So my last post was about 4 months ago and it ended hinting at some changes to our future. At that time we had only just found out about this opportunity and had to wait months to get more details and make a decision. Well as of today the decision is final, and 5 months of stressing about it is finally over. I'll try to make this very long story short:
First of all, the tentative plan was to come back to the US to settle down in Summer 2016, mainly because I can't work as a nurse in France and my fantasy lifestyle of traveling Europe and not working was really hurting my bank account.
Then one day while we were on a road trip in October Adam got a very unexpected call from his manager saying that the company is essentially moving the French office to Switzerland and he is going to be part of that move. But that no other details would be known until February. And at that time he would get details of the transfer package
The reason this flipped everything upside down is because Switzerland accepts American nursing licenses. The other reason is because Adam was only given 2 options: take the transfer package to Switzerland or take a severance package and leave the company.
Living and working in Switzerland sounds amazing to most people but for us, having already lived in Europe, the shinyness of it had worn off and we were starting to be ready to have our American lifestyles back. Living in another country has its pros and cons.
Here were our 2 options:
1) move to Switzerland, Adam would stay in his same job, same role, just different location, and be given all the necessary paperwork and bonuses for the move. I would have to submit piles of paperwork to get my nursing license recognized, do an internship, look for a job, perfect my french, and work in a foreign hospital in a foreign language with different practices and it terrifies me. But we'd get lots of vacation days and be able to keep our traveling lifestyle, but also see our families very rarely.
2) move back to the US, as a nurse I can get a job anywhere easily. And Adam would have to quit his job and go through the annoying process of finding a new job in a new city and learning a new business. And we might always wonder if we regret not staying in Europe just a couple more years. But we'd finally have stability. Which, after 4 years of travel nursing, I'm ready for.
So basically one decision would make life hard for me, one decision would make life hard for Adam.
Sparing everyone the details of 5 months of research and paperwork and documents I've had to compile, and the many long phone conversations I had with Adam and my parents (the last of which, the mounting stress finally took its toll on me) we made a decision, just one day before the decision deadline date.
We're moving to Switzerland!
We will be living in Lausanne. Which is an hour from Geneva, on the lake. We have to be there by July 1st. His company is going to help me get a work permit and also with french lessons and job assistance. I will initially get a job in tourism or at a restaurant until the nursing paperwork goes through, which will take a few months.
March 31st I leave California and head to Denver to visit my sister. Then I'm spending a couple days in Florida for some wedding planning. Then on April 7th I fly to Stockholm to meet up with Adam because he coincidentally has a meeting there. And on April 11th I will be back in France.
We will have a lot of tedious things to get done for this move and I started working on them back in January. Visa, work permit, apartment search, nursing license paperwork, French fluency exams, etc. And to top it all off I have to plan a wedding in Florida while living in Switzerland. At least that part should be fun.
I'll try to keep up with updates on the process, all I can say is I hope the Swiss are more efficient than the French
