direction than I was expecting and there honestly isn’t enough kung fu. Anyway, it’s still a nice evening out. I grab a bike and go to bed as soon as I get home.

7 a.m. — I wake up and get ready to go to work. I eat my croissant and some banana chips and drink a quick coffee. Then I make my lunch and head on my way via bike, as usual.

9 a.m. — I make some slow and unwilling progress on my minutes and check my email.

12:30 p.m. — Time for lunch with two of my coworkers. In addition to my sandwich and my apple, I order a bowl of French fries because I want to. $1.84

2 p.m. — My gynecologist calls me about my pap smear from a few weeks ago, and apparently I have HPV. Great! I got the vaccine as a teenager, so I’m not too worried, but this is still not amazing news to get on a Friday. She tells me that it’s very common, and I don’t need to do anything except go back in six months for another pap smear to check whether I’ve cleared it or not.

5:30 p.m. — I finish the minutes! I don’t send them off for approval yet. I'll do it first thing Monday. Nobody needs to receive something that boring five minutes before they log off on a Friday. I turn my computer off at 6 and take the tram and then a bus home because there are no bikes available. I see my favorite neighborhood cat, and she screams at me to pet her and tries to stop me from leaving, but eventually I tear myself away. C. comes over a little while later to spend the night.

7:30 p.m. — I make tofu burgers and use the slaw I made yesterday as a topping. I haven’t made them in a while, but they are always delicious. We have cheese and bread for the dessert course in classic French fashion, along with a glass of wine from a bottle that needs to be finished. It’s #FrenchFriday, so we speak only French. We fall asleep around 11 p.m.

7 a.m. — C.’s alarm goes off, and he gets up to head out on an overnight bike trip with a couple of friends. I’m not joining, so I promptly fall back asleep.

10 a.m. — I didn’t mean to sleep this late, but here we are! I get up, do my usual routine, and then have coffee and buttered toast for breakfast. I’m not sure what I’m going to do today yet.

12:30 p.m. — After making myself stressed by reading social media again, I get my act together to go into the city center (by bike, of course) to pick up my German textbook that has arrived at the bookstore ($22.08). Afterward, I stop at the Saturday market. I just go to the Greek stand and get dolmades, garlic confit, and a piece of baklava for $7.78. I walk home and listen to more Tipping Pitches. $29.86

2 p.m. — For lunch, I make a salad with the head of lettuce I have and some of the garlic confit. I also eat the dolmades and have some cheese and bread. It’s a pretty light lunch, but I’m eating late and I’ll probably be having a burger or something else fairly heavy for dinner, so I think I’ll manage.

3 p.m. — I walk over to the cobbler to pick up a few pairs of shoes that E. and I dropped off last weekend. At first, the cobbler can’t seem to find our shoes but eventually he digs them up. He seems completely overwhelmed with the amount of work he has at the moment and apologizes profusely for the fact that none of the shoes are ready yet. I tell him it’s no problem at all and head back home. I have my baklava and a moka espresso.

4 p.m. — I bike over to C.’s to feed his cat. On the way, a guy yells something in Luxembourgish at me. I don’t understand what he says, but I guess he’s trying to admonish me for slowly biking through a red light a few blocks back? I honestly don’t feel bad about it because I was careful and there was no cross traffic (yes, I do believe the rules should be different for bikes versus cars), but bikes make some people angry! After I feed the cat (the little sweetie, as I call him), I spend some time brushing him and enticing him with one of his toys. I head back to my apartment to chill.

7:15 p.m. — After practicing guitar for a while, I change and head out to attend a friend’s going away party because she’s leaving Luxembourg in a few days. This is a country in which people are always leaving and arriving. A lot of people just blow through for a while.

8:30 p.m. — I order a veggie burger and fries, along with a large beer. $24.68

9:30 p.m. — I drink one more beer, although halfway through it, I get sick of it. We were expecting there to be karaoke tonight, but there’s a Rugby World Cup match on instead. After it ends, the karaoke finally starts. Ireland lost the match, so everyone in the bar is quite down because there are only Ireland fans here. The karaoke helps turn the mood around. One friend buys a bunch of us a round of baby Guinness, which is always a treat. $6.96

1 a.m. — The bar closes. My friends want to head to another bar/club that everyone likes, and I decide to tag along, although I won’t stay very long. When we get there, though, we can’t get in due to a sold-out event. The group decides to go to a different club that’s in another neighborhood, but I don’t want to pay $21 at 2 a.m. and end up further away from my bed. I wish them all a good night and bike home. I brush my teeth and fall asleep around 2:30 p.m.

10 a.m. — My alarm goes off, and I think about dozing but decide against it. I scroll on my phone before getting up.

11 a.m. — Toast and coffee for breakfast. I read one of the Commissario Brunetti mysteries by Donna Leon. We all become our parents eventually (my mom is a big reader of mystery novels). I put a load of laundry in the wash and then coordinate with one of my friends from last night about going on a hike this afternoon. We agree to get the train at 1:15 p.m.

12:30 p.m. — I make the bold move of hanging my laundry up outside even though it’s cold out, because someone else has their clothes on the inside lines. I walk over to the train station and stop to buy a sandwich at the boulangerie because I don’t have anything ready to go at home. I get a caprese panini and eat it while waiting for my friend (she’s getting on one stop later). $6.38

2:30 p.m. — After changing in one town from the train to a bus, we finally arrive at our starting point. We do a circuit of just under six miles, so it’s not an intense hike at all, although we do get some good elevation changes. We check out the ruins of a castle and also pass a few lookout points with beautiful views of the big lake. At one point, we stop by the lake, and I share some chocolate I brought with my friend. We do get lightly rained on, but that’s to be expected in Luxembourg.

5:30 p.m. — We get back to the town where we started and we have to wait 90 minutes for the next bus (Luxembourg on a Sunday is the best). We go to a café for hot chocolates, but they’re out of hot chocolate, so we get green teas instead. My friend pays because I don’t have enough cash (we can’t pay with a card), but I dig $2.10 out of my bag for her, which covers most of the tea. $2.10

6 p.m. — The café closes, so we go sit by the bus stop, which is actually reasonably nice. It has a little alcove to protect against the wind, plus a very clean public bathroom. I call my stepmom while we wait to wish her a happy birthday and I also chat with my dad.

6:45 p.m. — The bus shows up pretty much on time, and we hop on to go back to the town where we changed before. When we get there, we only have to wait three minutes for the train.

7:30 p.m. — My friend and I say goodbye as she gets off the train. When I get off, I rush home to cook dinner as fast as possible. I also bring my laundry in to continue hanging on the inside lines, which are free now. I cook up the rest of the tofu burgers from the other night and finish off the slaw as well.

8:45 p.m. — I grab a bike and head over to meet C. at an Irish pub to watch a France vs South Africa rugby game. I also text my mom to say I’ll call her tomorrow because I ran out of time today. C. buys me a pint of non-alcoholic beer, which I nurse throughout the game. I’m only half paying attention; I enjoy rugby but don’t know much about it and had never watched a match prior to moving to Europe. France loses by one point at their home stadium in Paris, and everyone in the pub is very sad. I say good night to C. and bike back home.

11:05 p.m. — I take a shower and get ready for bed. I scroll for a bit and turn off my light around midnight. I’m working from home in the morning before I leave for my work trip, so I can sleep in a little bit.