We are on our way!

My pervious blog was about the process it took for us to get to Poland, now I will attempt to fill you in on all things that we have experienced in the last 2 weeks since we left the US!

Let’s start with our plane rides:

We flew out of Philadelphia on Saturday February 12^th.  We stopped in Newark, NJ then our long flight to Warsaw, Poland.  The flight from Philly to Newark was a little bumpy but it was less than an hour flight so not a big deal.

When we got to Newark we checked into the Business lounge and settled in for our layover.  Unfortunately, yes I said unfortunately our layover wasn’t long enough for me to drink a full glass of wine. The boys had just gotten their shoes off and their movie players started and they called our flight.  Oh well, at least we were headed to Poland now!

The boys were excited to sit in the BIG seats.  Spencer took the seat in the front row because there was a big screen in front of the cabin that showed a map of where we were in the air, along with our current flight info (total trip in miles, total duration of flight, time in both Poland and USA, as well as air temp outside the aircraft – I think we got to -72 or something crazy like that) and we all know how Spencer loves his TV.  Parker and I sat behind Spencer, and Kevin was supposed to be across the aisle from Spencer but we were lucky and there was one seat in business class not booked and it happened to be the one next to Spencer so Kevin got to sit with him.  The boys also loved the first class service on our flight.  Spencer was a lot more adventurous with the food they served and tried it all (maybe I need to use a white table cloth on our kitchen table and serve on small white china dishes). In fact, his favorite dish was the cold duck.  Kevin made sure not to tell him what it was until after he ate it all – smart man!! Believe it or not, my adventurous eater didn’t eat much but I blame that on the lack of sleep and fact that there was too much for him to play with on his chair. 

After dinner (I finally got my glass of wine; ok so I had 2 and I had Bailey’s in my coffee after dinner as well.  No reason the kids get to have all the fun) each boy selected a personal movie player and started to watch Night at the Museum 2.  Kevin was up late the night before at a company sendoff party in his honor so he was out like a light as soon as his tray was cleared.  I started to watch a movie too but then the Mom gene kicked in and I realized that it was 10pm and I needed to get the boys and myself some much needed sleep.  It had been a long week and we were off our sleep schedule.  So off went the movies and out came the blindfolds, blankets, and pillows.  Unfortunately we didn’t get a newer plane that had the seats the fold all the way back, but for a 9 year old and a 6 year old they were fine.  It was the 40 something’s in the family that weren’t as comfortable.  I think with the time change we only had about 4 hours of sleeping time.  Please note I didn’t say we had 4 hours of sleep.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t get more than 45 minutes total.  Oh well, we were on our way to Poland!

When we landed in Warsaw, it was 9:45am so we headed over to the lounge for some coffee and to log in to my computer so we could cancel services that were no longer available to us (Netflix, Comcast, Gym Membership) that I didn't have a chance to do in our rushed departure.  I started to pick up the phone and return a phone call that I had received on Friday night then I realized that it was in the middle of the night at home and that my friend would be less upset with me for not returning her message than she would be if I called her right then. 

One more plane ride and we will be in our temporary hometown location of Krakow, Poland.  The flight from Warsaw to Krakow ranked right up there with the flight from Philly to Newark, small and bumpy.  Parker didn’t care because he slept through the whole thing!

Finally, we made it to Krakow, Poland!!!!  I would love to tell you we got all of our luggage and were out of there, but that was not the case. Out of eight checked bags we got all except for one; not too bad considering.  Happily, they delivered Spencer's bag to us that night. 

Once we got to our flat, we unloaded our bags and figured we needed to get some food for the apartment before it got dark.  We figured we would grab some mall food and some convenient store supplies to get us through the next 24 hours, but to our surprise, the huge mall behind the apartment building had a full size grocery store.  So we grabbed some ‘milk’, cereal (honey nut Cheerios), sandwich meat, bread, mustard, peanut butter, pasta and sauce, as well as a few bottles of water.  We were all so tired that none of us wanted to go out to eat so we cooked up some pasta and red sauce and called it close enough.

 Oh well, WE’RE IN POLAND!!! J

Cheers!

