Life Lately // We Moved!
After our serious case of the in-betweens, we took a BIG step. Back in July when we packed up our things in Heidelberg I never ever would have guessed the path we’d end up taking… or how long we’d be on it. Two months in Southeast Asia then back in Virginia for two more while sorted out jobs and where we ultimately wanted to settle. If you’ve been around for awhile, then you might remember my VLOG from over nine months ago when I shared our plans to leave Germany. At the time Dan and I had been seriously debating places likes Sydney and Honolulu. We just didn’t want ‘it’ to end, whatever it was.
Then we reeled it in, realizing that in reality those destinations were even further and more costly to get to from our home in Virginia. So we slimmed it down to San Francisco, Denver and Charleston and left for our trip.
Throughout our travels to SE Asia I took lots of videos of Dan and I chatting in beautiful places. My goal was to have at least some permanent videos of us to look back on (a la home videos from the 90s). Mainly the videos involve me asking Dan about how he feels about different places, his meal, that kind of thing. At one point in the middle of a Balinese rice terrace I asked Dan, “Where would want to be 30 years from now?” He thought about it for a second then replied “I’d want to live near my kids and grandchildren.” It was a very fair response and I immediately agreed, of course I’d want to be near family too.
The next few hours I toiled with Dan’s reply to my question. We’d debated for months on end about what we wanted in the next place we lived. Heck, Dan had even made a weighted spreadsheet (!) weighing a bunch of factors that we considered important for our search: cost of living, commute, access to outdoors, proximity to friends/family, etc. No matter which way looked at it, the results were fuzzy. I lost a lot of sleep and at least 47 hours of my life hunting Craigslist to see what kind apartments various cities would allow us to afford. Dan’s response though, painted the clearest picture I’d seen yet though. “Where would you want to be 30 years from now?” I realized that we were making that exact decision for our parents. We had to be near family.
In December we narrowed our search to Virginia and Washington DC. No, Dan wouldn’t be able to surf in the morning as he’d planned to do in Honolulu, but the region is beautiful with plenty of scenic hiking trails. We had fought for so long to stay away from our roots that we overlooked how wonderful they actually are. In early December we went to Charlottesville for a wedding and realized it had everything we could possibly want. More than anything though, it reminded us a lot of Heidelberg, which we loved. It’s a mid-sized town with a large university (and with that, a fun student vibe), geographically identical with old rolling mountains, and has a great tourism industry that brings along with it awesome restaurants, shops and zillion vineyards.
Two weeks ago Dan got a job offer for precisely what he dreamt of doing in renewable energy and we found a great apartment near the downtown mall, Virginia’s longest pedestrian-only street. The best part? We’re about 2 hours from both sets of parents and all our close friends.
No, it’s not nearly as poetic as Heidelberg, cool as San Francisco or hip as Denver but we are SO happy to call Charlottesville home!
What’s next for the blog?
The path is a little unclear but, while I’ve taken a blogging and instagram hiatus for the past few weeks, I:
a | turned 30! (ehh! more on that day later)
b | watched and loved Master of None by Aziz
c | have been working my tail off to create my first-ever product! stay tuned! Hints:
1. not an instagram course (I don’t know what I’m doing on there either)
2. travel related
3. not a print shop (though that does seem like fun)
Featured Image: Shenandoah National Park