Across the Pond

I realized a few weeks ago that since 2008, I've moved cities every two years. In 2008, I moved from Beaufort to Spokane, in 2010 I moved to Olympia, Naches and then back to Spokane, in 2012 we moved to Cleveland and in 2014 we moved to Tallahassee. Because Carson's in a five-year PhD, we didn't plan on moving more than just within the city for five whole years, and even then, we planned to move as few times as possible.

Ha. 

So Carson applied for a Fulbright Scholarship in Germany for the fall. It's a long process between application and decision time, so we've known it was a possibility for about six months. In January, Carson found out that he was in the top running for applications, so his chances increased. A couple of weeks ago, I got out of work to discover that someone was sitting in the car, and I was surprised to find out that it was Carson. 

"Are you sure about Germany?" he asked, "I want to make sure you're okay with it. We don't have to do it!"

"YOU GOT IT!" I said. "WE'RE GOING TO GERMANY?"

And so we are. 

We are moving to Germany! In four months! Cue the wide eyed surprised face. 

Here are some details, in case you're curious:

We will be in Munster (Wikipedia link included in case you want to do some slight research yourself). Carson will be working on a project there. We will leave in August for Fulbright orientation in Marburg, stay there for about six weeks of language intensive, and then the semester begins in Munster in September. We should be there until mid-July of 2017. 

We aren't sure what I'll be doing exactly while we're there, but we'll figure it out and I'm just happy to be going along for the ride. I have made a seriously impossible list of places I'd love to visit while we're in Europe, and I'm hoping to get to knock several cities and countries off of it during our year abroad (so fancy!). 

Right now, we're researching storage units, deciding where we'll forward our mail, learning as much as we can about the culture before we go (thank you Ethnography classes in college), and discovering how unique apartment hunting is from a different continent (it turns out that some come without heat and others without appliances including sinks and toilets?!?!). 

So I wonder where we'll move two years from now? The moon?