Dena's Birthday!

We had a great day!  Brian bought pastries and made French toast for breakfast, we took Nova to the Square and listened to music and ate fresh potato chips, then we had our first sailing lesson!  Too bad we had to dunk in the Vlatva River to learn how to re-right a boat...

Enjoy the pictures and videos - click the 'Photos!' link!

Goran Bregovic 7/27/2010

 On Tuesday, Dena went to see "Goran Bregovic and his Weddings and Funerals Orchestra." The stage was build on the river and I think all of Prague was there! He is a Balkan composer and his band consists of a gypsy brass band, Bulgarian polyphonies, and Orthodox Church Male chorus, traditional percussion and strings, and an electric guitar. Fun and crazy dancing and music - check it out!

 www.goranbregovic.rs

 

The King of Pop

We are going to remember the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, by being a part of a record breaking consistent Thriller dance.  YEAH!  We just registered and here is the info: (Break the world record for the largest number of people consistently dancing to the song THRILLER) On Saturday, the 28th August 2010, Prague will host an unrepeatable event of global importance! We will try to break the world record for the largest number of people consistently choreographed dancing to the song THRILLER by Michael Jackson. If successful, it will be a record in the Guinness Book of World Records!
http://www.thrillerdance.cz/?st=4&

Ironman, training, and more visitors!

Well, today was day one of half-marathon training.  Yep, we are doing the Cologne, Germany half-marathon in October.  We thought this would be a good way to get back into training!

http://www.koeln-marathon.de/1-1-home.html

We did it - we signed up for Ironman Austria on July 3rd, 2011.  Mark your calendars!

Tomorrow another set of visitors comes our way, Linda is a former colleague of Brian's and also did yoga with Dena.  She will be staying with her friend for 4 days and then they are off to Vienna.  Fun!

Riverside School

Dena spent the day yesterday at Riverside School with her class for next year.  A good group of kids (13 total so far!!!) and she will be teaching Year 2 which translates to first grade.  Fun!  Here are some things to make the US teachers jealous:

• Class size is typically around 15
• There is a full-time aide assigned to her classroom, ALL the time
• All materials and curriculum are provided
• 7 weeks off during the year and a full 2 months in the summer

Woo Hoo!


Today we are headed out to walk the dogs with some new Czech friends, this weekend we will be building our triathlon supplies back up in order to ride with some expats next weekend.  We are excited to see the beautiful Czech countryside on our bikes.

Oh....and we are seriously contemplating another Ironman:

 http://www.ironmanaustria.com/event/default.asp?MicroSiteID=5

Final days with Cindy

We all continued to have fun in the last few days.  Cindy finished shopping and we discovered a new park in the city that is something like a forest preserve.  We spent a day hiking and then finished the evening with dinner at a unique vegetarian restaurant and one more stroll across the Charles Bridge.  There are more pictures uploaded covering the trip!

Thanks for the visit Cindy!

Es ist nach Deutschland gehen wir!

I won't tell you what that says - use Google Translate!

After many fun-filled (beer-filled) days in Prague, Paul from Paul's Dog Hotel came to pick up Otto and Nova.  There were off to their own vacation in the Prague countryside.  Check out the site:

http://www.doghotel.cz/index_en.html

Later that afternoon we boarded the train to Berlin, Germany.  We arrived and found our apartment, and course headed out for fabulous German Heffeweizen!  The next day in Berlin we took a bike tour of the city and learned more about Berlin's amazing history.  It was amazing to see where the 1933 Nazi book burning took place and to stand outside the bunker where Hitler committed suicide.  We haven't even begun to talk about the Berlin Wall.

That night we headed to a "dark" restaurant, it is a restaurant completely in the dark and you are served by blind waiters.  What an amazing experience!  Check out the website, we have to highly recommend trying this if you ever have the chance.  you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face!  The next day we visited the museum at Checkpoint Charlie and learned about the many wall crossing attempts during the 28 years of the wall's existence.  We also took a tour of the underground bunkers that were built in fear of World War III.  After we watched a World Cup game and packed for Dresden the next day.

