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When I contemplate moving to Berlin, I think about things like furniture, health insurance, doctors (especially with my chronic illness and getting older), appliances, how we'll watch our DVDs (since PAL and NTSC aren't friends), where to get food, and that sort of thing.
Ben thinks about whether it's cost-effective to ship our furniture, dishes, etc overseas.
ESXJ meets INTP.
Whereas I like our dishes (they match, and they were wedding gifts), and several of our pieces of furniture (like the dresser and hutch, which were both wedding gifts from his family). I don't generally get sentimentally attached to stuff, but I'd feel guilty about abandoning these gifts (which we picked out ourselves). I felt bad enough selling my old desk & dresser set last year.
It's true, there's a lot of cool old shit available at the massive flea market every Sunday, but we won't have a car to haul shit. (That's one way we could keep costs lower. Parking fees, insurance, maintenance, and gas add up in a city, especially one where gas prices are twice as high as in the US.)
Other things I think about are whether I want to stay there permanently. I can't imagine moving back stateside at 75 or 80 or older. And our parents aren't getting any younger; driving 5 hours to Maryland, or finding a flight to St Louis, is a far different story than flying back from Europe. I don't have much emotional attachment to my family, but that doesn't mean I want to cut them out, you know?
And it's not like my mom would ever come visit me in Germany. She didn't while I was in Marburg for a year. She freaks out when faced with new things, and she's terrified of airplanes (and smokes, but Nicorette can help on planes I hear). Well, and she can't really afford airfare. If I could get both her and my sister to go, there's a chance it'd work, but I'm doubtful. Dad would probably come visit, if he can get airfare together. Ben's folks, assuming no physical issues, would come no problem. They're living in Basel right now while his mom teaches/does research there, and they spent a year in England (another sabbatical).
There's a part of my mind that's already separated itself from living here.
Ben thinks about whether it's cost-effective to ship our furniture, dishes, etc overseas.
ESXJ meets INTP.
Whereas I like our dishes (they match, and they were wedding gifts), and several of our pieces of furniture (like the dresser and hutch, which were both wedding gifts from his family). I don't generally get sentimentally attached to stuff, but I'd feel guilty about abandoning these gifts (which we picked out ourselves). I felt bad enough selling my old desk & dresser set last year.
It's true, there's a lot of cool old shit available at the massive flea market every Sunday, but we won't have a car to haul shit. (That's one way we could keep costs lower. Parking fees, insurance, maintenance, and gas add up in a city, especially one where gas prices are twice as high as in the US.)
Other things I think about are whether I want to stay there permanently. I can't imagine moving back stateside at 75 or 80 or older. And our parents aren't getting any younger; driving 5 hours to Maryland, or finding a flight to St Louis, is a far different story than flying back from Europe. I don't have much emotional attachment to my family, but that doesn't mean I want to cut them out, you know?
And it's not like my mom would ever come visit me in Germany. She didn't while I was in Marburg for a year. She freaks out when faced with new things, and she's terrified of airplanes (and smokes, but Nicorette can help on planes I hear). Well, and she can't really afford airfare. If I could get both her and my sister to go, there's a chance it'd work, but I'm doubtful. Dad would probably come visit, if he can get airfare together. Ben's folks, assuming no physical issues, would come no problem. They're living in Basel right now while his mom teaches/does research there, and they spent a year in England (another sabbatical).
There's a part of my mind that's already separated itself from living here.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 09:32 pm (UTC)From:The point about the differing strategies is that
Of course, your real question is the macro-scale what do I want to do. Which is an excellent question. I also have a hard time figuring out what I want, especially on big decisions. About as far as I've gotten is (these aren't ordered):
Pros - Living in another country could be a fun adventure, Berlin is a pretty cool place, my life has been feeling in a bit of a rut lately anyway.
Cons - I kind of like a lot of my stuff, I'd need to *really* learn German instead of just dabbling in it, leaving friends here (though honestly a lot of them are in different states where I hardly see them anyway).
I should probably expand this into a more substantial f-locked post, huh? Might've already done it if I weren't like four months behind on making LJ posts...
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 04:25 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 06:35 am (UTC)From:Re: schooling -- I met a German ex-pat here at a dinner party and she said that the bad thing about totally state funded schooling is that you basically decide at age 14 what you want to be when you grow up, and what your major in college is. It's really hard to switch, and once you finish your degree, you can't just "go back to school" the way so many people do here in the US, because the places in school are for the younger folks. You can't even pay your way to get in, the way anyone with a degree can take full-price classes at San Jose state here.
For the people who choose/are pressured into hoch schule? abiture? the trade-school route, there are so few apprenticeships actually available, that the prospect of a high-paying job is basically denied to them for life AND the decisions on who goes where were frequently racially motivated. It was the most negative assessment of the German school system I'd ever heard, I hope it's not that bad in actuality.
The woman in question after completing her degree decided that what she'd really rather be is a post-partum doula. She and her husband decided to move to the US where she could actually go back to school and study to follow her passion. (He was in software or engineering or something similar and it was easy enough for him to move here.)
I don't know how amenable the Germans are in reality to allowing foreigners buy their way into their school system.
--Beth
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 02:50 pm (UTC)From:It's true that very few "people with migration backgrounds" (the euphemism du jour) get into the Gymnasium track; people are working to change that. Everyone I've spoken to finds the apprentice system very good, because you learn a trade and you do it for life. Of course, with the rapid pace of technology today, people are finding their skills getting obsolete sooner than they'd like, which means the government is looking to modify the trade school system and make retraining options more readily available.
allowing foreigners buy their way into their school system.
I don't know what you mean by this or where it comes from in Ben's comment or my post.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 10:09 pm (UTC)From:I don't know what you mean by this or where it comes from in Ben's comment or my post.
You mentioned in previous posts you want to get a degree in Germany so you can be a pharmacist there. Will they let you attend their university if Ben gets a tech job there? (or even if he doesn't and he stays stateside while you migrate in advance.) What will your tuition be?
--Beth
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 10:43 pm (UTC)From:The FU would be where I'd have to go, and hhttp://www.fu-berlin.de/en/studienbewerber/kompass/index.html is their info page for foreign student. I doubt I'd actually have to repeat the entire program, though I'd have to learn medical German, German drugs, and German/state pharmacy law. There appears to be an exam prep course, but I can't find it on the pharmacy school's page.
If I did have to attend university, at today's rates, it would cost me 273 Euro/semester.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 04:19 am (UTC)From:--Beth
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 02:26 pm (UTC)From:If we move, y'all are totally welcome to visit. Can't guarantee crash space, though.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 07:14 pm (UTC)From: