Goodbye Germany - Welcome to the USA!

After months of preparation, the time has finally come... On May 30, 2024 at 10:40 a.m. our flight to the USA left.

Let’s rewind a few weeks:
After it became clear in December that we would be moving to the USA for a year, preparations slowly began in January. First, we had to plan the wedding. Then on February 10, 2024, the time had come: we got married at the registry office. It was a wonderful day, together with our family and best friends. After that, the planning really started... Tanja's passport, ID card, etc. had to be reapplied for due to the name change. Then came the visa application. After hours of processing the application, we were finally able to go to the US consulate in Frankfurt to finally get our visa. A few days later, we received our passports with work visas at home. That means: We can really get started!!

On April 27, 2024, we had our wedding and farewell party with our friends. What a PARTY! Great weather, great friends, great catering, just a great party! Thank you all for celebrating with us! This day also marked the beginning of our first farewells to friends and family who we were unable to meet before our departure. It continued like this for the next few weeks.

Between packing our suitcases, working and meeting friends/family, we had to say goodbye more and more. It was still totally unrealistic for us to leave our homeland behind so soon. On May 28th the time had come: our last day of work in Germany! After saying goodbye to our work colleagues, we spent our last evening on the terrace with our neighbors Katrin & Wolfi with wine/Aperol and chatted a lot.

May 29, 2024: Our last day in Germany... First we had breakfast with Katrin, Wolfi and the children (the last Renninger pretzel rolls for a year). Then at 11am we went to redeem the birthday voucher with Anni & Paulina (the neighbours' children). It was time to eat ice cream!
Then it was time to get down to business. The last clothes were packed, suitcases and backpacks closed, the apartment cleaned and tidied. One last walk in Renningen and it was already late in the evening and we were sitting on the sofa, reflecting on the last few days. The excitement is slowly building...

May 30, 2024: The day has come, the day of departure! Tanja's parents picked us up at 8 a.m. Kerstin & Manfred already have a big car and Manfred still had to show his best at suitcase/backpack Tetris! When we arrived at the airport, we said goodbye one last time. Now it was time to check in our luggage. The suitcases and backpacks were checked in with a little excess weight (which was not a problem, however). The hand luggage was also checked. Here the gentleman from Delta Airlines was a little dissatisfied with the size of Tanja's hand luggage. After Julian put on his extra nice smile and said to him "The second backpack is her personal item", Tanja was also waved through with a wink. So it was done. Now we can really get started...

At 10:40 a.m. we flew from Stuttgart to Atlanta. From there, after a short stopover, we continued on to Pittsburgh. Luckily, the flights went smoothly and on time at 7 p.m. local time we said: Welcome to our new home Pittsburgh!