Should we go or should we stay now???

Should we stay or should we go now???
Monday, September 21, 2009 12:38 PM
That song has been in my head for the last 6 months! We've known Ted's contract was due to end by the end of September and have been trying to figure out what to do next. We've spent 2 wonderful years in Hamburg, Germany. Our German has slowly improved and Aubrie is quite fluent. We've been on some great vacations and enjoyed every bit of what life has to offer Europeans. It hasn't all been easy. Not understanding anything or anyone around you or being able to read your mail or understand school forms have been extremely frustrating. We have been the outsiders, the one's who don't understand and thus must be less smart. We've accepted this and tried to take it in stride. We've found great friends and formed close ties like having an extended family here. We've loved when our family from the States has come to visit. So the question of should we stay in Europe or head back to the States has been very difficult. Here's my point of view so my family can hopefully understand the reasons for us choosing to stay here longer.


1. Time off is respected and expected here. In Germany and in Switzerland and elsewhere, 4-6 weeks off of work is government law. Business must give time off and there is a general sense of health associated with it. Employees are better workers when they have some time to themselves. I agree fully and think America is really screwed up in this area.

2. Vacation Destinations. We went to Italy, England, Norway, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and all over Germany this year. Awesome. There is still so much more to see and learn and do.

3. Because life is so much harder it feels like we are growing and stretching more. I have a greater sense of accomplishment about my self. It's hard to explain.

4. I'm glad that my children can learn more than one language. Maybe some day I will to. Maybe.

5. We've made great friends here. Not having family around has caused us to reach out more to others and get to know others on a deeper level. But we do really miss our family and friends back home and at least for now will have to be happy with visits. Hopefully next summer the girls and I can come to Utah for the whole summer. Plus us staying here gives everyone a good reason to come visit us and see some of Europe.

6. Ted has found a great job and we both expect the work-life balance issue to be improved based on Swiss culture and comments from his employer.

7. The economy is more stable here. Ted was unsure how long he would have his job if we came back to the same company in Salt Lake. Plus it was time to make a career change.


Things I miss about Utah.
1. Family and Friends. It's hard being left out of the loop. No one calls me. I feel guilty not giving my children the close family connections with Grandparents and extended family that was so critical to my youth.
2. Food! Cafe Rio, Chili's South Western Egg rolls, Quizzno's, Taco Bell, Taco Time (no Mexican here), Sharral's Sunday roast, Heather's new recipes, Chicken in a Biscuit crackers, Twizzlers (ok I still have a few here from the American base), but still I've grown up with familiar tastes and things just don't taste the same here.
3. My plants. How is my moon flower doing that I collected the seeds from out of a plant found in a parking lot downtown? I miss smelling my chocolate flowers and seeing my Diner Plate Hibiscus bloom. Of coarse I've just started to figure out how plants grow and thrive here and have a great backyard that I will again have to leave behind. Still, I have learned the names, and characteristics of hundreds of plants and how they grow in Utah. Information that is almost pointless here. My whole college degree and my ability to work in my chosen field has been put on hold. I have a great job as a mother right now though.
4. My sense of knowing how things work, knowing processes for doing things, how to get to places, and generally understanding the world around me to the point of expectations.
5. Libraries! I've become a voracious reader. Anything in English will do, preferably free.