We're moving to Poland

For over a year Kevin and I have been discussing moving international with his company. We wanted to do it for the boys, to give them a more global understanding of our world.  Plus, we thought it would be really cool for us too. ;) We looked at jobs in Dubai, The Philippines, and Hong Kong with Kevin applying for a few jobs in Hong Kong.  The race was very tough for the jobs in Hong Kong but out of 20+ applicants, Kevin made it to the top three; not too shabby. The Hong Kong interview process took over 5 months from start to finish and we were informed that it was normal for an international job posting to take a long time. Knowing there were 2 other people in the race for the job, Kevin kept looking for other opportunities. And, as I always say, 'everything happens for a good reason', and one day he received a message from someone at work letting him know there was a posting for a job in Poland that might interest him.  One weekend afternoon as I was paying bills in the office and he was doing some work in the kitchen, he yelled to me and said "What do you think about Poland?"  I paused for a moment and replied "I don't. I've never thought of Poland; Ever!"  So, the Friday before Thanksgiving he submitted his resume for the job and the whirl-wind adventure began. He had an interview the week after the holiday and then one each week up to and including the week between Christmas and New Year’s.  Then the waiting began, we thought, but we didn't have to wait long because by the first week of January Kevin received notification that he had been selected for the job! So for those of you keeping score at home that is 6 weeks start to finish vs. 5 months. WOW! And that was just the beginning!
 
The boys and I have never traveled internationally; in fact their first trip ever on a plane was just 6 months prior on our trip to Disney, so we needed passports. Since we were dealing with the government, we assumed it was going to take the full 6 weeks they quoted to get them. We decided that Kevin would go to Poland and start his job on February 14^th, and then fly back to help us pack up the house and we would all fly over together the first week in March.  Once again the waiting game was cut short and we received our passports in 3 1/2 weeks, way to go US government.  So, now we had to decide if we would stay with the original plan or try and go as a family for Kevin's start date.  It was really an easy decision; we are all happier and healthier when we are together as a family. Now our new goal was to go with Kevin on February 12^th so he could start his job on the 14th.  Are you keeping up? I know have just over a week to pack up my family and move to another country! YIKES!!!

The first order of business was to get the moving company to the house to tell us what we could take and what we could put in storage. Now, for those of you that truly know us, you had to smile a little when you read that last sentence.  Yup, we put it all in storage people! Once we learned that we were allowed only 3 shipping containers and each container was only large enough to fit a king size mattress, headboard and foot-board, we decided that furniture was not a priority to ship.  Ikea here we come!  We did ship our king size mattress, our 4 bicycles and our TV with the rest being the kids toys, all our clothes, and some basic home goods.  Honestly, the first day the movers were at the house, it was like Black Friday at Walmart! I honestly don’t know what I packed, stored, gave away or just plain left behind!  Fortunately the kids were at school and I didn't have to worry about them getting packed away into storage. It truly was a very stressful event for me.  I have only done it once before and that was a domestic move so I didn’t have to make many decisions on what to take and what to store away, so trying to sort out what I was going to need/want in Poland vs. what I wanted to put in storage for 2 years was not my favorite part of this moving experience. 
Thankfully my parents and Kevin’s parents were able to come down that last week and help us with the packing.  They were a godsend! If it weren’t for them, I would never have gotten the kitchen packed and god knows what would have been put into storage by the packers (one guy tried to wrap up my butter dish with butter still in it! I wonder what that would have looked and smelled like in 2 years. Kevin’s parents loaded up the camper and our truck with things we couldn’t or didn’t want to store and hauled it back to Maine, while my parents loaded up the van with hand-me-downs for my great nephews and drove that back to Maine. Once the weather is better in Maine they will possibly all drive down again to haul back the trailer and drive back the Saturn, unless we can sell it to someone in PA/DE before that happens. Speaking of selling, we did sell the camper but we sold it to Kevin’s parents so we are happy it will stay in the family.  Also, my Dad is helping us out by selling our van in Maine.  We would not have been able to make this move as quickly as we did without our families. Thank you all so much for your love and support.

I know a lot of you have been asking ‘what are we doing with the house in PA?’ We made the decision to rent it while we are away. With that said, since our time was so short during this transition and every minute taken up with packing we were unable to secure a tenant or a management company prior to our departure so that is being done long distance.   We are blessed to have a wonderful neighbor keeping an eye on things for us in the meantime.  Thanks Bud!

I think that sums up our last few weeks in the US. It was a crazy, stressful, and emotional few weeks, but we made it to Poland and we are looking forward to the next chapter in our lives.

Stay tuned!
Cheers!

The Traveling Kent's

Hi Everyone,

I am attempting to write a blog for the first time to keep everyone updated on our adventures in Europe.  I know not everyone is on Facebook, so I wanted a place where everyone could go to see what we are up to and hopefully share all our exciting adventures.  Enjoy!!

Please stay tuned!  

BJ   

Please be patient with me as I am creating this in Poland which means everything initially pops up in Polish due to my internet provider location. I can translate some but not all the pages easily so I am working my way through the language barrier.