Reflections on Year 2

With very little fanfare, we marked 2 years in Germany the other week-- actually, I think we were in Austria with B's Mom on the actual date and sort of forgot about it, but we enjoyed a belated bottle of champagne this past weekend so all is well.

I wish I could impart some sort of bigger picture, some sort of "lessons learned," but... um, not much here. We've both become a lot more patient, that's for sure-- dealing with a comically stifling bureaucracy and an impenetrable language (come on, do we really need 16 different ways to say the word "the"?) does that. We count as friends people from all walks and professions that, to be honest, we normally wouldn't come into contact with back home-- everybody from IT whiz kids to high-flying execs to musicians and artists, and we're pretty proud to be in their circle. We've been to places I've only read about in travel magazines and dreamt about visiting "someday." On the whole, life is good. Oh sure, I'd love to be busier-- I'm one of those weirdies who finds happiness in a full workload, and I'm getting there in a fashion. But in the end--and as was completely expected-- living in Europe has changed us more than the other way around. And we really wouldn't have it any other way.