Our move to Switzerland

Ted's contract in Hamburg was to end. We were given 2 opportunities- Olympus and ABB. Olympus would have kept us in Hamburg but we would have been making 5,000 Euro less than we had been before and the work/life balance issue would not be good. We decided on ABB in Zurich, Switzerland. Ted negotiated what we thought would be a good salary knowing that the cost of living in Switzerland is extremely high. The company even offered a moving package and movers packed up all our stuff and then unpacked it for us. Still, the stress level of moving to a foreign country was extremely high. We loved Hamburg and our friends and didn't want to leave. We had to do loads of paper work, sale furniture, end contracts, paint the house and worst of all say good bye to everyone and everything that we had grown to love in just 2 short years. Ted and I flew to Zurich to look for a new place to live. We saw 13 places in one day with the help of our relocation lady. More than 75 percent of Swiss people live in apartments so even though we were hoping for a house as nice as the one we had in Hamburg it just wasn't possible. We choose an apartment with direct access to the garden and playground, an eat in kitchen, big windows, and beautiful granite flooring and counter tops. It is only 30 minutes from Ted's work by bus and train. One down side- we are occasionally in the flight path of the nearby airport. Also rent is 3 times more than our home in Utah and it's hard to digress back to apartment living but we decided the adventure was worth it. We watched as the movers drove away with all of our belongings in their truck and hoped that we would see it again. Less than a weak later we flew to Zurich and met our relocation lady once more along with our new Landlords. One hour later the movers arrived with our things (thank goodness!). We began to reorganize. Unfortunatley on the evening of our second day we returned home from Ikea only to find our home had been broken into. I don't know why we have such bad luck. 2 times in 2 years. Luckily all of our expensive jewlery was stolen previously and the bandits only got away with my cheap jewlery and young woman's medallions. We are still surprised they didn't grab our new camera or ipod sitting out. The police think maybe we came home while they were still in the house and didn't have time. Switzerland is much more different from Germany than I had imagined. The language does infact sound harsher. We are in the German speaking part of the country so Aubrie is continuing her High German in school but at the recess the kids speak Swiss German and Aubrie can't understand quite as well. Her school is up an enormous hill and twice a week she has to go back to school after coming home for a short lunch break. I hated treking up and down that hill 4 times a day but she has now met friends to go with, hurray! As for church, the church house was built in the 70's (I think) it is starkly different from the mansion we were meeting in along the Elbchasse in Hamburg. It's nice to have a gym though. Everyone is very friendly and there are 2 families with kids from America. The cost of food is atronomical. A swiss franc is one to one with the US dollar only everything is 2-3 times more expensive. Butter (1 cup) 3 francs, a loaf of bread 4 francs, a pound of hamburger or chicken breasts 15-20 francs! I'm still in shock. Both Ted and I are not sure if we made the right choice. Hopefully things will get easier with time.

Saying good bye to Neeti

Neeti Scharma is our very good friend. We met within the first 3 days of our arrival in Hamburg. She often babysat the girls and everyone became one became very close. Neeti is sooo patient and never minded the girls climbing all over her and playing with her hair or glasses or scarf... She hooked us up with great DVD's and english books and I love talking with her about them, especially Twilight. :D We wish her all the best in her pursuits to study medicine and becoming a first class surgeon!

Halloween

This year Halloween was filled with mixed emotions. Ted and I spent the day painting our home on Buschredder with the help of some great friends from the ward. The girls were hanging out at the Petersons and painted pumpkins and got ready for the night over there. Kaitlan was a princess and Aubrie a bat. That evening we went to a party at Denise Steiger's house. We ate "bat wings"(chicken wings), "gooey eyeballs"(BBQ meatballs), "witch fingers"(sugar cookies with almond finger nails) and "mummy brains" (popcorn). Denice also made the best carmel apples! Then we went trick or treating around our block and said good bye to all our neighbors. The girls learned to say "Suß order Sauer" instead of "Trick or Treat" and of coarse "Danke!" at each house. Here is a picture with the girls and their German Grandparents (our Landlords) Ingrid and Geiselher Marten.

Ted's birthday at Celle

For Ted's birthday we spent an extended weekend in a town called Celle (tz-ell-a). It was beautiful! There was street after street of finely ornate half-timbered houses, lots of outdoor cafe's, an old castle to tour and awsome playgrounds. The first evening we spent wondering around the village and ended up eating at a restaurant designed to look like Southern Utah, it was a kick. Day 2 we got our new camera set up and toured the castle (all in German, I didn't get much out of it, except that super rich people lived there with ties to Great Brittan's monarchy). After that we let the girls play at this incredible playground we found behing the castle. Every city should have a playground this cool, even Ted and I had to climb on some of the stuff it just looked so fun! We finished off the day with a bike ride around the edge of town past beautiful and unique homes, barns and farm land. The sunset was great. The next day brought us to a museum where Aubrie and Kaitlan imagined riding this old fashioned bike. We meandered through the French gardens and of coarse no vacation would have been complete without a stop to the icecream shop!

