INTERN LIFE
IV's Survival Guide: Place Lux
Lina Strandvåg Nagell and Antti Lethinen
A tongue-in-cheek guide to the weekly rite of passage for Brussels interns and trainees: Thursday evenings at Place du Luxembourg. Stereotypes to look out for, who to avoid, and how to get out alive without rinsing your bank account and still in a state to survive Friday morning.
For the locals, this square next to the European Parliament is still Place Luxembourg. A few overpriced bars, a statue, occasional demonstrations and a gaping void on weekends, nothing special. But for interns it’s Plux: a pivotal component of survival in Brussels.
Some might find it difficult to adapt to this jungle of interns, with its peculiar wildlife, but you need not worry. Internal Voices will be your guide to this strange weekly phenomenon in the heart of the heart of Europe.
Paid and unpaid interns alike join together for the happy hour from 6-7pm. You can see the panic start to spread as it gets closer to 7 o’clock, reaching its peak when the hoarders begin shuffling into a queue at five minutes to seven. They are all stomping their feet, pushing and shoving to buy the four beers for the price of two that they so desperately need to get through the night. It’s a cut-throat world, especially in the last two minutes before seven.
Our recommendation is to start slow, don’t fight the fiercest at 18:58, but the more easy prey in line at 18:45.
How to get drunk in an economical way?
It’s a question as old as the pint; how do you maximize your intake of alcohol while at the same time spending an absolute minimum of your paycheck (haha, paycheck... good one!)?
Simple: don’t eat, take full advantage of the happy hour, and buy several beers before the bar closes at seven.