Well as I sit here on the eve of our departure I can’t be simultaneously more excited and more nervous, if I’m honest with myself.  A trip to Europe is one thing, doing it with a 3 and 5 year old is another, and doing it for several months on end is a completely different story.

On one hand I absolutely know that we will have our trials.

There will be the rainy day in a small city with nothing do to and us living in an 800 sq. ft. apartment, and us all on the verge of jabbing each others eyes out.

There will also be the day where our luggage gets lost and I have to try oh so hard to control that Gemini temper that has a very long fuze but on the end of it is a very large boom.  Oh that day won’t be one I’m proud of I’m sure.

But most importantly isn’t the threat of some of those horrible things happening, because they can happen right here in the good ole US of A with all of the amenities and plush surroundings that we’re used to.  Take your pick of any of the petty things that we worry ourselves with every day:  work, friends, family (sorry!), community.  They all are fantastic and make up who we really are, but they also are the source of our frustration and over indulgence of Cabernet on a Friday night.

I’m not so naive to think that these groups and influences won’t rear their ugly heads on our trip and that we won’t be faced with many other, potentially more serious, challenges, but I do know for a fact that the upside is fantastic.

The kids being able to spend months on end living in a foreign country, speaking the language every day, meeting and playing with local kids, and really growing up for a time in another world all together.  Imagine if everyone had that opportunity.

For Amanda and I it will be a chance to sort of “speed date” through a dozen or so European cities all at once.  Big cities, small cities, sheep farms, and urban lofts.  It will be super interesting to see how the kids react differently in each environment.  I think we’ll be very surprised, both good and bad probably, at times.  Kids are just unpredictable like that.

When the trip is over we’ll be able to say with a fair degree of certainty that yes we love this type of place and these type of people and that’s where we want to spend the rest of our lives.  I just hope that’s the same place for us both (and we can convince the kids!).

For the first time in a long time I don’t have a “goal” for the next few months.  I want to make a little bit of money, I want us to have a really great time, but most importantly I want to allow myself to be open to a lot of the things that are going to happen to us.  Let life talk to me a bit, and not be so damn busy that I can’t hear it.  That’s kinda the whole point.  Slow down a few steps, take a step back, and see what happens.

 

Well, next post will be from Dublin where I’ll be sure to report on not only how cold and rainy it is, but also what the exact best way is to drink a Guinness.  And hopefully a whole lot more.

Cheers!