Shoot for the moon, you will end up in space, or something like that

Today I stumbled upon an email from my previous-manager, dated December 9^th, 2009.  The subject title was simply ‘Germany Office‘, and it was her letting me know that there are at least 4 finance people working in Munich under the manager Brian C.  The reason she sent this email to me?  We had been discussing my 5-year plan, and apparently I had mentioned Germany to her. 

Fast forward 3 years (almost to the date) – I am living and working out of Munich, Germany, and am coming up on my 1 year Germanniversary.  And no longer do we only have 4 finance people: we have closer to 60 with the 2011 acquisition of Intel Mobile Communications (from Infineon).  And wouldn’t you know it – That Brian C. she mentioned is now my manager.

So what’s my point?  I don’t really know.  But it does resonate with me that for the longest time, Noah and I kept mentioning to people that we might want to move to Germany one day- including, apparently, my old boss.  And instead of just being satisfied with how our lives were going on their own (which, by the way, Phoenix was still fabulous) – we decided to make our strongest effort to move to Germany.  That way, if it didn’t pan out for us, we knew we gave it our best.  Plus we had to try to avoid looking like we were full of it since we had mentioned a potential move to so many people.

When we found out we both found work in Germany, and knew it would work out for us, there were so many people who told us how lucky we are.  Sure, luck was part of it.  It’s true that being an American with a good education (thanks mom and dad!) definitely gave me a leg up.  And the fact we both were able to find jobs?  Definitely some luck in that.  Oh, and Intel recently acquiring a company in Munich – 100% luck for me.  But if we only left it up to luck, I guarantee we wouldn’t be here. 

A casual remark to my manager that I would like to work in Munich one day didn’t get me here.  There was a lot of hard work behind the scenes required to take full advantage of our good luck.  I had to brush up my resume and interview skills, use my acquired network with Intel to reach out to people, and fly myself (yes, I paid) out to Munich to meet everyone and land myself a position in a newly acquired company.  And if necessary, I was ready to approach companies outside of Intel as the next step to get me here.

Also – I couldn’t keep track of the number of times either Noah or I wanted to throw in the towel and go the ‘easy’ route – staying where we were.  Frustrating calls in our broken German to set up our Internet (and often getting hung up on); moving to an apartment that was completely stripped of everything – including lights – in the middle of winter; trying to coordinate moving our dogs 3,000 miles away; I could go on.   Sometimes the challenges made us lose sight of why we chose this crazy route in the first place.  But looking back – these are amazing ‘problems’ to have, because they accompany a move to Europe! 

I am not saying everyone should go make a vision board or anything like that, but maybe I am trying to remind people that if they have a dream, why not go balls to the wall trying to make it happen?  Yeah, you might fail, but you fail knowing you tried your best, and you won’t have to think ‘what if?’.  Also – you might actually succeed, and find yourself in a completely new and exciting stage of life that you would have never imagined yourself in. 

Moving dogs 6,000 miles isn't easy

When we set out to send our dogs to Germany, we knew it wouldn’t be easy. Now looking back on the process, I am surprised we managed it. The biggest hurdle was the fact that it is impossible to find clear instructions / any kind of official checklist for moving dogs internationally. Each airline is different, each country is different, each city in each country is different, etc. Hands down, moving the dogs was the most confusing and difficult part of our journey to Germany– and this includes finding jobs, landing an apartment from 6,000 miles away with broken German, or getting visa’s (which Noah’s isn’t done yet). But we wouldn’t have done it any differently – especially when I see my furry babies asleep under the coffee table.

Also, I should let you know, that from here, this post is more to serve us as a reminder/reference for when we have to make another international move. So there might not be much entertainment value. Also, Noah did most of the pre-work, so I may not have all the details, but I know enough, and I definitely was there for our German side of the story.

Prework: Noah googled, called airlines, called government agencies, utilized countless blogs and ‘official’ websites, all trying to figure out the process. He would often find that you would get different answers from the USDA or the vet or the airlines depending on the person you talked to. All in all, this made for a very convoluted process. His mode of attack was to do everything he was told, even if someone later told him it wasn’t necessary. That way all of our bases were covered.

