Two weeks from today, we get on a plane to fly back to Germany.
The last couple months have been insanity – work at the pharmacy, work at the jewelry store, work on the house, trying to get rid of all our stuff, trying to prepare for life in Germany, trying to keep a 3-year-old alive. (We were at least successful at that last task)
The most important development is officially deciding where we will be. At the last second before we signed off to go to one school, I was accepted into my top choice. I will be earning a Master’s degree in Global Change Management at the Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung Eberswalde (HNEE) In English: Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Eberswalde is a town of about 42,000 people in the state of Brandenburg, about 40 minutes from Berlin. Herbert and I will be able to travel for free throughout Berlin and Brandenburg, which is pretty awesome.
Once the decision was made, we thought things would be pretty straightforward. After all, this was a family-friendly, international university and we learned a lot last time! Yeah, no.
- Housing? We aren’t eligible for student housing like we thought. So we’re still looking for somewhere to live. Trusting that it will work out.
- Kindergarten? Private kindergartens are full and we can’t register for a public kindergarten until we have an address. So we wait on that, and hope we get into a good one. If not, we get on a waiting list.
- Residence Permits? Unclear. In our quest to find out how much money we need to have set aside to get our residence permits, we have gotten a lot of inconsistent information. So it’s down to, well, I guess we show up there and see what happens.
- Health Insurance? We have a winner this time! Now things could change, as the beurocracy enjoys doing to us, but as far as we can tell, we will be able to get health insurance lined up straight away.
But to be honest, we’ve been letting a lot of this fall to the side. We are so bogged down in trying to get our lives in Sleepy Eye wrapped up, we are beyond even being able to stress about it. Just having faith that it will all work out the way it is supposed to.
As we learn more and as I’m able to write, I’ll keep you posted on what we are learning this time around about moving to a new country with a spouse AND a child – having both really throws a wrench in things! I’m also hoping to get our packing list published. It’s been really interesting to compare 2019 to 2015. Our priorities sure have changed!
