We are six weeks away from our moving date, and I am starting to organize our time between now and then. We have started learning German (with Mango Languages and Teach Yourself), and I wish that were all I had to do!
The two biggest things on the to-do list:
- Settling on the exact departure date/Buying plane tickets
- Finding a short-term rental for when we first arrive in Aachen.
Buying a plane ticket doesn’t seem hard, but it’s more complicated when one of the passengers is waiting on a visa. We are debating departure dates, refundable tickets, one-way versus round-trip tickets, and which airport to fly through. (British Air offers some of the cheapest tickets, but it means a layover at Heathrow. And we all know about the problems with their baggage retrieval system…)
When we get to Aachen, we want a furnished place that will let us get around easily as we look for a more permanent home. It has to have wireless internet so I can get to work while we settle in. We have both been scouring online listings for just the right place. The hardest part so far is deciding how long we want to rent our first place. Do we limit our stay in temporary housing to just a few weeks while we look around, or should we stay longer so we aren’t rushed to find the perfect home?
After I tackle those two tasks, I can allow myself to think of everything else: packing, selling the things we don’t need anymore, storing the things we aren’t taking with us, … breathing …
Expat Linguist 