The Big Move

Six weeks ago, my husband and I moved out of our apartment in Berkeley, California.  We have moved apartments several times in the past, relocating ourselves to San Francisco after college in Ohio, then around San Francisco for awhile, and following that, to our first place in Berkeley, and finally into our second place in Berkeley, where we settled for five years.  No big deal.

Except that this time was much different.  We would not simply load up the car or a U-Haul and move our stuff up the street or across a bridge.  This time, we sold and gave away most of our personal belongings, save some furniture and bicycles that went into storage.  We put the bare necessities (including an air mattress - our apartment waiting for us in the Netherlands was completely unfurnished) into 2 suitcases each. And then we boarded a plane to begin our exciting new life in Groningen, Netherlands!

Of course, this move was not without a great deal of forethought, trepidation, and, at times, outright panic.  Orchestrating an international move was no easy task.  There were forms upon forms to fill out in order to ensure that our residence in the Netherlands was meeting all of the legal requirements (this is where being a lawyer came in extremely handy). There was the task of renting a place to live - sight unseen.  And, let's not forget, the huge financial burden of an international move.  Overlaying this whole process was the additional hurdle of dealing with our relocation and finances in another language - Dutch - in which neither of us is fluent, or even proficient.  What fun!

So, why did we do it?   Why are we living in the Netherlands, surrounded by folks who speak Dutch, without our car, without our families, without our friends, and without our furniture (all of which we miss terribly)?

Because it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The time, to be precise, was midsummer 2011. My husband had recently completed a PhD in biophysics at the University of California, Berkeley.  While in the late stages of completing said degree, he commenced The Job Search (capitalized to emphasize that this was a Big Deal).  The Job Search involved flying around the USA and Europe and visiting scientific labs to decide where he would do his postdoctoral research.  During The Job Search, he was invited to visit a lab in Groningen, the Netherlands, in which he was extremely interested.

It just so happened that the week that he was invited to visit the extremely interesting lab in Groningen was the same week that I had taken vacation time off work for a trip to Hawaii, for which I had already paid.  Seeing that my husband did not want to miss the opportunity to visit the extremely interesting lab in Groningen, I graciously canceled our trip to Hawaii (thank goodness those plane tickets were refundable!), and spent all the money that I would have used for a week in Hawaii to buy my own ticket to accompany him to the Netherlands.

Upon visiting the Netherlands, we discovered that it is an excellent place to live, especially Groningen.  Instead of laying out on a Hawaiian beach for a week, I spent my time scoping out potential neighborhoods and the cultural scene to get a sense of whether I could realistically handle living there, while my husband met with the head of the extremely interesting lab, as well as the colleagues that he would soon have the opportunity to join.

When my husband received the offer to join the lab at the end of our visit, it became very clear that Groningen was the right place for him.  However, to me, a move to Groningen would mean leaving my very stable career in the legal profession for a few years while my husband pursued his postdoctoral research.  So, we returned to the USA and mulled over the decision for awhile.  We thought about it a lot. To the point at which we could hardly think of anything else.  Could I possibly handle being a housewife for awhile while my husband pursued his scientific dreams?  Hadn't we said something about supporting each other's dreams in our wedding vows?  Could we pull this off financially?  Did I really want to learn to speak Dutch?

Well, the answers to those questions are now obvious.  After running the numbers, doing some soul searching, and running some more numbers, we determined that moving to the Netherlands would be a good idea because it would be an opportunity for both of us to do something completely different and to have experiences that we would not have if we stayed on the same predictable paths we were on in California.

So, here we are, and here is my attempt at blogging about my experiences in life, food, and travel in the Netherlands and beyond.

The Martinitoren and the Grote Markt, Groningen, Netherlands