Dresden was a geographically beautiful city with fun shops and restaurants.  But, never fear, we managed to find a brewery with great German beer!  Since it is so close to Prague we will definitely have to travel back.  Have fun looking at the pictures!

Our New Resolution...

Okay, so the goal for the rest of the summer is to KEEP UP WITH THE BLOG!  Cindy's visit was great, we had so much fun both showing her what we have learned about Prague, and exploring new things with her!  The weather was perfect, the World Cup was exciting, and having our friend around for 2 weeks was great.  It was sad to see her go...

I have uploaded the first installment of pictures from Cindy's trip.  Within about an hour of her arrival, we headed to the first of many beer gardens (http://prague.tv/prague/nightlife/bars/riegrovy-sady-beer-garden).  After, we started day 1 of the Prague walking tour with our guide, Brian!  The next day we completed the tour and headed to the Prague Opera to see La Boheme.  It was a great performance and our seats were fantastic (http://www.czechopera.cz/index.php?akce=theatres&kod_sceny=4).  At intermission Brian surprised the girls with champagne!

The following day was more city sight-seeing and participating in Museum Night where from 7pm - 1am almost all of the museums in Prague are open for free with free transportation.  It was packed and we only made it to two!  A lot of fun though.

We spent many more days at parks, beer gardens, shopping, and EATING!  We went to many of our 'new' favorite restaurants to eat and drink our evenings through the city.  Enjoy the pictures!

PS - please forgive us if there are spelling errors, spell check is only looking for Czech words....hmmm.

Sorry for the delay in posting!  Dena was sick, both dogs got sick, and Brian traveled to London for his visa.

Last weekend we went to the largest beer festival in the Czech Republic, a good day! Take a look at the pics! Today we are off to an open air market and a Flamenco restaurant.  This is for you Pops:

http://www.ceskypivnifestival.cz/en/

Next week our great friend Cindy arrives for a 2 week visit - YEAH! In the meantime, Otto will continue his training...(check out the video).

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to our moms especially:  Nancy and Linda!

Well wishes to all the mommies who read the blog! 

Better late than never...

Vienna was amazing! We headed first to the Belvedere Palace, Prince Eugene's summer home, and saw the Klimt original, "The Kiss" (one of my personal favs!).  We also saw Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, and Rodin. WHOA!

While exploring the city at nighttime, we stumbled upon a large outdoor party which happened to be a socialist gathering (that's for you pops)!  What luck?  And, to top it off, they paid us back for our beers as long as we returned the cup....

We spent the next day on bikes throughout the city, a great time and we were able to work off calories for more beer!

On a side note - the dogs made it safely today! They are a little out of sorts, but good otherwise.  We had quite an experience at the airport, but after a long day we are all cuddled on the couch.

 

 

Check out the new photos on Shutterfly.  Love to all!

Italy and Vienna

Today we spent the afternoon with some new friends from Italy. They fixed us Lasagna (yes - Lasagna made by Italians!) and also shared a bottle of Mirto Spirits, made only on the island of Sardinia from the leaves and berries of wild myrtle. Sara and Max are wonderful and gracious! And I'm learning some Italian! 
 
On a side note -we are off to VIENNA! Brian and I leave this morning! AUF WIEDERSEHEN!

Meeting People and Fun Facts!

Brian is learning a lot during his tours, if you want to see some of Prague watch these movies:

Mission Impossible I (the first 30 minutes or so is filmed in Prague)
Amadeus (Mozart lived and composed here, Don Giovanni was first performed here at the Theatre of Estates in 1787 - we hope to see Mozart performed there!)
The Brother's Grimm
Immortal Beloved 
Van Helsing
The League of Extrodinary Gentleman 
Hart's War
Shanghai Knights
Kafka

 Also, we've been out to see a few bands interested in Brian and met a really great couple from Italy, an island called Saregna, check out this picture:

  They are really wonderful and we are going to their flat this week to have cheese from their homeland!  Dena met a girl from Singapore on an interview who teaches yoga so they are meeting this week to share.  The sun is out and it is beautiful!

We love and miss everyone!

