Sunday, January 20, 2008

2 weeks and counting

I was out for my run tonight. Enjoying the lights of the Dusseldorf skyline reflected on the waters of the Rhine as well as feeling the the drizzle of a cold winter's night on my face. There is something about a run in the cold and wet that somehow clears one's head.

Anyway, as I scampered along the running paths along the Rhine, I was reminded of many such runs...in the mornings and evenings, in the heat and cold, preparing for marathons or just to get out of the home office for a respite, it dawned on me that we've lived in Dussledorf for almost three years. It is really rather hard to believe.

As challenging as moving to a new country can be (especially without the requisite language skills), I must confess that there will be things I will miss about Germany, and in particular, life in Dusseldorf:

* a home office with not traffic or commute
* a neighborhood that I have grown accustomed to and even really like
* running along the Rhine River
* a reasonable cost of living
* just to name a few.

Don't get me wrong; we are looking forward to living in London for many reasons that I am sure I will write about in the months to come. I can, however, say that a little piece of me is sad to leave Germany...we experienced similar bittersweet emotions in Taiwan and South Korea. It's a chapter of a book that is closing, and while the next one will be interesting, fun, challenging, and memorable, this chapter will be closing effectively in about 13 days.

Where did these three years go?

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