Things We Know and Don't Know About Our Move to Germany

We're getting a lot of questions about our move back to Germany.  Here are the lists of the top 5 things we do and don't know about where we're going and what we're doing.

Things We DO Know

Bryan will look great in tweed.

1. We know a lot of people in Germany; several in the vicinity of where we will be living.  Can't wait to see all of our old friends!
2. We know that the program Bryan is in should last around 4 years, but we do not have definitive plans for after Bryan gets his degree.  (Other than Bryan plans on insisting everyone - including me - call him "Doctor."  I plan on buying him a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, corduroy pants, and black rimmed glasses to give him the "sexy professor" look.  He hasn't admitted to it, but I think he really wants to get a hot tamale for hotness on http://www.ratemyprofessor.com/. )
3. We know that we are bringing Oscar with us.  Oscar is totally freaked out right now - his doggie-sense has kicked in and let him know that something is afoot.  Piece by piece we are selling our furniture on Craigslist and each time something goes he gets more nervous and clingy.  What a pain all of the Pet Passport paperwork has been, though.  3 trips to the vet down and 1 more to go. 
4. We know that we need to buy a winter wardrobe once we get to Germany.  The average high/low temperature is 39/32 degrees in January and 71/56 degrees in July.  Brrrrrrrr!  Both summer and winter seem cold to me.  According to Wikipedia (which means it must be true), we won't get much snowfall, but it will rain a fair amount.  That's a far cry from the summer we've had here in Jacksonville.  We recently had 50 days in a row with a heat index of 105 (41 Celsuis) degrees or more.   

This is a photo of Munster in the winter.  It must have been on one of the 12 days of the year when they got snow.

      5.  We know that 'die Hohner' is on tour this fall in Germany.  They are Bryan's favorite German music group and he has been carefully watching the Hohner "Termine" website (German for Concert...evidently)  for the latest concert updates.   Though we haven't learned German yet, Bryan will appear to be fluent for the two hours of the concert, as he knows the words of each song so well.  Going to a Hohner concert will shorten Bryan's 'Things to do Before I Die' list by at least one entry.  I wish that was a joke. 

Hohner: Proof that Bryan is "a 49 year old trapped in a 29 year old body."

Things We DON'T Know

1. We don't know how to speak German, but we plan on learning. The PhD program that Bryan is in is all in English (whew!).  Dylan will probably learn the language faster than we do.  We will look into enrolling in some kind of language classes or possibly doing an English-German tutoring exchange.  We'll have to figure that our when we get there.  On my list of things to do before leaving is to buy a new German-English dictionary.



This image from Google Earth is the only image
we have of where we will be living.

2. We don't know anything about the place where we're going to be living.  It is furnished, but that could mean many things.  We haven't seen any photos except for it's location on Google Earth.  All we asked for was that they have a crib and highchair there for Dylan when we arrive because I'm pretty sure the first thing Dylan's going to want to do when we get there is either eat or sleep.  I'm assuming there will be a bed for us to sleep in, too.  Once we get there, we will take some pictures and post them.
3. We don't know who is going to be renting our house in St. Augustine.  We have signed up with a Property Management Company and are praying for a renter fast.  If you know anyone in the Jacksonville / St. Augustine area who needs to rent a 2 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom townhome with an expertly built 16'x16' deck by master-craftsman Bryan Foltice, please call or email us! 
4. We don't know when we'll be coming back to visit.  That is one of the things that is totally up in the air at the moment, but hopefully we'll get back our friends and family in the US often.  We'll love having visitors on our side of the ocean too, so please come and visit us!
5. We don't know how to drive stick shift.  Not totally, but I haven't driven a stick shift car since learning once in high school.  Bryan learned 6 years ago when we were in Germany and drove a manual car maybe 5 times total.  We expect to learn this quickly by driving very late at night or very early in the morning.  Hopefully, nobody (or transmissions) will get hurt in the process.