Big Lil' Is 2

It's been a while since we've written, and of course a lot has happened. Ok, not big things like our shipment arriving, but we've been taking a lot of little steps towards being at home in our new home. We have a bit more furniture, ok just one more piece, but that's like 50% more than before, right? And we've been adapting by making use of what we do have by doing things like turning our suitcases into a bookshelf and toy bin for Lily.

Speaking of the girl, she is officially two now. She made out like a bandit for her birthday, even getting delayed gifts by innocently giving her birthday cupcakes out to the neighbors and apparently making them feel guilty. I guess the cupcakes were that good. Her birthday dreams of hats, bubbles, candles, and two presents were realized. Of course there were a few more than two presents. And an interesting phenomenon occured when she was finished opening her official gifts she started finding things around the house that she had never played with before and suddenly wanting to open them.

Since Mothers' Day she seems to have hit her stride. There's less whining going on, she's learning lots of new words, and is able to express herself more and more. Tonight when going to bed she was trying to say "I love you Mommy", sort of said "love Mommy" and then when I asked her to say it again she said "no, I'm tired". She must have gotten that from her Mommy. :)

The work travel has begun, I spent a couple of days away this past week and Sunday I leave for a week of running around England visiting small customers. Nicole and Lily are taking the opportunity to hop on the train to spend a week with Oma and Opa so no one will get too lonely.

Here are the latest pics and videos...

Settling In to Settling In

We’ve been here in Munich for two weeks minus a nice long weekend in Leimen. The one thing that is crystal clear at this point is that we have a long period of settling in ahead of us. I’m mainly talking about our living situation, where we made a new addition to our collection of random furniture today by adding a rug. Besides that we’re still where we started, with a bed, crib, kitchen table and three chairs. Our apartment doesn’t feel like a home, and it won’t for at least another week. The main thing we’d like to get at this point is a couch, somewhere comfortable to sit besides our bed. Unfortunately the deck seems to be stacked against us for getting this done quickly. Most German furniture stores seem to take six to ten weeks to deliver a couch. Even buying a couch that is in a warehouse in the area and having it delivered takes three to four weeks. The best we can do is to buy that warehouse-bound couch and pick it up ourselves in seven to ten days, driving a rented delivery truck and carrying it ourselves up to our apartment. So we’re trying to scheme something in between, ordering the warehouse couch and hiring some guys to pick it up and deliver it for us. Sure, if we were twenty-somethings without an almost-two year old or even the thirty-somethings we are with friends to watch Lily, we would do this ourselves. But here we are, sitting on our living room floor moping.

While I’m at it, let me complain that both of us ordered cell phones at least 10 days ago and they have not shown up. Nope, can’t just pick them up at the store, they have to be sent. And our bank account took over a week between establishment and being able to receive a deposit. And the internet service we ordered will be set up four weeks from the order date. So all in all, yes, I am either very spoiled with my American expectation of customer service, or customer service in Germany sucks. Sorry Germany, I wasn’t able to plan every aspect of my life at least a month in advance. And where I could, your lovely restrictions like “you must have a registered German address to open a bank account” put a snag in my plans.

Yes, there’s some frustration at Maistrasse 45, we’re not feeling so settled or satisfied. We’re more wishing we could just hit fast forward for a couple of months to a time when we have furniture, phones, and internet access that doesn’t come from a USB stick accessing the mobile network. Yes, this probably sounds snobby and unappreciative, and yes, we eagerly signed up for this. But that doesn’t mean I can’t rant, does it?

Yes, this is all negative and yes there are some positives but this post is already long enough so let’s just get this out of our system and move on.

We Made It

The first week in Munich was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. Jet lag has been the toughest than I can ever remember for myself and much tougher on Lily than last time. It took both Nate and I a solid week to get over our insomnia and Lily about 5 days to sleep through the night again. I would say the 3 best moments of our first week in Munich was 1) Seeing Lily pick up salmon sashimi with chopsticks and eat it and ask for more (she still doesn't even drink from a cup well so this was a miracle) 2) Seeing our friends Aaron and Ozlem on their daughter Zeynep's 2nd birthday 3) Getting my first digits from a nice mom with her daughter at the park.

Our cool new apartment feels like an island right now, more isolated from the rest of the world than a home I feel comfy in. We have a table with 3 chairs, sofa bed and Lily's temporary bed and that's pretty much it right now. We still don't have Internet or a phone so getting stuff done has been slow going. Here are a couple pics of what our place looks like right now.




The travel part was ok. The cats ended up being really easy to travel with; it's the pre-work that is a bit of a pain. They were treated a little bit like rock stars with all the nice attention they got. Our most stressful time in all of our travel was catching our ORD flight to MUC. Darn Chicago traffic got us to the airport over an hour later than we planned. We had to make a run for it across terminals (no checking out the cool multi colored lights on the moving walkway this time - NO TIME!). We were the 2nd to last people to board the plane just a few minutes before the door closed. Phew! Now that was stress. Introducing Lily to new snacks and letting her watch Elmo over and over again kept her from any serious crying but also kept her from sleeping -I just couldn't believe she was still awake at 1130pm when I was so incredibly exhausted.

