It’s been a week since we arrived, we finally have wifi in our apartment and a little bit of time under our belts to get rid of the jet lag. Enough to say, we have some first impressions.

Our travel days were better than expected. We had our pets in tow, which complicates things, but we were able to keep everyone happy for most of the flights. We had a 3.5 hour layover in Seattle and it ended up being a good amount of time to let the pets relax a bit (see Pip’s extendo carrier which opens to the front and sides) and walk around quite a bit for Remi. I can do a separate post on flying/relocating with pets, it was a whole process that took quite a bit of my brainpower to put together.

When we arrived, we were able to move straight into our apartment, much different than our lengthy hotel stays of the past. While this is wonderful in some ways, you are instantly thrown into your life without the slow transition of a hotel. It is also easy to try and get a head of yourself. As a wise women once said, this is a marathon, not a sprint. So first things first, get food and unpack your bags. From there is a slow discovery of your neighborhood. As much as you want to hit the ground running, it really serves you to ease in.

We have tried lots of restaurants and cafes, including our building Starbucks and Shake Shack at the mall, because sometimes you’re homesick. Being foreign is a feeling that for me, came right back. Lack of language skills means your observation skills show up big time and you are watching what everyone else is doing constantly. We have found many people speak English, but there is still a lot of google translating that is happening.

On the flip side, you can’t really trust your feelings in the first few weeks. You must commit to letting the days happen without any definitive judgements. You will miss all kinds of things right away, until your brain gets used to the constant newness. There is no comfort yet, there is no feeling of home yet. Your own apartment betrays you in the middle of the night when you play light switch roulette in the hallway. But that is all part of it, and I’m grateful to have been through this before, because it brings me peace this time around. So here we are, after all the countless preparations, we made it.