Long Break

Well this break I had to take from the blog ended up lasting a little longer than planned. Never though it would turn out this long, phew!

The last 6 months have been an emotional rollercoaster. We have been annoyed, in despair, relieved and angry as we had no intention to leave the US when we did and suddenly there were lots of things to take care of. Small things like notifying the landlord and breaking leases, larger things like organizing the actual move and finding somewhere to live in Cologne. And to plan for the new baby. Now looking back, I am not sure how we got through it, but after living at hotels, in furnished apartments or at friends´ for 6 weeks, we found a house to rent outside Cologne as of 1 June and our furniture arrived 2 days before Olivia was born on 14 June. Moving in Germany is never fun, on the contrary, it is really awkward and expensive. Never thought I would end up being homeless at my age but you live and learn,

Houses/flats generally come without kitchen in Germany, sometimes you have to paint before moving in, sometimes it is your obligation to do so when moving out. In our case, we had to paint just about all rooms before moving in. We also had to put down flooring in 4 rooms. Kitchen took 6 weeks to get delivered so we ended up using the grill in the garden. Without having the Weber I am not sure how we would have survived. Luckily weather was great this summer. But, all bad things come to an end, and now we are slowly accepting the fact we are back where we started and are trying to survive as parents of two little girls. Ha, this is the real challenge!

Blog will continue here Team Clarke and right now I am not sure in what language. Perhaps in Swedish with English once a week.