We also decided to go with Continental, as they would fly non-stop from Houston to Frankfurt – and we could pick them up ourselves in Frankfurt. That way we could avoid the small chance that something would happen during a layover.

Basically all we really needed was them to have international microchips and an up-to-date rabies shot. That was the easy part. The paperwork was the hard part. The fact that we started the process in Phoenix and flew them out of Houston didn’t help either – but the dogs now have vets in both cities! With us flying out January 4^th, and the dogs coming on the 20^th, this left a lot for my parents to do.

10 days before their flight, the puppies had to go to the vet for a health check and get the USDA papers filled out. My mother then had to overnight the forms to the USDA, have them add their official stamps, and overnight them back. Next they got faxed to continental, who proceeded to tell my mom that we didn’t need to do that as they are going to Frankfurt (though 2 weeks before we were told we did!). Then back to the vet 24 hours before for a form that says they are healthy to fly.

Now the dogs were ready in Houston to start their journey in their ‘3 sizes too big’ crates (what can I say, I wanted my babies to fly comfortably). They were dropped off at Continental, who gave my mom a tracking number. This turned out to be pretty worthless – it was updated after we picked them up.

Germany: Meanwhile we are driving from Munich to Frankfurt in snowstorms, 3 traffic jams, then rainstorms. The typically 4 hour drive took us over 6. The next morning we noticed their flight said it would arrive an hour early, at 11am. At 10:30am, we are at Cargo City Süd (all continental told us was to go there, then we have to clear customs….it would have been nice if they told us ALL the steps).

At Cargo City Süd, we are told to come back at noon. Like we could just run home and come back, and we didn’t have to get security clearance to even enter the cargo area! The next hour and a half we sat in the car, turning the car on every once in a while to heat up the seats (I love seat warmers!). With periodically warm butts, and anxiety creeping up, we head back up at 11:50. After waiting 15 minutes with no instructions, they finally give us 2 papers, charge us 30 EUR, and tell us to go to Tor 26. Ok – where is Tor 26?? About 4 miles away, on the other side of the gigantic Frankfurt airport. And we naively thought the dogs were being delivered to the building we were at…. Silly us!

Back to the car to find Tor 26. After driving for about 15 minutes (about 12:20 now, the dogs landed an hour ago), and another security clearance, we find the Lufthansa (Continental’s partner) animal building. Again, we stupidly thought we were going to see the puppies soon! We make our way upstairs (no signs to point us in the direction, of course), and walk into an office. Here the people are nice, and give us the rest of the dogs’ paperwork. We then are told to go to the other office on the same floor.

Here, the guy was not so nice. He was very condescending to our basic German, and even though he knew English, he would give all directions in German. Normally, this would be ok, but when we are dealing with German government documents, and getting our dogs cleared in a new country, we want to make sure we understand 100% what we are supposed to do. After paying another 175 EUR for some stamped form, he tells us, “Go to Lufthansa, Customs, then back to Lufthansa”. Ummmm…. where is Lufthansa? Customs? When we ask, apparently he meant the office on the same floor we were just at. He couldn’t say that???

Back to the Lufthansa office (as we now know it). We get two security cards, and a map to Customs (like I said, here, they are nice), and are told we should walk to Customs. 10 minutes later, we are in the Customs building. It is 1pm now. We wait for the next person, and explain in German that we want to pick up our dogs who are here. She asks if we are American. Yes. She hands us a form to fill out, and we see it is for the Army. We explain we are not with the Army, and she says she asked us. I guess American = Army. Got it. We try again to explain what we want – she takes it as we want to send our dogs here. No, they are already here. Now she thinks we want to live here. No, we already do. Finally, after a few more back/forwarths, she realizes what we are trying to do, and says she has to ask because she doesn’t know the process. And for the record, according to the nice German girl next to us trying to get her dog (from Tucson – small world!), our German was fine – the girl knew what we were saying.