Prague Update

Brian and I are still having a great time, there are more pictures on the Photo link.  We've been able to meet with Jeff (our Prague contact and amazing guide) a couple of times to enjoy a "few" good beers and conversation.  We are looking forward to spending more time with Jeff and his family before they leave Prague in May...

In the meantime, we have been interviewing like mad and have a few options. Dena is deciding between teaching jobs and Brian is leading bike and is pursuing several different music options.  Check out the link:

http://www.prahabike.cz/

Good news - we found a triathlon store (see the picture here)!  It is nothing compared to Focus or Tribe in Phoenix, but at least something.  We were able to find a few local races, a pool to swim at, and some rides.  Now that water can't be warm....BRRR!

Bohemia

Not that we ever need to hear this song again, it is interesting hearing "Bohemian Rhapsody" in Bohemia!

We went on a walking tour Saturday, a beautiful sunny day!  We rode the funicular railway in Prague 5 up Petrin Hill in Petrin Park.  The hill rises above the city to 960 ft.  The views are amazing!  In the park in the Monument to the Victims of Communism, there is a picture if you click the photo link...a moving piece.  The railway was originally built in 1891 for a Jubilee Exhibition to carry visitors to see the Observation Tower (Eiffel Tower mini-me).  It originally ran on water but has since been updated.  We also trolled around the Observatory located at the top of the hill.  http://www.prague.net/funicular

After, we explored Prague 5 and found a great pizza & beer joint, Pizza Einstein  http://www.pizza-einstein.cz/

We went back to the river and walked along a small island park where we saw something like a "marbles" tournament going on...then we rented a paddle-boat and went out on the river.  It was great!  We walked to Wallenstein Palace, which was closed for the night, but we walked the amazing garden inside and saw peacocks, owls, and a bizarre replica of a limestone cave.  We are really enjoying ourselves and looking forward to a busy week of interviews and then eventually working (boo!).                  

First Weekend in Prague!

After seeing all the sites at the Prague Castle, Dena and I walked to the Little Quarter.  We decided to have a beer and stopped at Restaurace U Mlymare Cafe Neruda.  We ate baked Camembert cheese with plum jam and walnuts.  Dena swore that two members of the "Czechen" mob showed up.  Turns out it was two members of the "Live Gypsy Music" that night!  We're learning...

-Brian

Voyage Details

Hello!  We are here!  We wanted to write about our journey...


We bought a pack of Arizona playing cards as our last farewell to the beautiful desert and boarded the plane.  Things started out fine and we picked out our movies to watch as we breathed deeply through turbulence that lasted along the entire U.S.  An announcement came on 30 minutes into the flight that the entertainment system would not be functioning during the duration of our flight...we decided to go to bed. 

Once on the ground (after packing our British Airways blankets just in case we needed bedding later) we were already 30 minutes delayed which left 1 hour to catch our flight to Prague.  Someone was very ill on the plane from PHX to ENG so paramedics were called on board - more waiting.  After another 30 minutes, we headed to our gate which took another 20 minutes, down the escalator 3 times, up another 3 times, ride a train, then the gate, they rushed us through security to make our flight.  We did the classic "airport dash" only to find the flight slightly delayed (we had 5 minutes to spare!).  On the plane and smooth sailing until Prague!

The Prague airport is nice and customs was quick and convenient. Unfortunately, 3 of our 10 checked bags did not arrive; Brian's bass guitar and our two triathlon bikes. After finding someone to help us and get that sorted we got carts to carry our huge bags to try and find our driver. We went through the one-way doors and there he was, in a panic, waiting so patiently for us. Tony was VERY nice and took us on a scenic route to get us acquainted with Prague's larger landmarks on our way to our new home. This was nice as it was out of his way and we had a predetermined price for the pick-up; he did not charge more! Tony was a lovely way for us to meet Prague.

Our apartment is great and we felt right at home. The owners left us a bottle of Czech Champagne to celebrate! We even made our way to a restaurant to eat pizza for dinner, the place is called Gusto and it's right across the park from our home...yeah!
http://www.gusto.cz/

Away we go....

We are waiting in the airport to board our plane for our new adventure in Prague!  Thanks to everyone (especially our family) for your support and love.  We will miss you, but we will see you soon!

