It's Official

It's official, we're going to Germany. Here are some facts:

• It is cheaper to buy a round trip ticket (knowing you'll pay penalty fees to change the return flight) than to purchase one way tickets. So, we purchased our round trip tickets, guessing at a return date and departure city.

• Europeans use credit cards much less than we do. We're planning on reacquainting ourselves with ATMs while we're there. Funny side note, we just sold a bicycle and have a lot of cash. We don't know how we'll spend it all in such a short amount of time. We typically use credit cards for EVERYTHING, so handling cash is "weird". 

• It is not easy to wire money. Cash is definitely used more frequently there, however, how does one pay rent? Is it ridiculous to pay several thousand a month in cash? Seems like it. But the rental agency doesn't take credit cards or Paypal at the moment. So, wire transfer it is. But, we don't have a local bank. We do all of our banking online. So, we had to go to the notary (Twice, as the first time we got the wrong documents notarized. Thanks to the nice notary who didn't charge us for the second go.) to notarize official requests to our bank to release the money to the overseas bank. Here's the thing, our bank will only send Dollars. Their bank wants Euros. There is no way for the bank to figure out how many exact Dollars to send so that their bank gets the correct amount of Euros. And the exchange rate changes so frequently, that there was no guarantee that what our bank sent, their bank would receive. We had to "guess" as to how much to send and hope it was good. We erred on the side of caution and ended up sending about $5 too much. Better that than being short on our first month's rent.
  
  Now, all of this happens electronically. However, it does not happen immediately. You can send an email to your buddy overseas and it'll probably get there within minutes? But we were told to expect the money to arrive in 5-7 business days. What? The biggest concern we had was losing the rental property. We had already tried to rent a few other places and lost out to other bidders. So, we were worried that if our money didn't come in time, someone else would be able to pay faster and take the apartment away from us. We called the rental agent. They spoke English. They assured us that the apartment was ours, that they'd wait for the money. I just hope no one goes to jail and needs money immediately for bail. It takes a lot longer and lot of red-tape to get an electronic-wire transfer!

Two Candidates Signed

Two candidates officially signed for the Berlin office. They begin September 1st. So if we want to take our time getting to Berlin, vacation for a bit, we'll leave mid-August!

Chris Visits Berlin

Berliner Dom

Chris is in Berlin!

He went to help interview several candidates for the new team. He took a few extra days to check out the area, look at neighborhoods, taste the local foods.

We've been practicing our Skype skills and living with a 9 hour time difference.

Going to Germany?

We've been talking about going to Germany for almost 6 months now. It seems to be happening, but there have been road blocks. Chris' company is starting a new engineering team in Berlin and we're waiting for people to be hired. No reason for Chris to go if there is no one to train. So, we are in a holding patter. It still seems pretty sure that we'll go, but we just don't know when.

Waiting game!

Zip Lining on the Slopes

WHEN: March 26, 2015

WHERE: Big Sky Resort, Montana


WHY: To spend Spring Break skiing a new mountain.


WHO: Chris, Diana, Venice and Xander.


WEATHER: Stormy and snowy at times (we got about 18 inches of snow while we were there!)


WHAT: Zip Lining

Kayaks

WHEN: Late Summer, 2014

WHERE: Oregon lakes, including, Doreena Lake and Waldo Lake.

New kayaks.	Lunch spot.	Parking.

WHY: To use our new kayaks.


WHO: Chris, Diana, Venice and Xander.


WEATHER: Sunny and mild.


WHAT: Kayaking

Starting out.	Lunch with the frogs.	Finishing up.

Tahoe Adventures

Renting kayaks.	Bald eagle sighting.	6 hours of paddling.

WHEN: August, 2014

WHERE: Lake Tahoe, NV and CA. In the Sierra Nevada


WHY: Family vacation.

WHO: Chris (also his parents and sister's family), Diana, Venice and Xander.


WEATHER: Sunny and hot.


WHAT:
Maximum length is 22 mi
Maximum width is 12 mi
Surface area is 191 sq mi
Average depth is 1,000 ft
Average surface temperature in summer is 65-70 degrees F

Renting bicycles.	A river break at the end of our bicycle tour.

Leap of faith.

"We rented bicycles so we could bike to lunch. However, we went on a bit of an adventure by accident when we missed a turn. Several miles into our mistake, we turned around and finally made it to lunch... all quite hungry and ready for food and relaxation!

We decided to do the ropes course at the Squaw Valley Adventure Center. The kids loved hooking themselves into their harnesses and running all round the skies on ropes, wires, planks and ziplines. Chris and I also climbed the log tower at the end and jumped to a trapeze. I was worried my shoulder wouldn't be able to handle swinging, but my worry went out the window as I jumped for it. I know I swore, and while I'm not sure anyone else heard me, the screams in my head were very loud." -Diana