I've always dreamed of living abroad. I would live almost anywhere. Experiencing how people live in another country always excited me. But I never imagined that it would happen. Mike shared that dream. He lived in Hong Kong during college and loved the experience.
A year ago an oppurtunity came up. It was a long shot. A position with 3M became available in Europe. It was Mike's exact job but in Europe, it was perfect for him. The door to us living abroad was opening. Mike was told that they would not move anyone from the US, and that door quickly shut. We were not too disappointed, it would cost 3M too much money to move us overseas. Surely they would find someone closer to fill the position. And we had a pretty great life in Austin, TX.
We got engaged, did house renovations, Mike continued getting his MBA at UT, and we planned our wedding. Over half a year went by. And then one day Mike overheard that the position in Europe was still open. He casually said he was stilled interested. His managers took him up on that offer and set him up with an interview. Next thing we know he's being offered a job, and we are planning to move to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.
And we weren't going just anywhere in Europe...we were moving to Switzerland. Switzerland has been 3rd on my list of countries I wanted to visit for a long time. Behind Africa and Fiji (which has now changed to Bora Bora). We visited Switzerland 3 years ago, and we loved it. We were standing on top of Mt. Pilatus and a locale asked us why out of all the places to travel to we wanted to go to Switzerland. Umm...because we are standing on top of a mountain above clouds staring at the Alps! The view was amazing. I love mountains, and waterfalls, and cobblestone roads, and old wooden houses with flower boxes and carved wooden details, and cows. Switzerland has all of these things.
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| Mt. Pilatus 2011 |
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| Lauterbrunnen (45 minutes from Bern) 2011 |
So despite leaving our friends, family, house, jobs, cars, changing our wedding plans, giving up our honeymoon (I don't have a job, so we need to save our money), and not knowing German the decision to move was not as hard as you would think. We can buy new things, our family and true friends will not abandon us, we will learn a new language and take a honeymoon next year to a new place we haven't even discovered yet.
We have no idea how long we will be here. Maybe 5 years, maybe longer. Maybe we will move back to the states or maybe we'll move to Africa (or maybe not). But I like new adventures and new beginnings. And I'm excited for this opportunity. So I'm starting this blog to write about my life in an effort to never forget this exciting time. I have a horrible memory. I'm bad with details, faces and names. And I'm really bad at remembering to take pictures. I love taking pictures of my dog but remembering to take pictures of scenery, architecture, friends and family is something I need to improve on. I always think I'll remember a vacation but then in a few months/years I forget all the details that made that trip so special. In 5 years I don't want to forget this adventure, I want to write about and take photos of as much as possible. I won't be the woman with the giant camera around her neck at all times, but I'd like to at least take the camera out of my purse to snap some pictures. So as much as this blog is for people we've left in the States to know what we are doing, this blog is also for me to remember this great time in my life.
Please forgive me for my bad sentence structure, grammar and misspellings. I'll probably misuse "your" and "you're" a few times and most likely add quotation marks where they don't need to be. There will be no deep "meaning of life" posts from me. I have no desire to change how you view the world or live your life. This blog is a simple blog of my life, mixed in with photos of Europe and my dog.
Auf Weidersein!
M
I am so glad you're blogging your experience. Can't wait to see what you guys get into. Hope y'all are going great!
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