Aubrie's first day of school

Here in Deutschland the first day of first grade is a really big deal. It is a major right of passage that all extended family and friends are invited to celebrate with the child at school and later at their homes. All this fuss helps the children to realize this beginning of their school career is a big deal and one not to be taken lightly. One mother was telling me it's this, a church thing like a barmitva or a baptism, then high school graduation and marriage. So I admit, I got a little teary eyed listening to the assembly that I couldn't understand a word from but thinking about Aubrie's future and what type of person she will become. I hope she loves learning and reading. I hope she learns compassion and humility and how to be brave in new situations, and difficult ones. I hope I'm doing the right thing dragging her across the world and plopping her into a German and soon to be a Swiss environment. I hope the education she will get here is as good as or better than Utah. She had such a big smile on her face, a big toothless smile. She is missing her two front teeth just like her friend Melina Bartels. The kids are most excited about receiving the enormous "schule tute" (sh-ool toot-a) that they get to carry around and get pictures with. It's filled with school supplies and sweets. Aubrie was very considerate to share her chocolate smarties with her sister. It's also a tradition here for the kids to wear these enormous square back packs. It doesn't seem ergonomic to me but Aubrie has never complained. I found a great back pack for her at the thrift store but I don't think I would have paid the 100 plus Euro's for a new one no matter how fashionable it is. My friend DeEtte thought the same thing and after 2 weeks of her son Wyatt complaining he was the only one with the small baby type back pack she was forced to cave in. Aubrie's teachers are Frau Shieman and Frau Georg. I feel bad she only gets to be a part of this class for a month and a half before we head to Switzerland. It's hard to uproot and find new friends. We are keeping our fingers crossed for a smooth transition.

Aubrie the Party Planner

Here's a cute video of Aubrie latest dreams to be a party planner and Kaitlan being excited about getting bigger.

Denmark

In the middle of August we went on a short vacation with the Peterson family to Aabenraa, Denmark with a day trip to Lego Land. We stayed at Sandskaer Camping and rented these 2 awsome cabins. European camping is so different from what I'm used to in Utah. It's delux camping to say the least. Most people staying there will set up their trailer that has a screened room that attaches to the entire length of the trailer. There, people put their full size (for Europe) fridgerators, stoves, dinning tables, even lazy boy type recliners. They often rent their spot for the whole summer and either take all of their mandatory 4 weeks of German vacation time at once or just come up nearly every weekend. It's just so different from what I'm used to where vacations were few and far between and then to some mountain where you pray you get a flushing toilet. Here there were 'moon bikes' to borrow, a mini grocery store, 2 enormous play grounds, and a beautiful beach to relax on. We had a great time even though it wasn't really warm enough to get into the water. The kids had fun finding crab skeletons and seeing the jelly fish in the water. One time Kaitlans sand toy got swept into the water and I had to wade in to get it. It kept going further and further and by the time I reached it I nearly peed my pants thinking a certain jelly fish was coming my way when it turned out to be a fish, which is still scary. But I saved the silly sand toy and lived to see another day. :D Lego Land was fun, the girls loved all the rides, 3-D movie, and Sea-Life Adventure while Ted loved eating at the medevil restaurant for dinner. The last full day there we checked out the village of AAbenraa. It had nice shops (all closed by noon on Saturday) along the pedestrain only shopping street, a cool old church built in the 1700's, and an old water mill near that was near an outdoor concert blasting the strangest Danish music through the entire town. Wandering down old cobbled streets with thin apartments all jumbled together and the occaisional holly hock growing from the cracks always gives me the surreal experience that this is what Europe is all about. The girls loved petting their cattails we picked and of coarse like always Kaitlan demanded Ted carry her the minute we began our exploration even though she used her own legs all day the day before just fine. I finally got my relaxing beach vacation and was able to read an entire book, The Lovely Bones. Ted even got in a round of golf and a couple of good runs ( he is in such great shape!). We had fun playing cards late into the night with the Peterson's and loved that the kids were always occupied and having fun.

