Well folks, things are finally going to get interesting around here. Laura has accepted a position with her company's (E.On) corporate center in Düsseldorf, Germany. Obviously, this is quite a unique opportunity that's been presented with us, and after much deliberation, stress, worrying, prayers, and a huge leap of faith – we decided we're making the move. We don't have an exact timeline yet for the move, but expect that sometime in the middle of February to beginning of March, we'll be heading over.
I (Erik) have already started the worrysome task of trying to find a job in the area. It's a bit of an uphill battle, as the employment climate in Germany has been a very nationalistic one over the past few years – stemming from years of high unemployment. It's generally regarded as being very difficult for a non-German to get clearance to work there. Thankfully, Düsseldorf is a very international city with many large technology, engineering, and commercial corporations (T-Mobile, Seimens, etc). I've got a few leads and am hopeful, but it's still a source of a lot of stress for us right now.
We'll be keeping our house here in Louisville and renting it out to a friend while we're gone. The company will be helping us find an apartment and pay our living expenses while we're there. Our cars are for sale (the 2006 MINI and the 1993 Miata) as well as my Formula Ford racecar. We'll be spending the next few weeks going through our house, top-to-bottom, to decide which things will remain, which things will be loaded into a 40 ft shipping container that will travel by ship to Germany, and which items will be packed away in checked luggage for our flight over.
Oh yeah, some of you may be wondering how long we'll be gone. Well, we're not entirely sure of that yet either, but it's safe to say that it will be in the 18 month to 2 year range.
Auf Wiedersehen!
-Erik
Popularity: 23% [?]
