Anyone who has talked to me for more than 10 minutes has probably heard me mention my love for Berlin. I first visited the city about six years ago and almost immediately resolved to make it my home one day. I’m thrilled to finally announce that it’s happening! I’ll be joining Zalando in Berlin next month to do Android and hopefully step up my fashion game a bit. Radical Agility sounds like engineering nirvana to me! After working remotely for the past year and a half, I’m looking forward to being in an office again, especially one where I’ll get to work with smart people from all over the world.
It turns out that moving overseas takes a lot of planning and coordination. Who knew? There were obvious things like selling our house, cars, and all the electronics/appliances that will have to be replaced. And lots of government paperwork. We also had to take a hard look at what was worth keeping in storage and what should be donated or sold. Overall, it’s been an exercise in deciding what is really important. Spoiler alert: most of it isn’t. This is my biggest move since college and feels like just as significant of a life change.
What do we expect life to be like in a completely different country? At first, it will be pretty challenging. We’ll be living out of suitcases for about a month and a half until the rest of our stuff arrives. In the meantime, our first job is to find an apartment, which we’ve been warned can be difficult. But after we have our new home established and the stereotypically gloomy winter yields to spring, we’ll enjoy exploring the city as residents rather than tourists. Being able to bike or take the U-Bahn to work will be wonderful. The food! Don’t forget about all the wonderful food! Berlin has an international food scene on par with Houston (minus the Tex-Mex, unfortunately). I’m also excited to be able to raise my son in such a family friendly city. The little guy is going to be speaking German in no time! With all of Europe a short train or plane ride away, there will be plenty of places to go on vacation. Prepare yourself for the onslaught of travel photos. Sorry…not sorry.
It’s going to be hard leaving all our family and friends here in Houston. I wish (most of) you could come with us! But we’ll have a spare bedroom for visitors. House rules will require a mandatory techno club night, just so you know. To those of you here in the US, keep in touch! We have the technology. To all my conference buddies in Europe and friends in Berlin, see you soon!