La Grande Mela

If you speak Italian, you would know that the title of this post means, "The Big Apple". If you're wondering why I would title a post that, it's because, yes, the decision has been made for sure (well-99% made), we are moving to New York City in June.

For the past few months, Fabio and I have been struggling with trying to decide what to do with our lives. Long story short, we need to go back to the U.S. for Fabio's green card status, and his company graciously agreed to transfer us back after less than a year in Switzerland. However, Fabio was accepted to the LLM in tax (advanced law degree) program at UW, and I had been offered a job at my old school, Seattle Hebrew Academy (which I DEARLY love). We struggled for a few months with the decision, Seattle vs. New York City. With the economy as it is, along with a few other factors, we decided that for now, NYC is the best option.

We made the decision a few weeks ago, but we have both sort of been in denial. We would really prefer to go back to Seattle now, but the opportunity in New York is too good to give up, and we feel lucky that he has such a good job, with so many of his friends from law school not able to even find one.

We have already bought tickets to go to NYC in May to find a place to live, and I'm already applying for jobs. Sigh. If I have to leave Switzerland, my first choice would not have been NYC, but there are things I can get excited about I suppose. A few: Living close to my Aunt Beth and Abbie and Scott (5 hours to each of them), the U.S. Open, restaurants in NYC, being close to cities like Boston, Philly, DC...

On a different note. We haven't done anything worth noting in the last few weeks. It's still miserably cold here (still in the 30s) and it's just more comfortable to be inside. The highlight of our weekend was shopping at a German grocery store, Lidl, that just opened across the street from Fabio's office. In complete honesty, we spent 50% less on groceries than we would have at our normal Swiss grocery store. We were stoked to be walking home with 4 bags of groceries for only 50 Francs!



Also, I plan on enjoying my last week in my 20s. That's right. I turn 30 this week. I'm pretty happy with how my "20s era" played out. As a tribute to an incredible era: I went on a mission, did my student teaching in Washington DC, got my first job, taught in Los Angeles for 4 years (I always wanted to teach in the inner-city, and boy, did I!), moved to the love of my life city-Seattle, taught at a Jewish school, got married, lived in Switzerland and taught at an international school (something else I've always wanted to do), and did PLENTY of traveling through all of it! I emailed Fabio last week in a small moment of crisis, whining about "the end of an era" and the sweet husband he is, emailed back, "I know...but it's the beginning of a new one with lots of other wonderful things ahead. i love u." I've felt better since. :)