Oma and Opa have been our guardian angels since arriving to Munich. I can't thank them enough. From picking us up at the airport to stocking our kitchen to just giving us those big hugs, all felt so good. We came to Oma and Opa's house for the long Easter weekend which has been nothing short of perfect. My mom went all out decorating for Easter. I wouldn't even say I'm exaggerating when I describe the house as Willy Wonka's chocolate and candy scene except all Easter decor. Wow. It looks really cool. Lily loves it here and has had no problem remembering where everything she likes is. We all got over our jet lag here and feel back to normal. We were able to connect to the Internet again and connect to friends and family. The biggest highlight was Lily's first Easter Egg Hunt. Oma went all out. Here are just a few pics from the fun weekend.

We'll be making our way back to Munich today (about a 3 hour drive) and even though I'm not that anxious to get back, I'm much more confident this coming week will go much better.

Packin' it in, in PDX

As I write this I'm wondering how long I have until the movers are ready to take the kitchen table apart, leaving me with nothing to sit on or set the laptop on. Probably about 15 minutes. They've been going for about an hour and they're running out of smaller things to pack.

It's been hard to step back and appreciate all of the "lasts" over the past week, and there have been a lot. There's been a constant long list of things to do, and now that list is getting pretty short, or at least not critical. We've been able to take the time to visit with a lot of good friends but have inevitably missed a few folks we wanted to say goodbye to.

As of now we don't own a car. I don't have a cubicle. We've spent our last night at 2021 NW Irving, and we'll take a little time this afternoon or tomorrow to clean it a bit so it's not disgusting when the new owners take possession Friday. I did manage to sneak in a nice bike ride over the weekend, and now I'll be without a bike for a couple of months while it makes its way across the ocean. Lily will be without a lot of her toys and books for a while, but some of her favorites are already waiting for her in the Munich apartment.

The favorite parts of the past week have been the fun times spent with friends, at Family Friday and out on Sauvie Island. I hope that's the part that becomes the memory of our final week in Portland. I know it's the part I'll miss the most.

Hopefully we'll have some time to check in from the road over the next few days. And hopefully when we do we won't be chronicling Pepe's escape while going through airport security... But for now, Portland, we bid you adieu.

Leaving Portland April 14

Since the last post, not much has changed in what we've been up to but we have accomplished A LOT. Flights are booked, hotels are booked, movers are scheduled, and stuff we're leaving behind continues to sell. Nate has been in Italy and Germany this last week for work. He actually got keys to our new apartment today and was able to drop off our first suitcase of belongings. He said the building is fancier than he thought it would be and our 2 bedroom apartment is a bit smaller than he expected. We are happy about the open layout. We will have to adjust to a kitchen that is half the size (minimal counter space will take some getting used to) of what we have now and a freezer that is a 1/3 of the size. Definite perks are very high ceilings, floor heat, washer and dryer in the unit, and 2 full bathrooms. Here are a couple pics of our new home.

Nate's tired from jet lag and traveling so much and I'm exhausted from a rough few days with Lily. Even if it's true that it might have to do with Lily sensing change coming, not much I can do about it. To top it off, she has a nasty rash right now that made it's debut while I was doing a walk through with the moving company. Um yes, my daughter was running around the apartment naked with poop all over her (imagine pancake batter on her) because she wouldn't let me touch her, then she peed on the floor inches from the man's foot, then the man waited while I got into the bath with her thinking that will entice her enough to get in but instead just screamed bloody murder for 10 minutes while the nice man waited patiently and probably horrified downstairs. Our 1 hr appointment turned into 2.5 hrs. On the more fun side of things, you might remember that Lily says brocolily. She now says efelily for elephant and strawbelily for strawberry. It's always about her. :) Here are a couple recent pics of Lil' hanging out with her friends Liana and Sam.

Getting Ready

In less than four weeks time Nate and I will be flying to Munich with a toddler and 2 cats. The cats will be tucked underneath the seat in front of us as carry ons, hopefully sleeping from their chicken flavored liquid sedative. Yup, we are going to be "that" family. Fingers crossed I'm only cleaning Lily's poop on our flights.

Of all the things that are taking up our time packing up our Portland life, selling what we need to sell is our biggest time sink and we are selling a lot....treadmill, couches, grill, both cars, stereo and TV, and that's not even half of it. Craigslist is awesome but wow, I had forgotten how much time it can suck up with managing interest, usually flaky interest.

From getting the cats "certified" to move to Germany to travel logistics (when should moving company come and how many days does that mean we stay in a hotel and which hotel that is cat friendly), we've been working on closing things from memberships to bank accounts to cell phones to credit cards to subscriptions and shopping more than usual. Did you know jeans and running shoes are as crazy expensive as gas is compared to the US? Also, good tasting peanut butter, baking chocolate chips, brown sugar, over the counter medication for kids, and even pancake mix is really hard to find?

