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.