So much ago..and a new apartment!

We were talking about when we made our decision to pursue moving to Prague.  It was late January of this year.  Funny, we said it seemed so long ago,  but actually it wasn't.  Brian said, "It was just so much ago!"  We have done many things in a short amount of time and things have been in a whirlwind.  Now we're just along for the ride!

Our relocation agent, Dana, sent us some ideas for apartments.  We felt really good about the first offer she sent, but wanted to take our time.  We put the first offer on google maps and discovered it was across the street from a large park.  It appeared to be a great location, was furnished, affordable, sunny, and has a balcony.  After a couple of days talking in circles, we decided we should just get it.  Might as well be spontaneous, right? 

An overseas wire transfer is another thing.  Since we needed to put a deposit down to hold the property, we tried for an entire day to translate and obtain the information we needed from the Czech bank.  FYI, IBAN stands for International Bank Account Number and you will need a Swift code as well.  Whew!

Here is the link to our new apartment:
http://www.homesweethome.cz/en/long-term-apartment-rentals/L23795-prague-2---vinohrady-gorgeous-cozy-apartment-2-1-for-rent-slezska-street-balcony-87-sqm/

Just for fun!

Check out the photo page, I've uploaded some photos of the House on Warbler Street.  It was a wonderful home for many years, thank you to all who shared it with us!

http://livingoffthewall.shutterfly.com/

And the Winner is...

PRAGUE!  

Unfortunately (or not?) the job offer in New Zealand could not happen.  Everyone included was disappointed, but their government is strict  and the center would not receive the funding it deserved if they offered me the job.  Talk about RED TAPE!

We are very excited and finishing up our final plans.  We have spent the last few days clearing out the house, putting out trash, and tying up loose ends.  Today we scheduled disconnection for our utilities and car/house insurance.  We also secured a PO Box online and picked up the keys.  For now, all that is left is 2 pieces of furniture!  Unbelievable!

 Oh yeah, don't forget this:  British Airways flight attendants are on strike.  Guess what airline we are flying???

3/12/10 - Sold the car!

Note to self:  be sure to have immediate back up plan when car sells after 10 minutes of being listed.

We are surprised but very pleased to have sold the car so quickly.  Our back up plan was borrowing Brian's mom's car.  She is a flight attendant and not always in town.  However, she is of course in town and needs her car!  We found a rental car, very few right now due to spring training.  They were nice enough to charge us the inflated price for spring training as well.  Aww...so nice.

We are set with Nancy's car now, whew.  A big thank you to our friends Cindy and Kristina who offered to help and rearranged their schedule to accommodate even when we ended up working it out.  You're great!

Prague Apartment - fixed

Hi all!  We just fixed the apartment link, check it out!

http://www.rezidenceostrovni.cz/apartman-c-3

3/10/10 - New Developments...

We have been MIA for a while, let us tell you why:

So...just when you make a decision, the tables are turned.  This week Dena was presented with a job interview over Skype (Dena's new favorite thing).  Catch - the job is in New Zealand.  Remember the blog that said we were going to wait out the permanent residency there?  Yeah.

The job is for an Early Childhood Centre in Wellington, the capital city.  This is good because there is more likelihood Brian can find a job, as opposed to living in a rural town.  We have spent the last week waiting on government "processes" to assess Dena's qualifications.  The job offer is pending on this.

So, our plans may drastically change since a work permit is like a free ticket into the country and to the path of permanent residency.  All this 2 1/2 weeks before Prague departure....can you say STRESSED??!!

Skype and Na zdraví (to your health)!

What a great thing!  A free way to keep in touch with our friends and family.  Everyone should check this out!  Get a free download and then give us a call!
http://www.skype.com

Our skype name is:  brianjonberger






We attempted to check out banking in Prague.  Dena spent at least 10 minutes on a completely Czech site attempting to decipher the unique language.  That was, until she finally saw the small British flag that changed the site to English....got to be smarter than the machine!

Brian and his mom watched a PBS video from Rick Steves.  Here is the Hulu link to the video, it is about 30 minutes long and great!  Na zdraví (to your health)!

www.hulu.com/watch/100479/rick-steves-europe-prague-and-the-czech-republic#s-p9-5o-i0

It's just a couch!

