Chris and I never really planned to live and move all over the world. It has just kind of evolved out of opportunities that have come our way.
For example, years ago after Chris got tenure at the University of Iowa, we struggled through the winter with temperatures that routinely fell to -20º F/ -28.8 C. Brrr. So one year we decided to try what we called Plan B: move to Silicon Valley (this was the height of the Dot Com boom) and try our luck in the high-tech world. We got jobs and stayed in California – yay for Plan B!
But then I got an offer I couldn’t refuse: move to Vancouver, BC and become the manager of a brand-new User Experience Design Team. Suddenly, it was time for Plan C.
Then my company got bought, but around the same time Chris got offered a job in Bolzano Italy. So then we were on to Plan D, a life on a gelato diet. 😉
After 3 years in Bolzano, Chris was offered a 3-year contract as a professor at the University of Tübingen; Tübingen, then, was Plan E.
Chris’ 3 year contract ended last fall — can you believe it’s been more than 3 years that we’ve lived in Germany?! For the past few months, it looked like there was a very good chance Chris would get a temporary opportunity at the University of Hamburg. Up until late January we called moving to Hamburg our Plan F, actually.
However, maybe that was a jinx. The paperwork would up falling through. Plan “F” indeed. 🙁
Ah well. On to other options. Our residence permits to stay in Germany run out at the end of March. We are required at that point to get out of the Schengen Treaty Area for a day or two, but then we’re free to re-enter the area as tourists for 3 months.
This past week we played with two different ideas of what to do next; we nicknamed them Plan X and Plan X-1. Both plans were designed to allow Chris to give an invited (unpaid) talk in Milan in April, but then diverged at that point:
- Plan X: try to get a 9-month visa for Chris (and me) to do unpaid independent research in Italy. The Italian consulate website information was somewhat incomplete, so in order to see if there was a visa we could apply for, we needed to go to Frankfurt to talk to the someone at the consulate.
- Plan X-1: stay in Verona for a month as tourists. Then take the time we have now — since we’re currently unemployed — and make some trips to visit friends and family around the US and Canada. Plus, perhaps, figure out how to get ourselves to Easter Island for a visit. It’s a faraway place that Chris and I have longed wanted to visit.
Anyway, since Plan X required us to talk with someone at the Italian consulate Frankfurt to see if that was even possible, we made a trip to Frankfurt this morning.
BTW, if anyone ever tells you the German trains run on time, let me give you some advice. Do. Not. Believe. Them. After we missed our connection in Stuttgart because our first train was late, we scrambled to figure out how to find a replacement that would get us to Frankfurt in time for our appointment at the consulate. Ultimately we took 2 more trains. All were late. Trains in Germany = on time? Not so much – today was not an anomaly in our experience. I’m just saying.
But in the end we were at least successful in getting to the consulate on time for our appointment. Unfortunately, that was our lone success at the consulate. The very friendly consular official could not figure out any type of visa that we can apply for at this point. We can still go to Italy as tourists for up to 3 months out of every 6, but to stay longer than 3 months, you must have some kind of job (or be a singer, or a model, or a sports star or a couple other things which we are not). Ah well. So, Plan X is off the table; it was a fun fantasy, but it was always a long-shot at best.
On the train ride back from Frankfurt, therefore, there was a moment when Plan X-1 officially became our Plan G. We will leave Germany by the end of March (because we have to), and stay in Verona for most of the month of April (because we already have it booked). But beyond that, Plan G is still taking shape.
However it ultimately shakes out, I’m certain Plan G is going to be good. 🙂
Stay tuned…
Something has got to give, wasn’t that a movie title? From personal experience, and not having the talents and skills you have I nailed a volunteer job teaching art. And a gallery for 1 month in which I can curate 2 shows and hold classes. All as a volunteer. I know people get grants to make money to do stuff like this, but then the focus is bookkeeping and not art. I hate bookkeeping and have just about enough to live on, if I can sell my own art, which I am pursuing more, its a necessary evil, then my life is as good as it gets. Damn, another movie title. I wonder if I can write a bazaar story using only movie titles. Or a conversation. I am sure I can. Someday I might. But I have all the faith in you both, that one day you will be doing something impermanent as it may be. I like the Easter Island trip. Photos would make a great book. I’d like to go to the plateaus in the Andes where spiders and airports have been etched into the earth, and one is capable of seeing them well from above, like in a flying craft of some sort. I believe they did have hot air balloons way back when, but as sure as I am of the location and existence of Atlantis. Which would be another great photo essay. lol
You have the talent and skills to be entertainers, why not put together an act and try it out at a Verona cafe. Make sure there’s a brandy snifter on the piano. That way you’d have the necessary visas to stay as long as you like.:)
Pingback: The start of something G | Two together … wherever
Pingback: Monday Mysteries: A Plan G Primer | Two together … wherever