HESPERANGE — Impressing fellow expats and raising the bar for those who want to show a real interest in the country, an expat has learned to recognize the national flag of Luxembourg.
Resident Nikhil Gupta, 34, who moved to the Grand Duchy seven years ago to work as a financial advisor, says that ever since he arrived he’s been fascinated by the history and culture of his adopted home.
“There’s lots of cool old stuff here, like those tunnel things in the big rock, and the castle in the city where the prince lives,” he said. “Oh, and the golden lady statue, which was built to commemorate all the banks or something.”
Gupta says that despite his deep understanding of Luxembourg, there was one thing he didn’t know: what the flag looked like.
“My first years I thought it was blue in the middle, white on the top, and red on the bottom, but it turns out that’s Russia,” he said. “Then I understood that the Luxembourgish flag was blue on the bottom, white in the middle, and red on top,”
“Except that turns out to belong to the Netherlands,” continued. “A perfectly understandable mistake.”
Fed up with being confused, Gupta took to the internet to find a photograph of the flag.
“After all these years, I can finally say that I know with certainty which one it is, and I feel silly that I didn’t figure it out earlier, considering that you see it everywhere on national day,” he said. “It’s the flag with the bright red lion who appears to be dancing, or to have tripped over its shoelaces.”