Today we sold our wonderful couch, you know, the one that's 'just right.'  Interestingly harder than imagined, but after 5 minutes we were feeling better.  It reminded us of one of our favorite scenes from American Beauty.  Follow the link below, and remember, it's just a couch!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xCCoull3I4

2/24/2010 - Fletch: I'm John. Gail Stanwyk: John who? Fletch: John Cock... tos... ton.

Today we asked Jeff:
What ID do you need?

His answer (comprehensive as always!):

Technically, everyone is supposed to have their passport on them.

Now, do we? No, definitely not.
Two reasons. One, you know- a passport is much too valuable to risk losing. And two, the law isn't enforced. No one has ever asked me or my wife for our government ID.
The safe alternative is a photocopy of your passport. I did this for a while. Then after a few months, the copy was looking pretty beat up and I stopped carrying the copy.  Like I said, no one has ever said to me "Your papers, please."

The only time I have my passport on me is when I know in advance I'll need it that day.
Some reasons I do need my passport:

• going the post office to pick up a package
• visiting my bank branch
• visit at the notary
• running to the hospital (I always have my insurance card on me)
• renting a car

This is good to know, we were worried about carrying our passport around!

2/22/2010 - Housing and Eye Twitches...

Over the weekend we decided to secure short term housing for a month in order to explore the city, search for jobs, and narrow down places we would like to have a long term apartment.

We searched all weekend and came up with several options, a little more expensive for short term, but we think a good choice in the long run.  To be certain of our choices and prices, we asked Dana at Relocare to also look for us (they charge 10% of the total cost for short term).

Monday we heard back from Dana.  She had found a place for a very good price in a great location with all the things we need:  wi-fi, washer/dryer, full kitchen.  The total price even with the 10% is cheaper than we could find on our own so we felt good about it and completed the reservation, yeah!  Here is a link to our place:
http://www.rezidenceostrovni.cz/apartman-c-3

And Brian and I have both officially developed eye twitches...

2/18/2010 - In dog training, jerk is a noun, not a verb. (Dr. Dennis Fetko)

Yes, we have two dogs.  Nova is 9 and Otto is 7.  And yes, we are taking them back to school.  It appears that we have been lazy and need to re-train ourselves.  We have been a house where the living is easy for all of us, especially with the large dog toy in the form of a swimming pool outside.  So, we are building our arsenal for apartment living.

For instance, we have tried to get up and go walking.  Funny thing is, we have made excuses for it being TOO COLD!  Problem?

Otherwise we have been good.  We signed up for a 6 week obedience course which has been very good for all of us.  We bought and received our kennels, Petmate Skykennels from Dog.com. They are very nice but, of course, Otto is not sure of it.  Nova loves it, she spends hours inside sleeping.  We have dog whistles for barking, just in case they are crazy (ha!) and we can give dog whistles to the neighbors.

Our trainer is truly the second coming of the dog whisperer, we appreciate Bryan and his knowledge!

2/15/2010 - Air Animal Pet Movers

At this point we has spent 2 weeks cleaning out the house and selling things through Craig's List.  It is typically taking 1.5 weeks to sell each item.

It was time to finalize how to move the dogs, Nova and Otto.  We originally obtained several quotes from various 'pet mover' companies while planning for Australia.  Who knew that was such a lucrative business!  We also began looking into requirements for their health.

We decided on a company call Air Animal Pet Movers where the first page of a google search was the various reviews.  Those of you who know us know how important the dogs are to us, so this has been a painstaking process.  This company was founded in 1977 in Tampa, Florida, by Dr. Walter Woolf, a licensed veterinarian, and his late wife Millie.  They sent us a fancy folder with tons of information and gave us a contact person, Traci Bastien.  She has been a consistent communicater and thorough with the necessary requirements.

After the intensive process in preparing the dogs for Australia, Prague is a breeze!  They need updated rabies (done!) and updated vaccines (done!).  Yeah!  Dena faxed the necessary information to Traci today, the dogs will be picked up at Dena's parents and delivered to our door.  Traci made sure to let us know that there will only be one stop for them while flying (if necessary) and that there are boarders all over the world who help if there are complications.  What a relief.

