On the Road Again

 May 2007, we packed our bags, tossed the apartment key on the kitchen table and closed the door on our Bangalore home for the last time.  After nearly two years, we were off the road and back in our home in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Four years later, the road beckons again. On June 24, 2011 we will pack our bags, toss the key on the kitchen table and start another adventure in Stockholm.

For those in our extended family and circle of friends who find the recurring comfort celebrating Christmas holidays and other life events in predictable venues, our lives appear exotic. We are not jet-setters, rich or gifted.  We actually have unfulfilled yearnings for the comfort of repeated predictability.  We are, however, susceptible to faint whiffs of possibility that forever swirl about all our lives.  With an inclination to conclude… “that will be a fun adventure”… before common sense resumes its normal control over our senses, Jay accepted a work assignment in Europe.

So Stockholm it is.

Preparing for this overseas move is so different from our preparation for India in 2005.  Looking back on that preparation, we can only conclude that we were pretty naïve.  That’s our kindest self-evaluation.  The biggest advantage we now have is knowledge of the vast network of overseas women’s clubs. 

In Bangalore, Helen’s early discovery of the Overseas Women’s Club helped us orient ourselves and provided a rich circle of friendship.  On a job scouting trip to Hanoi, again, the International Ladies of Vietnam provided instant insight on opportunities and living conditions.  The ink was not dry on Jay’s offer letter before Helen had already round-trip corresponded with the president of the American Women’s Club in Stockholm.

Corporate support for this move is limited.  Yet even if we had the most engaged corporate transition team behind us, there is no substitute for insider scoop from a fellow American already on the ground. 

Our early research revealed that living in Stockholm was very expensive.  But now we also know that even money can’t buy Crest tooth paste or Secret deodorant. It took us at least four months of searching in Bangalore to conclude that stick deodorant was nowhere to be found in the southern tip of the Indian sub continent.  What a head start we have this time!

Another tidbit of insider information is the cost of peanut butter.  Stratospheric!  We’ve converted this data point into our traveling slogan.  Helen to Jay, “You bring home the bacon. I’ll bring the peanut butter.”

Our extended family and close circle of friends have been most supportive and wish us well…”Farväl och lycka till”…..goodbye and good luck.