Family bike ride

Kaitlan has been doing so great with her running bike that we have started her on our koala thingy that hooks a kid bike up to a grown up bike so they can learn to peddal. She loves it! We've found some great trails not to far from our house that doesn't allow cars and are paved and flat. We can choose to go through fields, woods or by the river for our excursions. Aubrie and I explored a bird watching fort a few weeks ago with our bikes. When I'm peddaling behind her I'm often reminded of that movie "Now and Then" when the 4 girl friends are riding their bikes and singing along with the radio set in one of their baskets. Classic. I hope our family continues to be a biking family, it's a great activity to get us out of the house and excersizing together.

U2 Concert

Ted and I went to Berlin to see the U2 Concert, it was awsome! 80,000 people were there, that was by far the biggest stadium I've been in. We drove in with our friend Neils Jensen and met up with Jens and Susy for wurst and fries before the show. Snow Patrol opened, I was surprised that I knew some of their songs, not bad but definatley not U2. Finally, U2 came on and Ted and I enjoyed singing and dancing to our favorite songs. We even mastered the "air microphone" together. The stage was set up like a giant alien space ship. It looked dumb at first but by the time the band was hitting their crescendo in their performance the stage did some amazing things that totally looked like it might blast off. Bono said they built it so they could be closer to their fans and with the outer circle and moving bridges, I could understand their point. It was fun to hear how many songs the band had written in Berlin throughout their lives. The song 'Walk On' was dedicated (or written) for Aung San Suu Kyi, I thought it was great that the band uses their influence to try to make the world a better place. Check out this you tube link below. I don't know in what way U2 or even myself can make a difference in this lady's life but learning about it and supporting it is better than ignoring it. I am very glad to have been born into a democratic world but know that many other do not share the same freedom that I take for granted. That night we spent at Jens and Susy's home along with their very rambuncuous dogs. It was a great weekend and the girls loved hanging out with Neeti.


http://360.u2.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMPjLfJNliA&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amnesty.org%2Fen%2Fappeals-for-action%2Fdaw-aung-san-suu-kyi-and-myanmars-political-prisoners&feature=player_embedded

Hagenbeck Zoo

We had a great time at Hagenbeck zoo. The girls got their faces painted. Aubrie had a dolphin motif and Kaitlan became a bunny. The best part was getting to feed the elephants! The baby baboon was much cuter than it's parents and getting to see the tigers drag around a huge chunk of meat was pretty cool too.

My Witchie-poo

Kaitlan and her trusty steed. Ever since we got the Winnie the Witch books, the girls love being silly witches. The books are super cute. We read them a lot!

Slip N' Slide

Summer fun on a hot day.

Rissen Days

There was some kind of celebration going on in our village. We waited almost 2 hours for Aubrie to get to walk across this pond. She had fun though and Ted and I was glad she didn't chicken out. Kaitlan had fun feeding the trolls pine cones. My sister needs to teach her to throw better.

Kaitlan's School's Circus

At the end of June Kaitlan's school had a big circus party complete with clowns, tightrope walkers, snake tamers and lots of singing and dancing all performed by the kids. Kaitlan's group was the magicians and all the kids in the Penguin class loved making and wearing their enormous magic hats. Kaitlan didn't sing or do the actions along with her class but was still brave enough to join them on stage. Her German is improving but she doesn't understand everything quite yet. It was fun to see how creative the program was and I am glad to have Kaitlan involved in such a fun preschool.

Aubrie's Nature Week

Aubrie's school had a Nature Week the first week of June. They spent a few days in the surrounding forrest learning what things grow and live there, how to take care of our environment, and building things with what they could find. On the rainy(er) days they listened to stories and made some great craft projects back at school. I really love the way the both of my daughters school programs have embraced living near the woods and encouraging and teaching them to explore and learn more about their environment.