We started looking at kennels for flying and training, Traci suggested taking them in the car in their kennel through a car wash to simulate the airplane.  Now, the hard part is getting the pig (Otto) into his kennel....

Photos!

Hey - check out the link on the left side of your screen and on this post.  It will take you to our photos!

http://livingoffthewall.shutterfly.com/

2/1/2010 - Liquidating our life

This term was coined by Brian's mom.  She asked how the "liquidation of our life" was going.  It has been an interesting process for us, sad but liberating.  We began the process in October with the first garage sale and random listings on Craig's List.  Dena had a difficult time getting rid of books, many special ones were packed to save.

Little by little, things began to go.  The house opened up and the dogs had a great time!  After the final garage sale in January, we packed up the final boxes of 'keep' items.  We are sending these boxes to Dena's parents to hold until we decide where to settle for good.  We ended up with 4 standard size boxes.  It's amazing how much extra stuff we had!

The rest of what is left is sitting in the garage for charity pick up.  We plan to list the big items in a few weeks, here is what we thought we should keep for a while:

couch
stereo
bed set

1/29/2010 & 1/30/2010 - Garage Sale!

Thanks to our community - we have done very well with our garage sales.  We had one in October, in anticipation of leaving for Australia in January.  We waited a while after to decide what we were going to do.  Now that we had made a decision, it was time to purge the rest of our things.

Dena's mom came up and helped to manage the sale, we posted it on Craig's list on Monday (GREAT advertising, people were calling to see if they could come by early!), and basically sold everything.  There was only a handful of things left.  We closed early on Saturday after watching too many people do the 'drive by.'

We celebrated that night by going to one of our favorite restaurants in downtown Phoenix, www.sensake.com with Dena's mom.  We told her the news over a couple of bottles of Sake.  She was excited and sad, but ready to see us live out our lives!

1/26/2010 - Job Search

We spent several days making a comprehensive list of English schools, Preschools, Private Schools, and colleges.  We spent two straight days applying to various schools and openings on www.expat.cz.

We heard back from several schools, most indicating that they did not have openings but to be sure to check again when we arrived.  We felt this indicated that we would have more luck when we arrived in Prauge.  Dena, however, heard back from 3 preschools asking for her to make an appointment to visit the schools when she arrived.  We felt very good about the feedback and decided to put our efforts into more pressing issues at home and save the job search for our arrival.

1/24/2010 - Taking the Plunge

On Sunday we decided to go to Prague!  We reviewed our research over and over again, but it just comes down to making the decision.  Dena got online and did a google search for cheap airfare.  We really liked this site:  http://www.economytravel.com/

1...2...3....purchase!  Done! 

And away we go!

1/22/2010 - Still Undecided

Although undecided between Prague and Munich, we began to focus our efforts on Prague.  We contacted four different relocation companies thorugh email on www.expats.cz.  We heard back right away from a company called Relocare, http://www.relocation-prague.com.  Dana offered to call the next day at a time of Dena's convenience and they talked for 45 minutes about the legalization process and other services Relocare offers.  Brian also spoke to Dana the next morning to receive the same information.

We would have liked to have information from another service, but we only heard back from one other service and didn't feel necessarily valued there.  At Jeff's advice, we posted a question asking about other's experiences with relocation services (posted on expats.cz 15/02/10 but no response yet).

Here was the initial quote for some services from Relocare that we were interested in:

Preparation of application for granting new Czech visa for NON European citizen- Price is 6,400czk+ 20% VAT / per one person.

*Administrative fees are not including (1,000 CZK)/ per person

*Translation of documents and legalization (verification) of documents are not including.

Trade License – can be ready in less than 1 week

Price is 6,400 CZK + 20% VAT / per one trade license

*Administrative fees are not including (6,000 CZK)

*Translation of documents and legalization (verification) of documents are not including.

