I doubt that I’ll be posting too much before we go to the U.S. on June 5th. Frankly, there might not be a whole lot to write about until then. We are still living in Hessen and life here in this tiny village is quite tranquil and rather uneventful. So pardon me if my blog posts get more sporadic in the coming months. Things will get interesting again later,  I am certain!

We did buy our tickets to the U.S. and Japan this past week. We will leave Germany on June 5th and spend time with family and friends in NJ/ Philly as well as attend a conference in Minneapolis in late June. We fly out of Philadelphia on July 20th and will spend a few days in Portland before we head to Japan on July 25th. I have never been to Portland, and since so many friends have raved endlessly about what a spectacular city it is we thought we’d try to go.

Is Portland really this lovely? We can’t wait to find out.

The main thing on our minds is that we are trying to decide is where in Tohoku, Japan we should live. We have been thinking of Sendai but even that is up in the air. There are several options before us and we really need wisdom to make good choices. Also, there is a severe housing crisis in Tohoku due to the losses of homes all over the region. We have been in touch with several potential future co-workers and hope they will be able to help us. We can hardly wait to be back in Japan!