Why live abroad? It’s been a life goal of ours to experience living in another country. All our friends and family are encouraging and excited for us. Here are the top things we remind ourselves of on the days when we wonder why we thought this was a good idea.
You’ll have fun, they said.
Well, we are having fun, but the daily grind doesn’t go away in a different country.
The travel, they said.
We are loving the travel, and it’s great being centrally located to explore Europe from here, but the cheap flights that everyone loves to talk about are a thing of the past, and delays and cancellations do happen. We do appreciate that we can be in another country quicker and cheaper than coming from the US.
The beer, they said.
German beer is fantastic!
The food, they said.
German bread is outstanding – dense and light and delicious all at the same time. Main staples of Pretzels, Pork Schnitzel, Potato Salad (what Germans call “salad”) – are all fantastic. The American prime cuts of beef are different here, like for a T-Bone, you will get the strip but not the tenderloin.
The farmers markets, they said.
Most neighborhoods in Stuttgart hold a market twice a week. There are always fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and there may also be olive, meat, and fish stands. The produce in Germany is amazing, fresh, delicious – everything bursting with flavor. Produce doesn’t last long, so we are constantly buying enough for 1 – 2 days and making sure we turn the inventory.
Spend more time together, they said.
We do enjoy this – Rob’s job has a limit of 40 hours / week, much different than his time working in athletics. Rob’s joke is that we’ll go home when Barbara gets sick of spending so much time with him.
Personal Growth, they said.
Yes, yes, yes – very true! We have long felt that travel is the best education, and the good and the bad of living in another country is like traveling every single day: not fully settled, but no set time to leave.
It is an amazing opportunity to live abroad. We are raising our global mindset, growing mad skills in adaptability, patience, resilience, communication, and resourcefulness. We are also enjoying some great traveling – see our Travel posts for those stories.
Cheers!
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