• Home Search – 75% of one month rent.
• Insurance (health) – assistance with health insurance 500czk
• Airport pickup – small car 840czk, big car (in case you have many suitcases) 1,200czk
• Visa & Legalization – prices given above
• Orientation Day – 4,000czk
• Bank Account – 2,000czk
• Connect Utilities - internet, cell phone – you may not need that as some of the connection will be already install in the flat you will rent – so lets wait and see what you will actual need.

1/18/2010 - What now?

After a the back and forth with Jeff and his gracious answering of our steady questioning, we began to favor Prague.  This for a couple of reasons:  1) Nova and Otto - our dogs - and the various "dog friendly" comments we continued reading, 2) Cost of living - less expensive than Munich, and 3) Gut feeling that we might find Prague more to our liking.  We thought maybe we should apply for jobs to see what the responses might be.  We created websites for ourselves that highlighted our careers.  We also constructed form cover letters, converted our resumes to CVs (curriculum vitae), and began hunting through the schools.  

http://.denaaucoin.wetpaint.com
http://brianberger.wetpaint.com

At the same time, we began laying out the details for the cost of moving:  the dogs, the legalization process, and possible relocation help.  More on that to come!

1/13/2010 - Expat Yourself

Dena quickly heard from Jeff in regards to her Munich vs. Prague posts.  Jeff graciously discussed living in Europe in general, leaning toward Prague as he enjoys it there.  He offered links to explore in both cities and gave us food for thought.

We spent two days coming up with initial questions for Jeff to post in a forum on his website:
*Good place to live w/dogs
*Schools to go apply to first
*How to plan a monthly budget
*What to expect with income; etc (we have the finances to live for 3-5 months with no income. We hope not to burn through that though!).

Here is the link if you'd like to see the dialogue:
http://www.expatyourself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3

He also included a helpful e-book with great information about Prague:
http://www.expatyourself.com/docs/InfoB ... igners.pdf

1/11/2010 - European Discovery

The educated decision: don't make a decision, do research first! Dena spent the majority of the day putting a cost of living comparison together. Along the way, she found a website, www.expat.cz.

There were several members of this website called "expats," people who live and work abroad of their home country. There is a section for US expats, and research calls for interviews! Brian created a message asking the following questions:
1. Why did you choose Prague/Munich?
2. What is the job market like for educators?

That is when we found and were adopted by Jeff from www.ExpatYourself.com. And the rest, as they say, is history!

1/4/2010 - The Pondering

The week of 1/4 to 1/10 was spent talking and talking and talking about what options we had. We have every support here in Arizona: our families and a free place to live while we wait for visas. In ten years, will we look back and be glad we spent two years in Tucson, or will we look back and see the two years we spent in Europe? One option is more financially sound, and the other is more adventurous.

What to do...

1/1/2010 - Time to make a decision

Well, it has officially been over a year since we began our journey toward permanent residency in Australia. Dena's sister has lived there for almost 20 years and after visiting several times, we fell in love with the culture and people. The process has been difficult, taking large amounts of time for 1-2 steps and then hearing that we missed one minute detail and must start over. It is incredible to us and our family there that the country would willingly turn away two highly qualified teachers who want to join their culture and stimulate the economy! Unbelievable!

Around November of 2009, Dena's father sent her an article about a new bill passed in Canada that reinstated former citizens and gave their first born generation Canadian citizenship as well. Since Dena's father is from Newfoundland, Dena qualifies and is now, unofficially, a Canadian citizen. We got the paperwork together and submitted in January.

So, we now have several options in front of us:

1. Australia - Dena's sister will be the sponsor for permanent residency. The necessary materials are ready to go, not submitted yet, and will take at least 18 months to receive the visa.
2. New Zealand - We appear to meet their point system but are still waiting for the initial process to be approved. Once every step is completed, this will take up to 15 months.
3. Canada - A wonderful gift! Unfortunately, another 15 months of wait time.
   

That said, after a year of endless paperwork and funding, we said "enough is enough" and started to think about other options. We could stay in the US for up to two years, even when we have been preparing for year for a new adventure, OR, we could go to Europe! Why not, right?

Thus began 2 weeks of research between Prague and Munich. Neither of us has been to either city (gasp), which may cause people to call us crazy, but to us life is a verb, not a noun!