A Celebration : Getting to Germany

After the emergency slam on the breaks discovery that Martin and I made a few years back, we knew we were working way, way, way more than full-time jobs, and it wasn’t the life we wanted.  The idea of moving to Germany began creeping into our minds.  We always promised ourselves that we’d live there one day.  What if we just went for it now?

We flew to Germany and made our rounds visiting family and friends.  We researched various cities and university programs for Martin, and before we knew it, we were signing papers to move into our apartment the following year.  Germany isn’t like the US where you can move in and out of apartments and jobs as you please.  We had to wait for the current tenants’ lease before the owners gave us the thumbs up to make it our home.

Here’s me checking out the living room.  Yes I was skeptical – could we really make this all work, and in such a small home?

(I’m standing where our coffee table is today; our couch now sits behind me)

We were back in the US, figuring out everything we needed to arrange, working, saving money like crazy, and still not living simpler quite yet.  We knew we had to work hard to create our new life vision, especially because I wasn’t going to be able to work in Germany for a little while.  We also daydreamed about the remodel below.

Thankfully we’ve made it work… mostly because we decided to tear down the kitchen and “Americanize it”.  Our neighbors and family in Germany joke, “Leave it to the Americans to make an open floor plan.”  I guess the traditional manner in Germany is a separate space for each function of your life.  It works really well in larger homes, just not for a less-than-500-square-foot home like ours.

It was so much easier and thrilling to work hard when we knew we were working toward something for ourselves.

We still have to work hard.  Our biggest expense is buying airline tickets.  A lot of expats don’t have the luxury of returning home so often.  I don’t know their financial stories; I only know mine.  And creating a simpler life – walking or biking everywhere, eating at home, cutting Martin’s hair myself, skipping the clothes dryer, buying NO new clothes, having no pets or kids right now – all of these things add up.  There’s no other way we could do this.  It’s that simple.

(Some of the residents in the valley where we live – spotted last week.)

Maybe a lot of these things will change.  It’s exciting to see where our adventure leads.  I do know one thing; it’s never going to lead back to the race we were once running because for us, that felt more like a treadmill.  I like my runs to lead to new places.