Saturday, August 6, 2011

A New Begining

After a nearly four month hiatus of blogging, I've been inspired to start up again, and as you can see, with a fresh new face! I suffered from blogger's block for a while, not for lack of inspiration or stuff to write about, but rather too much was going on. Since Our Adventures Abroad are coming to an end, I figured now was a good time to dive into the next chapter in our life. I invite you to join us for the ride as we embark on our new journey, which is bringing us from Dublin back to the Midwest, USA.

Trinity College Dublin

We've been living in Dublin for almost three years, and in those three years we have seen a little more of the world and grown and evolved along the way. We've grown accustom to the many nuances of Irish culture and have gone from "Ugh - that is so Irish" to accepting the differences as our new normal. Repatriating back into an American lifestyle is a little scary, because it really is a completely different way of life. We'll be living in rural Michigan, on a dirt road. We won't be able to just "pop out to the store" by foot to pick up a few items for dinner. We'll most likely go to a super-center to get a week's worth of supplies. And since we won't be walking as much I'll actually have to think about working out! Dining out will be a different experience. Here, there is no "Hi, how are you? My name is Melissa and I'll be taking care of you tonight..." with 50 stops back to the table to see how we're doing. And we like it that way!  We go out to enjoy one another's company, not our server's. And the travel! Even though we're dirt poor we've made a point to see a bit of Europe while we're right on it's doorstep. The main reason we're a little sad to go is the friends second family we've met here. We've kept each other company though holidays away from home and love each other's children like nieces and nephews. You know who you are and I hope you know we're expecting to stay just as close, despite the distance.

The blue door: Our first flat in Dublin

While it will be a huge change for us, it's absolutely not all bad. The primary good that comes out of this is that we will be close to our family for the first time in quite a while, and I am absolutely thrilled to watch Liam get to know his relatives on a day to day basis rather than a visit every 6 months. And I can't tell you how excited I am to shop at TARGET! Oh, how I've missed that store.

Lake Como, Italy

All that said, we are embracing our new adventure and are looking forward to this next step in our lives. Watch out USA... we're coming back!

"The Burrow" Rural Michigan, USA

9 comments:

  1. And we will dearly miss you. xx

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  2. Nice write up. Welcome home. Makes me want to follow in your footsteps abroad.

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  3. Thank you Jason! We're not on US soil quite yet. We fly in on Sept. 12. Definitely travel as much as you can!

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  4. Good luck on your move back! Repatriating can definitely be hard but the trips to Target, the real Mexican food, and the bigger houses make it worth it :)

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  5. Thank you Andrea! It's good to know there are several of us that have or are in the process of repatriating. Reverse culture shock is real! But like you said, there are definitely many pros to being back in the US. Your comment reminds me that I need to put you on my blog list.
    P.S. Belated congratulations on your most recent addition - she's beautiful!

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  6. C'mon back! We're ready for ya! It's grand sure here! :)

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  7. Hi Megan!
    My name is Samantha and I'm a casting producer for "Real Estate International," a new design show on HGTV profiling American expats around the world. We're currently looking for energetic Americans in the Dublin area who are interested in showcasing their homes on HGTV.

    I know you're in the process of moving back to Michigan (congrats!) but I would love your help spreading the word about the casting opportunity to any of your American friends or contacts living in Dublin.

    You can email me directly at shartman@highnoontv.com for more information and for a copy of our press release. You can also visit our company website www.highnoontv.com to check out the other shows we produce.

    Thank you so much for your help and I look forward to hearing from you!

    Cheers,
    Samantha

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