Forster's Adventures in Europe: 2014

We moved here with this

When I worked with Cree Bol at Pioneer School we often did trips to a little fishing village in Mexico called Kino Bay. We were down there for a week at a time on a Spanish/biology class with 15-20 kids. One of my favorite things to do was to turn this song (you can click on it and listen while you read the rest of this blog if you want) on as we took the left out of the compound and started our 2 day drive home. The sun would just be coming up, if we were lucky we would see dolphins in the bay just starting their day, and the cool Pacific morning breeze would come through the window, often pushing out the smell of 15 teenagers. I tell you this story because I have been listening to this song a lot as we start are own journey home.

A week from right now I will be on a plane leaving Germany with my family, leaving all the joys, failures, struggles, and successes of this behind. Like most every other change in my life I am ready for this to happen, we have said most of our goodbyes, sold our stuff, and have started to mentally move onto the next chapter of our lives. With that said I think it´s important for us to reflect on just how it´s shaped our family and how we are going to bring the lessons learned home with us.

And are moving home with this

Erin and I have been talking about this experience lately trying to understand exactly what it has done for our little family of four, and one of the things we have focused on is how great it is that our family got to struggle on something together. Some of my closest friends are the ones I have suffered the most with on a river, on the side of a cliff, or in a classroom. I am happy to say that we did not suffer over here, but there were struggles, and I am happy to report that those positive and negative struggles have helped our family grow into a very tight group.

It was the stressful times, the happy times, the lost in Czech Republic times, 7 days of flight delays, the 9 months of grey winter, the warmth of the sun in Malta, brothers in Malta, the biking in the pouring rain (day after day), Owen crying for hours with Oma Carol when we moved here, Owen Crying for hours at the kita when he started to go there, then Owen loving the kita, the kids learning German, learning how to be a technology nerd, the weird cultural differences, Owen eating only brats and bread for a long time, Addie learning to ride a bike, morning bike rides to the kita and work, random ice cream stops, the biergartens, Tropical Island, all our visitors, moving over here with a 2 year old and an 8 month old and us both having to work, the magical mountains of Chaminox, the 6 month (or 6 year) long job hunt, the renters breaking things whenever we go on vacation, mojitos in Spain, the living in a house that was not ours with furnishings like I had in college, quitting jobs we loved, moving all of our belongings in the U.S into storage unit, almost loosing our storage unit to a flood, buying cars from abroad, Addie learning how to make friends, dealing with stacks and stacks of paper work in another language, filing taxes, thinking we were getting audited, sleeping under the stars in Norway, living in a place where you are the outsider and could quickly end up in trouble based on your lack of both linguistic and cultural understanding, the distance from family and friends,hiking in the Alps, skiing in the Alps, being in the Alps, setting up the internet in German, driving in Germany, learning how to fix a dishwasher with zip ties, not really having a proper kitchen for two years, and countless other tiny examples of our day to day life over here that I believe will make these last two years the most formative years for our family of four.

Thank you to those of you who have stayed in close contact, thank you to those who spent your hard earned money to visit, and thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last two years, we are thrilled to move home and see you all again soon!

Don´t forget!!

Free pizza and beer on July 5th at 2219 Rambouillet Drive in Fort Collins! The party starts at 8!

Owen´s kita (school friends)

Owen´s kita teachers

Erin in Iceland

Addie´s first driving lesson

Any vacation where you get to say “that was one of the best days of my life” is a good vacation, let alone if you get to say it two times in one vacation.

When I lived in Estes Park I would occasionally find myself at the local pub drinking a frosty malted beverage and an out of town climber or skier would come into the bar with their climbing harness on or in their ski boots. The locals would all sort of wonder what was wrong with the guy still sporting his climbing rack at the bar.

In Chamonix the mountain life is so intertwined into the life blood of the town that you can´t help but get off the mountain and walk right into town still in your skiing or climbing gear, because the mountain is basically in the town.

Erin and I have seen a lot of vistas from a lot of different places around the world, but our week in Chamonix will hold a special place in our heart. There is just something about this place, maybe it´s the mountains, maybe it´s the people, maybe it´s the French pastries, maybe it´s the red wine, maybe it´s the perfect climbing area for my kids right in town, or maybe it´s the fact that we get to live this adventure with our kids, that has made this one of the best weeks of my life.

Some highlight of this week have been:

Taking my 4 year old skiing in the shadow of Europe’s (outside of Russia) tallest mountain

Having a “special date” at the little Alp style restaurant at the top of the ski area over looking Mont Blanc

Watching both kids really go climbing, it was awesome

Doing a 20km ski tour down a glacier with a real fear of falling into a crevasse

Going to Italy for lunch

Eating ice cream still in my harness and ski gear with my kids in the middle of town

Taking the kids inside of a glacier

Going on random hikes up hillsides with the family

Job hunting online while being able to look up at the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen

Seeing my kids love of travel, of new places, of adventure
Listening to the kids sing all the songs to the movie Frozen
Stopping at the random castle on the way down to Chamonix
A week of just family time

Brain storming ideas how we can live here

This trip has been bitter sweet because we can see the end of all of this, it´s only months away, and while we are very excited about getting back to Fort Collins and restarting our life back there, working in Europe has created a different reality for our family. For instance Addie thinks the Easter Bunny brings French macaroons for Easter, can speak two languages, thinks we normally sleep in hotels (we are really more tent and sleeping bag kind of people), and thinks it´s normal to go to another country for lunch. While there are countless new experiences our family will have back home we do wonder what infecting them with the travel bug at such a young age will do to them as they grow.

With all of that said being in the mountains this week has made me SO FIRED UP TO get back and play in my awesome back yard of Colorado with all of our great friends back there!

On some job related news Erin has just accepted a 50% 4th grade position at Dunn IB World School! This is her dream job and means that she will have a fantastic professional/ personal life balance over the coming years. This is also great news for the kids since there is a good chance that they will be able to go to this school as well!

As I type out this blog I hear the flight attendant over the intercom saying that the pilot has started the descent into Chicago. Yes, somehow the Chaminox vacation morphed into a trip back to Colorado for me. About 9 days ago Erin and I were sitting on the porch of our apartment looking up at Mont Blanc contemplating the idea of cutting our vacation short so I could fly back and interview for several possible positions back home.

I think Skype is great for talking with friends and family, but I think it falls short for interviewing, and I knew if I was really going to give this job hunting thing a shot I had to be back in Colorado, plus it helped that the weather in Chamonix was taking a turn for the worse. So on Saturday we loaded up the car and drove back to Berlin through France, Switzerland (or Lego land as Owen calls it), and then all the way across Germany, a short 12 hour drive. Sunday I packed and tied up some loose ends, and by Monday evening I found myself back in Fort Collins drinking a tasty Margarita and eating Mexican with Oma Carol. Lets just say culture shock is a real thing!

The job hunt over the last 5 days was at times intense, but ultimately it was the right decision to take the flight as it appears that the hunt will soon be over. Finding a job is the last major thing on our "to do list" and will allow us to really enjoy the last two months of our 2 year German experience.

Normally I say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this case the pictures from Chamonix fall far short from the reality of our experience in France.