Sharing the journey of becoming an expat and the growth that comes with it.
We have been home now for one month as of this past week. I originally wanted to give myself a few days to observe our transition and take note, and post in that first week, but then distraction and brain fog took over and, well, I’m finally taking some time to get out my thoughts.
We are less than a week away from returning to the US. We’re knee deep in boxes and half packed suitcases, but I came up for air to give a little glimpse of the last couple of weeks.
We’ve done a LOT of amazing travels with the kids. And we’ve enjoyed the majority of it. But I should be transparent on how some of our travel days go. On all our trips we have many highs and many lows when it comes to family “moments”. The lows are mostly due to long days, and the ever present conflict of adults wanting to see things that kids are less interested in. Or, the food being “different”. Or, the walk too long. Or, there not being any downtime. And, while I try to be patient, I sometimes lose my cool.
We were so lucky to be treated to a relaxing weekend with Melissa and Flo, and Flo’s mom Christiane. Trier is Germany’s oldest city and is worth the visit. I hope to go back with the boys one day but am so glad we got to do this visit with just “grownups”. Plus, I got to try “spaghetti ice”!
Josh and our friend Greg took the kids on a last minute ski trip just before the ski season ended. It was a lot of driving, a lot of skiing, and a memory these kids will have for a long time.
Efteling is ingrained in Dutch childhoods. Generally speaking, any Dutch person you meet has been at least once in their life. We decided Mason’s birthday was the perfect time to go check it out.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent a week in La Santa on the island of Lanzarote with 3 really awesome women. We laughed, we worked out, we ate well, and we saw some beautiful sites. What else you ask for?
We chose Gothenburg because we have Swedish friends there, the Hagman’s and the Löfgren’s, who used to live in Charleston (working with the new Volvo plant), and who have since returned to Sweden. The kids of these friends were in school with our boys for a few years – that’s how we met – and we were excited to finally get a chance to visit them in their home country! I really liked this trip because, while we did get to see the city of Gothenburg, we also got to see some places we would not have known about (Kullavik and Marstrand) – an insider’s tour of the Southwest coast, if you will. Plus, the friends we saw are just wonderful people and we had a great time together.
We took advantage of a two week long school break to finally see my cousin in Munich and then some friends in Sweden. Here’s part 1 of that vacation.
Getting to visit a new city and country is always exciting. Getting to do it with friends is even better. Getting to have built in local tour guides is as good as it gets and we had all of these things built into this experience.Cover photo in B&W by Florian Henning
Soujourns with Sarah 