Cheryl on the Web

My name is Cheryl, but you may call me… Mrs. Symons! Yes, I got married in the USA over 6 months ago - and the legal ceremony was in Holland over a year ago - but the Dutch and American governments just couldn’t figure out who had the authority to give me Tim’s last name. Nonetheless, I got news today that the US Consulate has agreed to issue me a passport with the last name Symons :D (more…)

This picture doesn’t do the chaos in our house yesterday justice. The place was so crowded and disorganized that you could barely get anywhere; the word “walk” didn’t apply - try “climb”, “crawl”, or “jump”. But wait, I’m getting ahead of myself… (more…)

Last night I watched a show on German television called “Goodbye, Deutschland”, about Germans who live and work in other countries (German “expats”). Naturally, they face in countries such as Portugal and Greece challenges similar to the ones Tim and I face here in Germany - things like language barriers, social acceptance, government regulations. In most cases I think that it was harder for these German expats than it is for Tim and I here in Germany, because at least in Germany things like health insurance are easily accessible and well-organised. In some ways, though, it was comforting to see these Germans experiencing in other countries the things we also experience here as expats, to reinforce the knowledge we already have - that no matter where you’re from, when you go to a new country and a new culture, there are similar challenges. (more…)

In many ways, today represents the beginning of the end. I’m not talking about the world (though based on the recent hurricane in Germany and the ice storms in Texas you could start to wonder), I am referring to our move to the new house: tonight we start packing everything at the old house into boxes. As you can imagine, we are really excited about the beginning of the end, because in this case the end - being settled into the new house - is a very desirable outcome. The move from the beginning to the end isn’t, in this case, nearly as well-planned as our wedding was. (For those of you not actively involved in the wedding, everyone got their own up-to-the-minute schedule of activities for up to 5 days prior.) But our moving project is still relatively in-scope, only slightly over-budget, and not running behind in any critical areas, so I’m pleased with our progress. I can’t wait to post pictures for you of the end result, we expect it to look fabulous.

In some ways, this move represents the end of the beginning. (more…)

So, just for the record, I haven’t posted to this blog for an extraordinary number of days and, no, that’s doesn’t mean I’ve lost my desire to ramble (far from it!). Two things happened to discourage my blog-writing: (more…)