What the...? Wow!

The title for today's post comes courtesy of my good friend, C, who used it as the subject of the email she sent me after I told her about our trip. That's pretty much been everyone's reaction so far, which is interesting...

It is kind of a big deal--rather unexpected from us. Not everyone you know just picks up and plans to go overseas for a year for no reason--not a job transfer or whatever. But it's something we've been talking about for over 2 years, and planning for almost a full year, so it's definitely big.

The idea took root in late 2004, during our last trip to Europe. We were sitting around the dinner table with Kevin's cousin's family and his cousin (who works in construction) kept asking Kevin when he was going to come over and work. His cousin told him that because Kev has an Irish passport (Kev's dad is from Ireland, and Ireland has a dual-citizenship thing with the US for descendants of Irish citizens) he could come to the UK and work without restriction. Kev asked him a boatload of questions, and that was the end of it.

But the idea really struck me as a possibility and took root in my head. We both have very mobile skills for work and really could work anywhere (save the language situation, of course!). And we both love to travel in Europe. Why not?

So that was the course of the conversation over the next year or so--why not? How could we do it? It helped that I got my Irish passport also in 2005 by virtue of being married to Kev for a certain amount of time. So that meant we both could work with no problems. I received my Irish passport in the post in early 2006, and that's when the discussions really turned serious. The more we talked about it, the more it seemed possible. We don't have kids, we don't even have a pet--what is holding us back?

The main issues really were with the house. If we could rent the house out, then those bills would be paid and we wouldn't have to worry about funding two living situations at the same time. We make saving for our European vacations a monthly priority, so that could be our living/travel money as well. But, of course, then the discussions became very difficult. I'm a nomad--I've moved around a lot in my life and have no problems moving again. But Kevin is a very rooted person and the idea was more difficult for him.

I started doing tons of research on the internet and found lots of great information to show Kev that it truly was possible for us to make this happen. One of my best resources has been UK Yankee (http://www.uk-yankee.com), an expat site for American's moving to the UK. Plus, we sent a letter to Kevin's cousin, the originator of the idea, in late spring of 2006 telling him of our intentions. We spoke with him on the phone a short time later and Kevin got some of his questions answered.

After doing months of research, we finally decided around October 2006 that we were going to do it in 2007--actually make it happen. We started mucking about with timeframes, house rental scenarios, etc. and set the wheels in motion. We started telling family about our plans over the Thanksgiving holiday, and told friends shortly thereafter.

It's been a long road to get to this point, but I think once we get the house rented and know that we will be over there for an extended period of time, it will be quite freeing. We're not going over to further careers or make a lot of money--we're going for the life experience. I'm a firm believer in seizing opportunities when they present themselves and this one is just too exciting to pass up.