News May

We may be moving.

Xavier has found a job in the south of france. we're still waiting on the contract, but they want him to start working in 1 week. we've been interviewing moving companies, so this is feeling quite real. I told the children there is a good chance we'll move to france soon. they didn't seem to care either way. anais didn't want to be separated from me. she said "but i need you." I told her we would stay together as a family. I've already agreed to work here in munich for the last week in may and the first 2 weeks in june (holiday called pfingston) so now i have to find a tagesmutter to take care of the kids since there is a good chance i will be alone.

until we sign a contract, i will continue as though we are staying here in germany and we are living on unemployment. we have to give 3 mos notice for our house rental here in munich, which means we ought to at least give notice may 1.

when moves go, they go fast. when we left texas, it took maybe 3 weeks from the day we signed the contract to being on the plane. it was fast and you are never prepared. this time my friendships aren't that deep in germany considering i've been here for 4,5 yrs.

at least now i know what to expect regarding moving with children, the conplications with language, so and and so forth. i need to get a work permit in france. we will do that straight away. i think france is better set up for women to work. it might be easier, plus everyone works so i would be alone by myself anyway. it's hard to move. i have a better idea as to what i want to do now though, so that's already something, not just trying to survive the day. anais will need a lot of help with school and we won'T be able to move again now or at least remain in english or french languges regarding school for the kids. i wouldn't mind after a few yrs taking a sabatical from france and going for a few years in india or something like that. that would be interesting.

our next goal is to become stable and no matter what happens settle in the south of france. we opened a savings account last yr to buy a house in france. that will mature in 2 yrs. these accounts secure a low interest rate when you buy. we need to rent for 2 yrs and give us a chance to visit the area and see where we want to settle. i think we're following my friend barbara'S path. they are german and lived in CA for about 7 yrs. her husband wanted to stay in CA but Barbara was home sick. her husband found a job in Zurich. they thought Europe is Europe so it shouldn't be a big deal. they lived in a village and had trouble integrating and they realized that Zurich is not Germany, so after about 3 yrs they moved again, this time back to munich. they decided not to live in a village because though spacious and calm, there is a lack of infrastructure, so they decided to go to a town and build a house. we went from suburbia usa, to city dresden, to village munich and i suspect we will end up in town in france and buy a place. we cannot buy here because 1. cost, but mostly because when we move again, we don't have a good enough command of german to be able to write contracts and rent it out. i don't feel comfortable doing that. plus your mortgage is 2X what you can receive in rent so financially it doesn't make any sense. here there is no tax rebate on owning a house, just a lot of money out of our pocket. everyone becomes house poor when they own. we have to learn about the tax benefits in france. i guess they have some new laws now that give tax benefits.

first of course is wait for the contract. in the meantime, anais is set up to go to school here locally in the fall. she will be going to Dietramszell. she only knows 1 person there so moving to france won't be such a great upset. she will have a hard time at first in france because she is very far behind in french and the german kindergarten is behind france in education. kids in france start learning in kindergarten, while in germany they only learn to count to maybe 10 or 20. french kids already learn letters and cursive in kindergarten, so anais will be behind on top of the language difficulty. I work with her on the alphabet, but she seems to learn better in school. i'll put the kids in speech therapy again in france. i have a lot of papers to update here like passports before we leave. still haven't done it.

austin had his 4th birthday yesterday by the way. we had a party. i asked him who he would like to invite from school and they were all girls. so i invited them plus a few boys. i think he had a good time.

we do have friends here, just like we did in TX, but i know we'll make more friends in france as well. it's just hard to keep up. my friendships haven't been that deep here because of the language barrier. mind you a german speaking english is the same as me speaking german, our conversations are limited to our vocabulary. expressing complicated thoughts requires a richness of vocabulary so conversations are always limited. it can be frustrating. sometimes its also personalities that you just can't get deep or thoughts out of people. my neighbor is lovely and british, but i can't get anything deeper than surface conversation out of her. i've known her for 3 yrs and i don't think she's ever expressed much of an opinion on anything. it's a little frustrating.

i have some photos to share so i'll post them if i can figure it out. i hope you're all okay and i'll let you know what's going on here. not sure when xavier will start his new job. the company wants him to start may 11 or the 18th, but we have no contract yet and no place to live in france, so i think they're a little confused about reality. we will need to go and look at the area as well. this time we have to take all 3 kids with us. it will be difficult. we can't ask my mother in law to come and watch the kids alone, it's too much for her to handle being alone in Germany. And my father in law cannot help her anymore. I need to visit schools and see if we can get the kids into the free int'l school in Manosque. i need to make a home now. no more transition lifestyle. i want my own place with a little garden. i think it is much sunnier in the south of france than here and the kids keep asking to go to the beach. the nearest beach here is Italy. if i ever lived in france i would want to live either in the south, massif centrale, or les landes. so it's good.

will let you know more about news when something develops. I will also write a blurb on Germany, but only positive things. I've had a bit of criticism that my blogs about Germany are supremely negative. I don't mean for that to happen. there are many good and positive things here. I'll give examples. I think so far, I've given an entirely unfairly negative view point about germany, so i will be more fair. talk to you again soon.