Saturday 20 August 2011

Vancouver




On Monday morning, we will travel to Vancouver for a few days to check out the different neighborhoods and surroundings and to find a place to live. Yes, you read correctly, we are moving to Vancouver!!

The past few months have been hectic, stressful and full of unexpected twists and turns, but also very exciting and inspiring. Remco had been working on a project in Canada since the beginning of this year and on his last trip to Toronto at the end of June, his company offered him a job in Vancouver. While he also had the opportunity to move into another role here in the Netherlands, the position in Vancouver will be a great experience for him, an opportunity he couldn’t let pass. What does that mean for me? After 11 years with my current employer, I feel it is time for me to look for a new challenge. While I will be sad to leave our friends and our home of 9 years behind, I embrace this new wonderful opportunity with an open mind and see what opportunities Canada has to offer. As a spouse, I am able to get an open work permit for Canada that allows me to work for any company there.

In the meantime, there is a lot to do and think about in the next 2 months. It’s all going very fast, Remco is already spending the majority of his time in Canada and a lot of tasks fall on my shoulder now; my to-do-list is growing each day. Since taking our decision, we have redecorated our bedroom and rebuilt the shower and installed a new shower stall in order to get the house ready for rental. There is still plenty of work that needs to be done in and around the house, but we’ll have to rely on contractors now instead of doing it ourselves. There are still lots of questions that need to be answered; shall we rent the house furnished or un-furnished; shall we ship our furniture or put it in storage; what to get rid of and what to keep; the list is endless……

Needless to say, we are very excited and will keep you posted on our new adventure!

Monday 8 August 2011

Travel stories: Change

Travel stories: Change: "It's been a while since my last post and my promise to change is bearing fruit. In the past 3 months I have done a lot of soul searching, ta..."