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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Now in Germany!

My first post in quite some time. These past few months have been hectic!

The story: at the end of this past summer, my husband and I were looking for change and adventure, something exciting and different to experience before we settle down and have kids. Several months into searching for this next step, he was notified that a position within his company had opened up in Southern Germany. We thought that traveling around Europe would certainly fit the "big adventure" category. So, with my blessing, he decided to go for it. He was rewarded with a job offer, which he accepted.

Lufthansa Plane, view from Frankfurt Airport

Then came the fun part of moving our lives overseas! Hard to describe THAT in a way that does it justice. The sheer amount of paperwork involved, first off. The way having someone else pack and crate your things completely and utterly randomizes everything. Having to unload both your apartment lease and car in the space of a month. Then the month of living in a hotel without your things (and a shaky internet connection, at best) in a new country.

Finally I received my art PC, which had been separately air shipped, only to open the box and find the case crumpled, motherboard crunched, and the hard-drives cascading in a loose pile -this in the middle of two big client contracts. My amazing IT husband was able to somehow still get my PC back up and running Frankenstein-style for temporary use while we waited for parts to come! At this point the damaged parts have been replaced and it is 100% operational and snug in a new case.

Smashed PC, note the crumpled case & the loose hard drives!
My temporary hotel work space.

My studio space at our new place.


This was followed by the first month in our new amazing German apartment where we were slowly rebuilding our home from hundreds of boxes and had even worse internet connection (I did get a kick out of my ping being 666 though). (Thankfully, we have a solid cable internet connection now!) I did very much enjoy seeing snow out of our windows for the first time.

Snowy view from my studio window.

Our first Christmas Tree in Germany.

In case that sounds like a litany of complains, I do want to make it clear that I am happy to be here and excited about the possibilities both in a holistic sense and for myself as an artist, especially now that the work of moving is done.

There has been fun mixed in too, of course. An accidental dinner with new German neighbors (I rang their doorbell by mistake, thinking it was a light switch in our building, and we wound up invited to their dinner party), Christmas Markets... wonderful wonderful Christmas Markets (including a medieval flavored one in Esslingen), a lovely long weekend trip to Munich. Most of those before the holidays.

There are many other trips in planning stage at the moment. I have bit plans to see castles, lots of castles! Look out Neuschwanstein, you're next!

Neat building in Munich, Germany

Christmas Market in Stuttgart, Germany

New Years Eve from our living room window.


Bonus: we also got an unexpected dog right before we were presented with the Germany move. A week before my grandfather passed away in August he had adopted a 5-year-old female Cocker Spaniel from the local pound, who he named Lady. Being local (at the time) and pet-less we took her in while he was in the hospital and decided to give her a permanent home after. She made the flight over with us just fine and is doing great here.

Can you say 'no' to those brown eyes?

Whew! So that is the "catch-up" post. Stay tuned for a new piece of wintry art!

Me, enjoying the snow!




4 comments:

K.E.Stapylton said...

and in the middle of all of this, you managed to produce one of the most lovely YA fiction covers i've seen. what a talented woman you are! :)

Unknown said...

Thanks Kareyn! I definitely have some catch up to do: I haven't even shared the cover I did (nearly two months ago) for you with my "fans" yet =)

Petra said...

WOW that's a lot that happened.
But how cool! I never thought that an artist I really admire would live pretty close (well ok, The Netherlands is still far away, but not like USA far away). Who knows, whenever in the future I have a car I can stop by ;) !
I hope you all live well and have a happy new home!

Unknown said...

Thanks Petra! We do have a car now. We will let ya know when we're planning to travel your way. :)Always fun to meet other artists!