International Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: Tell me your story about becoming an IN!
It really is fun to hear all of these stories. So here's another...
I am American and started teaching abroad straight out of grad school with a Masters in Teaching. My first teaching post was in Honduras where I met my H. Funny enough, I met him through a good friend whom I met at summer camp in Idaho years before. She had been living/working in Honduras for years for the Peace Corps/American School, and her long time boyfriend was good friends with my man. She married her Honduran a few months before I married mine. Something must have been in the water.
Now we are living in Hong Kong and I am teaching at another international school.
I've been IN for most of my life, my Dad works for ExxonMobil and has been moved around a LOT, since 3rd grade I've only been in the UK for a few years. This time around my parents had left the US (where we were IN) and moved to Luxembourg while my sister and I were at University, we both stayed to finish. I graduated and spent a year teaching, when my visa expired I had to leave the US, I chose to move to Luxembourg as I would have more job opportunities here than in the UK where my family lives.
After a month or so here I met my (local) DH.
I always planned to spend my second summer in college studying abroad. I ended up spending my first summer interning at a multinational, where there were a bunch of French interns. Since working abroad would save me a lot of the expenses of studying abroad, I asked them if they'd consider sending a US intern to France. They thought that was an interesting idea, so they did. I loved living and working in Paris, so after graduation I joined the company full-time and waited for an international transfer. After 3? years, they moved my project to Beijing, and I was happy to move with it. After 1? years, China was still fun, but the project was a disaster. I asked for a transfer and had the options of Houston or Oslo. I chose "not Houston" and ended up here in Norway. Turns out that I love Oslo the most of anywhere I've lived, so I'm still here 5 years later.
ETA - Somewhere in there I married an Indian guy from the Middle East and then separated last year.
I'm an ex-IN, I wish this board had been around when I was living in London.
I don't hang out here much anymore, but these are a great bunch of people who are very knowledgeable about everything involved in moving and living overseas, as well as repatriating.
I was transferred to work in London with P&O Nedlloyd in 2001 and I wound up there until 2006. DH is from London (of Irish parents, i.e. London Irish) and we got married over there. We met at work.
Philly is my favorite and we moved here after his dad passed away and didn't need us close anymore, and Maersk ate up P&O and DH got a nice golden umbrella - the timing was unreal, to be honest. I had already left the company by then.
I am dying to go to Africa. We have a friend in S. Africa from the P&O days.
Yeah that's right my name's Yauch!
I met DH at college. We were together for 3 months before he graduated. Since he was gone so long from Germany he wanted to go back and try to reconnect with his family.
He had a really hard time finding a job. This was winter of 2008-2009 and most hotels in Germany were on a hiring freeze. So his dad suggested he look for jobs in Switzerland. In March he landed a job as a night manger at hotel in Adelboden, Switzerland. Adelboden is like stereotypical Swiss village. Up in the mountains took 30 minutes by car just to get up to the village from the bottom of the mountain. It was huge Ski Place in winter and great for hiking in summer.
We were long distance and he came back to the US in May for his graduation ceremony. We flew out together on separate planes to Frankfurt and got dropped off at his chalet in Adelboden. I stayed for 3 1/2 months and loved it. So peaceful and we had the greatest unobstructed view of the mountains. fwi - the chalet was really a shack with a shared bedroom/living room and then a separate kitchen and bathroom. But it was so cute and cozy and we had cows and horse in the field next to us. I had to go back to the US mid-august for school.
Finished another semester at school while we were LD and then flew back to Adelboden for another 3 week long visit. We got engaged on top of a mountain and spent a lovely Christmas together.
After that we did another 6 months long distance. The last 3 months we thought he was going to get a inter-company transfer to Chicago. The company hired an immigration lawyer and started the visa process. In the end they said that there was a chance it would be denied and said that it could affect future visas. So he pulled out of that one.
Basically, we were desperate to be with each other at this point. Knew that filing the US visas would keep us apart. DH did research and found out that the Canton of Zurich was the only canton in Switzerland were you could get married on a tourist visa. So he started look for jobs in June and I booked my ticket for the end of June. He got a job in Zurich and we found apartment within 5 days of me moving there. We started get settled into our routine and went about to all the different Zurich government offices to get our wedding day set. We got married in September. Month after we got married we filed our paperwork for DH's US visa. I finally got my residence permanent in April or May and then DH had his interview at the Embassy in July. We moved back to the US at the end of September and have settled in Chicago for now. So in the end I spent 1 year and three months in Zurich and 4 months in Adelboden.
Plan is to stay in the US for now for me to finish my degree. After that who knows. We could easily end up back in Germany for a family emergency. DH's youngest brother is handicapped and they are working on moving him to an assisted apartment and work program for his own independence. But who knows the situation in 20-30 years. We could end up again in Switzerland or elsewhere for all I know too.
Sorry I got carried away and that is long.
2012 Reading Challenge
Now Nesting from Chicago, IL My nail blog:
I'm quite late to this, but I studied abroad in 1999 in London, met dh in a bar, did the long distance thing for 2 years, then moved to London in 2001. We lived there for 6 years, in that time got married in Minnesota & I became a British citizen, then we packed up our stuff, shipped it to Australia and traveled for a year and a half. Now we are settled in Australia with a dd - been here about 3 years, (this is where dh grew up, and his SIL & parent live).
oh and - welcome to the board! dh was born in SA and we traveled there years ago, a great place to be for sure!