I'd like to spend less time tackling a to do list and more time hanging out with friends. I am very much aware what amazing friends I've been blessed with here and how lonely I'm about to feel for what might be quite a while. As I get older, I get grumpier about having to tackle the friend "dating" scene again. I love meeting new people yet I am more than satisfied with the friends I have and will miss that comfort I so often feel hanging out with good friends here.

When I want to procrastinate with what needs to be done, I go to google maps and go to Munich and do two things. 1) Type in our new address on Maistrasse and explore the stores and shops and sights nearby. Seeing how close we are by foot to Oktoberfest and Marienplatz does make me smile. We live in a great location that visitors should want to come to... hint hint hint. 2) Type in European cities of interest to me. I had no idea Venice was less than 6 hours away and Zurich only 3. Cool.

I'll leave you with a recent picture of Lily that reminds me a little bit of how I'm feeling these days - zoning out a bit more than usual and having hair raising moments.

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Brace Yourself (for Something Most of You Already Know)

The horse is probably out of the barn for pretty much everyone who reads this, but just in case anyone hasn't heard our big news, here it is: WE ARE MOVING TO GERMANY.

This has been simmering since the holidays, but it's finally official and the slow but massive wheels of Intel are in motion to make it happen. While I was in Portland in December with Nicole and Lily back in Leimen with Oma and Opa, the manager in the cube next to mine mentioned that he was opening a position in Europe. This was the same manager I worked for during my temporary assignment in Munich last fall. And the same manager who told me before, during, and after the temp assignment that there was really no chance at it becoming permanent. Well lo and behold the normally tight-fisted Intel god of job openings let his fingers slip wide enough that this job dropped down into our lap.

You might think that I did a backflip and immediately called Nicole to tell her the good news, but no. While all in all I was really happy with our temporary assignment, I came home thinking that it would be very difficult for me personally to do anything non-temporary there. This primarily boiled down to me feeling much more isolated in Munich. Of course I was away from my base of friends and family, but I also felt like I couldn't communicate with random people as much as I wanted. Whether it was walking into the drink market and having no idea what the owner was asking me, or sitting at a table in the cafeteria at work and trying to figure out what my colleagues were talking about, I was definitely not feeling at home. And yes, the people at work speak excellent English, but who can blame them for slipping back into their native tongue while chatting over lunch?

I actually waited over a week after returning to Germany for vacation before even telling Nicole about the position. I felt like I needed to get comfortable with any possibility of applying for the job and all that goes with it (more on that later) before bringing it up, because I knew which side of the fence Nicole would be on. So I got halfway comfortable, brought it up, got the response I expected from the family as a whole, and got a little more comfortable. For the "all that goes with it", let me tell you about the position. It is a Business Development Manager position, which means that I will be a sort of salesman for Intel Ethernet products. I will get to tell our customers about why our products are so great, how much they'll have to pay for them, and what products are coming next. And of course I'll listen to them tell me how much they'd like to pay, and what features need to be in the next generation. As with most sales-y positions, this one involves some travel, actually about 30-40% of my time. That was a pretty big hurdle for us to accept in this process since all three of us value our family time (I'm almost always home for dinner by 5:30). Not to mention that this is another step away from my engineering background, something I've felt has always been my foundation and strength. Another hurdle is that this is a "local hire" position, paid in Euros, requiring a German work/residence permit, and there is not a guarantee that a position back in the states will be waiting for me when we're ready to come back across the Atlantic. Yes, at this point we're looking at this as a two to three year opportunity. But I was also thinking of my move to Oregon as a two to three year thing, and here we are eleven years later...

So after all that doubt, how did we get to this point, with a signed lease in Munich, many of our possessions available for sale on Craigslist (please buy them!), an employment contract that begins April 15, and an agreement to sell our condo (whew!)? A long time ago we both said that we really wanted to do an assignment abroad, and especially in Germany. Nicole grew up changing scenery every few years and liked that experience. While I grew up in the same house for the first eighteen years of my life, I really enjoy traveling and have always been pretty comfortable in faraway places for work trips and vacations. I actually planted this seed in my soon-to-be manager's head about five years ago. Of course when we made that initial wish for a foreign assignment, we had no concept of where we'd be in our lives right now. Leaving your country behind with a two year old and a one-way ticket feels a lot bigger than saying "wouldn't it be cool to live in Germany?". But at the end of the day, we decided we wanted to take a big leap and do something that we're 99% sure we'll look back on in 20 years as a great part of our lives and a formative experience. Opportunities like this don't present themselves every day, so we're going for it. Actually the more we thought about it, the more we realized that right now is actually the perfect time to take the leap. We're a single income family (no complications with finding/keeping a second job) with a little girl who is not yet in school. So we can leave on this adventure thinking that we'll come back before (if) Nicole wants to go back to corporate life and Lily is ready for kindergarten, but who knows if kindergarten will be in an Elementary School or in a Grundschule?

Ok, I've brought you to where we stand today. In our next installment Nicole will tell you all of the fun details of where we'll be and the not-as-fun details of getting ready to move with 2 cats and a toddler.