Moving to Munich

Eight days ago, Gus and I were offered jobs at the Bavarian International School in Haimhausen (slightly north of Munich), Germany.  We have now had a week for this to sink in.  This is real.  It's definite.  I told my students, and we've told our respective bosses.  We've accomplished what we set out to do--find jobs teaching at an international school in Germany.  Better yet, we found jobs at a school we already LOVE (seriously, check out the BIS)!

Anyway, we were discussing all the things we need to start doing or considering.  Many blogs, websites, and such are out there, and somehow none of them cover things our way.  So we decided to start our own blog--for future expats, of course.  Or so our family could follow along in our efforts to move to Munich.

So here we go!

The first steps are supposed to include contractual stuff, but the reality of workload issues on their end and international mail means that our paperwork is still in the mail.  Thus we are free to think about (or in my case, stress about) all the other things!  In our research we've realized one of the things that requires the most planning involves the dogs.  We are in the process of finding a giant crate for Trotsky.  We'll need to acclimate both dogs to sleeping in crates, and in cases where the dog doesn't like a crate, this can take months.  Hmm, having big dogs is starting to look problematic.

Then there's the financial stuff, the mundane . . . driver's licenses, bank accounts, taxes (thank goodness we have the help of Bernadine!), finding a place to live on that end, selling the horse, packing, downsizing, and more on this end.  Virtually everything we own that has a plug will be of no value to us in 6 months.  It will all need replacing when we get there.  This means things like an iron, a hair dryer, toaster, blender, TV, lamps, and computers . . . . 

Join us on this journey!