- 70 to Berlin!

Today it's a good day to start this blog.

I've been in this situation before. Three years ago, I started my previous blog about our experience in Paris. 

I'm happy I did it. It allowed me to keep some of my friends and relatives updated on our journey and to write about our feelings regarding the whole adventure. 

I was surprised by the fact that some unknown readers contacted me (some still last week) regarding my posts and expressed their comments about them (mostly positive, which is always good!). 

Looking back at that blog, I realize that one year of my memories are there, pictures, videos, sensations.... So many little details are there, like on a journal. 

This is the reason I want to start posting again, in a new blog. To help me remember, to keep things alive, for me and for all the others who want to share with me this new experience. 

The idea of Berlin came to us while we were still in Paris. I remember that one day I was coming home from school with my son: we were walking under the usual rain, literally climbing up the hill to the top of the Butte aux Cailles, where we lived.  My husband, who had just been offered a position at a German University, had called me to ask my opinion. I didn't know what to answer and I wanted to first inquire our son. He was just starting to get accustomed to Paris, the language, the school. So, I decided to give it a try. While Josh was busy eating his daily pain-au-chocolat and was focused on the crunchiness and sweetness of this delicate piece of warm French pastry, I dropped my question, direct and straightforward: “Josh, what would you say if we decided to move to Berlin, in Germany?”. Silence.

I could literally see his neurons rumble, I could hear them yelling furiously at me. I could imagine his words cried out loud at me: “How dare you move me again? First from Italy to California where I had to learn English, then from California to France where I have to learn French, and now again from France to Germany where I will have to learn German? I am only 10! I deserve to grow up in one place, to memorize only one home address, to have stable friends, to learn how to write and read in at least one language, to feel at home somewhere in this world. I don’t want to be a nomad, always on the move”.

I’m not sure he actually did think all the above. I’m pretty confident that my guiltiness made me assume his reaction could be somehow similar to that. I was wrong. He finished his pain au chocolat, then he looked into my eyes and told me: “That’s fine. But only at one condition. That there is an American school so at least I don’t have to struggle with a new language”.

How much do I love my son? A lot. Sure, at times he can be stubborn, childish, selfish and arrogant. But when it comes to work along with the family and be part of an important decision, he knows what to do. 

Two years and a half have passed since that conversation. In the mean time, we did complete our French experience and we went back to our usual life in South Pasadena. Our son completed the  Elementary School, he moved on to Middle School and is currently almost done with his 6^th grade. 

In 70 days we will be in Berlin, ready to start our new life there. 

Will it be forever? I don’t know. From my point of view, nothing is forever. I lived in so many places in my life (Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Italy, France, USA) that I still don’t know where my roots are. What matters to me is that we will be together. 

Will it work? When I ask myself this question, the first answer that comes to my mind is: "Why shouldn’t?". Berlin is known as one of the most vibrant and exciting cities in Europe, the center of cultural, intellectual and scientific events. It will be unquestionably exciting. We will certainly do our best to make it work.

Giuseppe is already working at T.U.B.  in Berlin. He moved there three weeks ago and he’s making all the necessary steps to become a regular resident. At the moment he's staying in a little apartment in Charlottenburg, but in a few months he'll move in a new house, big enough to accommodate all of us...and perhaps some guests.

I am already in touch with the Hand Surgery department so that I can start working there as soon as I arrive. Of course, I’ll have to become fluent in German but I hope that my experience with English and Latin will help me. 

Josh will attend the Berlin International School, a bilingual school in the South-West area of the city. I personally visited it last year, during a brief “expedition” to Berlin, and I was very well impressed by the curriculum and the location. The teaching language is English, for all the classes. Of course, the students will have to learn German (4 hrs/week) and, on top of it, they will have to choose a “foreign language”, as if German is not a foreign language itself! That's fine. Since our return from Paris, Josh had weekly French conversation classes so for him the choice of an additional language will be an easy task. 

We already found a house, close to the B.I.S., so that our son can go to school either walking or by bike.

The house is at the border with the Grünewald Forest, easily accessible from the house's backyard!!!

I’m already planning a lot of walks in the woods and by the lake. Of course, with so much green around and free space, there's no longer an excuse for not having a cat !!!!!

Both the house and the school are located in Dahlem, a neighborhood very similar to South Pasadena: tree lined streets, parks, very close to downtown and well connected with a Metro line to the city center.

Dahlem-Dorf station

We wanted to find something really similar to our home in South Pasadena, such that the transition is as smooth as possible for our son, who is entering the pre-adolescent phase of his life. He’ll have the school, the sport facilities and his friends and schoolmates close by, such that he won’t have to move too much with the Metro in a city that he doesn’t know and where most of the people speak a language he doesn’t yet understand. Giuseppe and I will be the ones commuting by Metro every day, but that’s fine. Of course, it won’t be as appealing as living in a trendy place as Friedrishain but we can survive. 

In a couple of years, if we decide to stay there, Josh will be entering High School. By that time, he will know German and Berlin enough to move around independently with his buddies, and we will be able to move in an area of the city less residential and less “family-friendly” but more exciting for us (us being the parents!). 

What else? I imagine that the next ten weeks will be frantic,  with the organization of the international expedition (two cars, a piano, the household items) and the renovation of the house here in South Pasadena so that the incoming tenants won’t have “unexpected” surprises with bathrooms, carpet, closets, etc.

Overall, everything seems exciting and I look forward to update this blog in the next weeks with other news. Goodnight!