Travel Along...: What Makes Us Happy

One of the questions people have asked is if moving to a foreign country is harder or easier the second time. The answer is, "Yes." I know, it's not a yes or no question, but there are things that are easier and things that are harder, even when you are returning to a place where you have already lived.

Once again, we took our driver's test within 24 hours of arriving on base, and passed. The benefit - this time we know our way around. We had great sponsors who picked us up, checked us in, took us to the places we needed to go, but because we had been here before, we didn't have too much wasted energy to get settled in and get our own set of temporary wheels.

The process for house hunting had changed. We were offered the opportunity to live off-post again, and happy to take on that challenge. There are resources for helping narrow down the choices, offering information on towns, distances and statistic about the homes and what they offer. We had a specific size of house in mind, in a specific area around the military facilities. We secured the addresses from the housing contractor and drove around for 2 evenings, deciding which we would want to see inside, knocking some off the list because of parking (or driving) limitations of my "big American pick-up truck." We looked at several inside, and chose one that was very nice, with wonderful landlords.

But before we could finish the contract process, we had dinner with friends in the village where we lived 10 years ago. We laughed, shared stories and walked around the neighborhood together. And in the end, we found a house much smaller than we had envisioned, but only one block away from people we already know. Perhaps the hardest thing was to return to the first landlords in a village 25 km away to tell them that we had changed our minds. [Truth be told, I made Shawn go without me... I was afraid they would be angry, or that we would give US personnel a bad name.] But in the end, they were sad, but understood that we would want to be close to our friends. The result could not have been better.

Perhaps the best part about returning to a well-loved place is that we have amazing support in this process... from our American friends who are helping us find our place in the military community... and from our German friends, who are happy to have the "American tuba player" back in their midst. We are especially glad that we will be living in this place again.

When we started the housing process, I emailed a friend in Germany who has also returned to a previous town - even to the same house. I asked her if there was any negatives on making that choice. Her response was this: "We don't often get the chance to go back and relive good friendships and places. If you have the opportunity - take it - it's a real blessing."

We have been taught by the world that bigger is better, but this process has helped me to understand that it's almost always about the relationships we have with the people around us. Many people think that the reason we wanted to come back was for the travel, but in addition to meeting the Air Force's needs, we are happy to continue to grow friendships, not just with our German friends, but also with our other friends stationed overseas. Time and again we are reminded that it's the little things that count, and together they make for a very good life.

Here are a few pictures, to satisfy your curiosity: