Karin's Adventures

OK, this is the big day! We flew with Delta out of Munich at 11:00 a.m., into Atlanta, then Fort Wayne from there.

Everything went as scheduled, no mayor delays or problems - just the regular tiresome long waits and endless security checks. Our luggage was exactly within the limits, maxed out but not going over it. Two suitcases per person, weighing 23 kg each, plus one carry-on bag and one laptop case per person, weighing no more than 18 kg total.

The immigration procedure in Atlanta was a new experience for me. Carry your brown envelopes with paperwork to this office, fill out a form quick, wait a while. Then the officer calls me by my first name - which I didn't expect, so I didn't react immediately. Got our fingerprints taken, received an explanaton of our rights and duties, and a *welcome to the United States*. Nobody wanted to see our x-rays. The whole transaction took less than 30 minutes.

It took the relocating company two days and three workers to pack all our delicate stuff, box it up, take the furniture apart, make long lists for customs.

It had been snowing, so of course the entire house had muddy and wet footprints all over it. The new owners didn't mind though, they'll put in all new flooring.

While they were filling boxes, I thought they could never make it in time. But they did. Everything went kind of smooth, except for our food from the kitchen, which accidentally got packed too. Now they still have to find these two boxes and take them out of the shipment. Food or plants or anything organic is not allowed to be sent to the USA.

Standing there, all alone in my empty house, I felt a bit sentimental, awkward, lost. But after I had handed the keys over to the nice young couple who had bought my place, I was relieved and pretty happy again. 

A few days ago, early in the evening, two people from the relocator came and dropped 130 cardboard boxes into our hallway. We had to hurry, get those boxes out of the way, make a big stack in the basement.

We are allowed to pack books and clothes, because they can't break just for being *unprofessionally* packed. But we were told not to tape the boxes shut, and to put a label listing the content on top of each box.

Now we have a stack of 22 boxes filled with books in the living room, all numbered and labeled. And Excel-sheets on our laptops, with more labels ready to fill out and print for more boxes to come.

I couldn't believe how fast this transaction went! Listed the car on eBay at 8:00 a.m., got a phone call at 10:30 a.m. - sold my car for €1,200.

I had been looking forward to this day for four months, ever since I said *I quit*. But now, actually being there, I had a few mixed feelings. After thirteen years and three months of going to the same place five days a week, meeting the same people, working on the same programs, typing on the same keyboard and sitting on the same chair, you do get a little attached to it.

Packing my stuff up was easy. I had decided not to take much. Just my personal belongings, a few books I had bought with my own money, Alejandra's paintings and mine, the company magazines - and my mind full of memories. I'm leaving my plants, rows and rows of folders filled with project notes, software manuals, course scripts, and other documents - some of them older than myself in this company.

I spent my last day on a hand-shaking tour, personally saying *farewell* to roughly 100 people. I was a little surprised to realize, that I actually know 20% of the staff closely enough to be missing them - and maybe be missed by them in return.

Our wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving, my birthday, farewell parties, ..... we have lots of reasons to celebrate.

At home we cooked a 14 pound turkey with apple-raisin stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, a pumpkin pie and a cherry-cheese cake. Enough for eight people to enjoy.

At work I ordered a buffet for about 60 colleagues. Our cook and his team did an excellent job, like always. 

Do you know, how many contracts, memberships, and other ties you accumulate over the years? You'll find out, when you move. All these organisations and companies and people need to be notified of your address change, unless you want to end that relationship - in which case you have to cancel early enough.

I sent cancellation letters to TV/radio company, phone company, internet service provider, electric company, house insurance, liability insurance, sports club, automobile club, cell phone company and one of my credit cards. Change of address notifications will go to four different banks, my tenant in the rental apartment (which I'll keep for now), the post office and (of course) my brothers and sister, my parents, a few friends, some of my colleagues.

My phone company actually wanted the telephone back, which I had rented from them for €1.07 a month since November 1987. I was tempted to buy it, but then, I couldn't use it in the USA.

I had four different relocation companies look at our stuff and make an offer for moving it. They all agreed on the size of container we would need: a big 40-foot overseas shipping container. But their prices varied from €8,500 all the way up to €11,000 for the same job.

Needless to say, we picked the cheapest one - who also seemed to be the most experienced and professional. There's a lot of international customs rules and laws involved, which doesn't make it any easier. And then we will be without our things for up to two months.

What are we taking? We take everything! Except the kitchen, the washer and dryer, the car. Everything else will be shipped to Indiana. About 150 big boxes full of clothes, books, dishes, CDs. And then all our furniture, big closets, chests, couch, tables and chairs, the beds and matresses, our three computers, even TV and VCR and DVD player (so we can watch our German videos). All electric appliances will need a power converter in the USA.

This is our relocator: Herlitz GmbH

Our biggest, maybe our only, asset is the place we live in. My 780 squ. ft., two bedroom, split level apartment/condo with a nice finished basement and a tiny piece of backyard, conveniently located close to a subway station on the outer edge of Munich. I wanted to sell that, so that we would have a nice amount of money available to pay off part of our debt, pay for our move, live on until we find jobs - and maybe even have enough for a down payment on our new home in Indiana.

I picked a realtor out of the yellow pages. Very lucky pick! They worked fast and efficiently. We had several people look at our place within two or three weeks, after just one ad on the web and two ads in local papers. A very nice young couple was so enthused with the location, the apartment, the price and everything, that they sounded like they wanted to move in right away. 

On October 6th 2005 we had an appointment at the notary's office. Signed the sale contract. I will receive €203,000 for my apartment - which had cost only €160,000 when I bought it in 1987. The bank will take €97,000 out of it, to pay back the remaining mortgage. Which leaves us with €106,000 to start with. And at least €80,000 will be available after I pay back some of my most ugly loans (the ones with 15% interest rate). 

How many times have you thought to yourself *one more thing like this, and I'll quit*? And then you stay in your job, because it's convenient, because it's not that bad, because you have to work somewhere,..... With my new immigrant visa in my passport, there was nothing to stop me now.

On August 30th 2005, after coming back from my summer vacation, I had my weekly meeting with the team leader. And I just couldn't wait any longer - even though, according to my contract, I could have waited until September 30th to tell the company: I quit. I'm leaving this company, this town, this country, and even this continent.

I was surprised to find out, that (with maybe two or three exceptions) nobody at my company had expected that. Even though I had told everybody about the financial hardships we were facing, because of Tom being unemployed and our family being spread out over two continents, and my divorce being very expensive. Some of my colleagues had even suggested *why don't you just move to America*. Probably nobody thought I would have the guts to actually do this, at my age.