1:20, done with Customs and back to Lufthansa’s office. Dogs landed 2 hours ago. L We wait in line again, and finally hand our forms over. We are charged 70 EUR for ‘storage’ (you know, the whole 2 hours we have been jumping through hoops and they had to watch the dogs – guess that isn’t included in the $1375 we paid for their flight), and they call down to get our dogs ready. We run downstairs and outside to wait for them. After 5 minutes, the door opens and they are rolled out. 1:40 – we have the dogs!!!!

When they are rolled out in their crates, they are just laying down. Once they realize we are there, the crying starts and Sadie is jumping on the door to get let out. At this point they love us – they are so relieved to see us. We walk them around a bit to let them go to the bathroom, then get them in the rental car. I sit with them in the back seat while Noah breaks down the crates (which were clean - thanks girls!!). Now I can tell they are not happy with me. Rita gets up and goes to the other side of the car, as far away from me as possible, and Sadie won’t look at me. I am officially the bad guy that caused the past 12+ hours of stress for them.

Noah gets in the car, and Rita starts ‘talking’. If you have met her, you know what I mean. After some attention, we decide to head out and find a park. Miraculously, not too far from the airport, is a wooded area with parking and many trails. I am their friend again when I have their leash, and we take them on an hour walk. I guess I redeemed myself, because they are both looking at me again. We pile them back in the car and head back home to Munich. They must have been pretty jetlagged because they were out the whole ride – only 4 ½ hours this time, thankfully.

Now it is the next day, and they are doing great in the apartment. We took them on a long walk in the Nympenburg park, and they have spent the rest of the day sleeping. I hope this doesn’t mean they are wide-awake all night, but then again, I can’t blame them if they are. Jetlag sucks, for dogs too.

The Weiss Laundromat

For anyone who thought moving to Munich would be glamorous and exciting and [insert your own comment here], hopefully that will come. For now, it is the tediousness of settling into a new place in a new city and all that comes with it.

For instance, our big excitement of the week was getting our washing machine in! Whoo hoo!! We can finally start to tackle our massive pile of dirty clothes, new towels and new bedding, 5 kilos (which is about 4 towels and a pair of jeans) and 2 hours at a time (so it stays energy / water efficient). And that just gets them clean, not dry. Our dryer cost 7€ and needs no electricity – it is a drying rack.

For anyone who made it past a paragraph about laundry, I am sorry to say it doesn't get much more exciting. Though I am happy to say our week didn't revolve around only laundry. I also found the cupcake place – hallelujah!! They were very tasty, however for 3€ each, I will not be frequenting the place.

We also bought our mattresses and carried them 600 m according to Google maps, but according to my arms it was 1.9 km. Also, no one batted an eye at two people dragging two twin-sized mattresses down the sidewalk – which makes me think it wasn’t too odd .

We can’t wait until our lives don’t consist of constant shopping, which hopefully we can take a break this weekend and actually do something cool. Until then, I will leave you with Germany’s interpretation of Texas (though all our Phoenix friends know saguaros aren’t in Texas):

Off to start another load of laundry!

Week 1 Adventures

It is starting to feel like home in our new apartment now that we have our bedroom completely furnished, had our first pancake breakfast and fajita diner (with supposedly real “Tex-Mex” seasoning), and can sleep through the night without waking up from jetlag.   It will really be home once we get our final pieces of furniture delivered and when dogs arrive (in about two weeks). 

Euros have felt like Monopoly money this week at the rate at which we are spending cash (and their colors).  It is unbelievable how much stuff there is to buy when you are starting out from scratch again.  It’s also amazing how much stuff you can get into a tiny European car - Thanks Aunt Ellen for driving us, and thanks Julie for stuffing yourself in the back!

There are still overwhelming moments where Julie and I look at each other and wonder “what are we doing here, how did we get here, and will we ever learn German?”.  Then there are times where we take a 5 minute walk somewhere and discover something amazing that makes all the temporary discomfort worth it.  For instance, the properly named “Hirsch (deer) Garten” is just two blocks from our apartment (also home to Munich’s largest bier garten).   

All in all, we are happy to be here and look forward to our future adventures.