One Year in Munich

In some ways it feels like we've been here a lot longer, and in some ways it seems like we're brand new in town, but it's been a year since we arrived at Munich Airport with two carts of suitcases, a stroller with an almost two-year old, and two cats with full bladders.

 We've settled into our new city, my new job, our first apartment, and now our second apartment and neighborhood. As I wrote that opening sentence I was almost surprised to recall that Lily wasn't even two when we moved here, since she's now going to school for six hours a day and babbling on and on about any and all subjects. That definitely makes it seem like a long time ago.

We were pretty sure what we were getting ourselves into coming here, and I don't think we were overly surprised by anything except what we saw on that fateful ultrasound in May. I do recall some frustrations those first few weeks and months about poor customer service (or American expectations) and having to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops. But now that we're past most of that it feels like pretty smooth sailing. We still wish stores were open on Sunday and that we could buy gallons of milk instead of liters, but these are just minor annoyances at this point. And there are big pluses to living here too, again going back to Lily being in school and the fact that the education system is just set up that way to get three year olds involved in learning and socialization. And while it's not free, it's definitely not at all expensive.

 The big curveball of the first year is well known, but it had such a huge impact on the year that it's impossible to understate. The pregnancy was difficult, between bad morning sickness at first and immobility at the end, and it really affected what we did, from vacation to working out to socializing. But in hindsight we also came over with some unrealistic expectations that we would continue to live like we did during our 3-month stint in 2010, as tourists running around to see the cool sights of the city and area. Even without the pregnancy, doing things like getting Lily involved in German-speaking playgroups was important, and that precluded a lot of excursions. All in all it was a tough first year but I don't think either of us would do anything differently.

 Of course at a milestone like this you want to stop and assess the future, but we really promised ourselves that we would wait until the two year mark to make any decisions about where we want to spend the years beyond that. So you're not getting anything juicy out of me this time...

In keeping with the theme, here's a picture of Lily a year ago at the spring festival and earlier this week at the same festival.