The Barbers Move to Denmark

We are T minus 8 days from leaving our Post Falls house for good. And no, we haven't sold it yet. It's so cute! Who wouldn't want to live here?! Since listing it on June 20th, we've had high-traffic weeks and low-traffic weeks. We had three or four showings the first week and got generally good feedback. Most people said it showed nicely and was priced right. We got a couple of comments that they didn't like the neighborhood or chose a different neighborhood. We got one low-ball offer ($80K under the asking price) in that week, countered, and didn't hear back. We had two more showings going into 4th of July weekend, and things cooled off pretty significantly after that. We had one showing that Friday, July 7th, and then we didn't see another one for over a week. There were a few here and there scheduled but canceled, and it was a little discouraging. We tried hard to find additional things to touch up. I scrubbed all the showers, Zac shined up the wood floo...

In two of my previous posts, I mentioned some of the struggles we've had as we try to figure out how to get our pets from Post Falls, Idaho, to Denmark with us (see  Challenge: Accepted...But Why So Many?   and   Our Roadside Rabies Vaccine ). Alas, the saga continues, but first, a couple of good things happened! #1 -  We can probably make our crate IATA compliant by drilling some 1" holes along the back upper half of the crate and Gorilla-taping some fine wire mesh over the slightly-too-large openings in the door grate. (Though I haven't stopped looking for one that is truly compliant.) I purchased some "Live Animal" stickers, interior food bowls that attach to the door, a large absorbent potty pad for the bottom liner, and some extra metal bolts in case we don't have enough to put the two halves of the crate together securely. #2 -  AirFrance has a greater weight allowance than Iceland Air and did not list any restrictions on the size (Iceland Air had a max...

Hey, friends! This past couple of weeks has been an absolute BLUR. I'll start with a fun fact: Dogs in the U.S. are only vaccinated for rabies once every three years, but dogs emigrating to Denmark have to have been vaccinated for rabies within the past 12 months (but not less than 21 days before flying!). So as I read this fun fact on Sunday, July 9th, I casually glanced at the dog's vaccination records and realized his rabies vaccine, though current, is due in 2024...which means he was vaccinated 2 years ago... ...do you see where this is going? Figure 1. Terrifying photo of "rabies" from a book about Louis Pasteur I read when I was five years old. (That's a story for another time...) I calculated that we'd be OK as long as I could get him a rabies vax by Thursday, July 13th. I set a reminder to call the vet on Monday, July 10th, and you know I called as soon as they were open. No appointments. I begged a little. They told me to call their sister clinic. No...

We knew moving to Denmark wasn't going to be easy  exactly, but we were kind of unprepared for the sheer number of roadblocks we'd encounter in this process. I mean, I got the job, we were basically handed a beautiful place to live, and I made a checklist for everything else. What could go wrong? I will tell you in four categories: Immigration, Getting to Denmark, Personal Property, and Miscellaneous. Immigration We made contact with our immigration consultant soon after I was offered the job, and she sent me a link to fill out my own application and one for each member of the family. I was required to upload a color PDF of all pages in my passport, a Power of Attorney, and my marriage license, in addition to some other very basic information. For Zac, we filled out the information, uploaded his Power of Attorney, and a provided a color PDF of his passport. Challenge 1A: Zac's passport expires in January 2024 and they will not proceed with the application process for him u...

Not surprisingly, people have had a lot of questions for us about the move. Zac and I listed the top 10 here (roughly in backwards order, with answers): 10.  What's the weather like there? ( Also: Does it get very cold there? Does it snow there?) The weather where we will be living is very similar to what we experience here in north Idaho. There are four seasons, and Spring and Fall are less hot (more temperate) than we usually experience. It does snow. I have visited a couple times when it was very cold, once when it was very hot, and a few times when it was perfectly moderate. Me and Ann on a boat tour of the harbor, woefully underdressed for February. All the little Danish kiddos have these great suits to keep them warm in the winter. 9.  Are you going to buy cars when you get over there? We're not. At least not right away. We will live close to public transport options and I think for the time being, they will get us everywhere we need to go. Vibe has offered her vehicle...

Our big announcement took a lot of people by surprise, so here's a little backstory (for those of you who like that kind of thing): Zac and I both work for ALK, an international allergy pharmaceutical company. Our headquarters is in Hørsholm, Denmark, and the site where we work is in Post Falls, Idaho. Over the 10+ years we've worked for ALK, a handful of colleagues have received outplacements - short assignments (usually 1-2 years) at another ALK site. These are typically reserved for people in higher-level positions that are needed to fill a specialized, temporary niche. When I started my career at ALK back in 2011, I was neither high-level nor specialized, but I did get to travel several times to Denmark for work. Every time, I came back lamenting the fact that I couldn't live there. It was amazing! Nyhavn on my first trip to Denmark in 2013 The last couple of years, Zac and I have talked more seriously about what would happen if an opportunity for an outplacement came u...