Our Year 2004 :

 

January:

Only 3 more months until Max starts his new job at the PwC division in Duesseldorf in April.  Until then, he still has a lot of work to do at PwC in Cologne, with the first 3 months of the year being the busy season in public accounting.

 

Unfortunately, Corina does not have much fun at her job any more.  She is still looking for another job and would prefer to work in furniture sales at a high-end retail store, far away from office organisation, telephone and paperwork.

 

February:

With both of us working a whole lot, we don´t have very much time to celebrate the Cologne Carnival.

 

We do not want to risk loosing our greencard, so we book a flight and rental car for a 10-day-vacation in the U.S. for the end of March.  We found several internet articles of former greencard holders who had to return their greencards to INS because they did not enter the U.S. for a longer time.  We definitely do not want to see this happening to us !

 

March:

Max´s job at PwC Cologne is almost over.  Time just went by so fast …

 

After a few job interviews, Corina decides to work as a vendor for a furniture retail store with high quality furniture.  Since her employer does not want to let her go earlier, she has to stay with her old company until the middle of June.

 

When arriving in the U.S., we are promptly asked about our immigration plans.  The INS-officer is really nice, but informs us that we probably have to be VERY specific about our immigration plans next time we enter the United States.  If there is too much time between the issuing date of the greencard and the actual immigration, the greencards could be taken away from us …  He tells us good-bye with a German “Tschuess!”.

 

Our vacation in the U.S. is short, but we get to meet a lot of friends there.  We are enjoying a happy get-together and it feels as if we had never been away …

 

Max´s tennis team surprises with finishing their winter season as second best team of the league – although most of the competing teams they played are playing one or two leagues higher during the summer season than Max´s team.

 

April:

Max´s job at PwC Cologne comes to an end and he starts at PwC Duesseldorf as financing consultant for energy companies.  For him, it is a whole new and exciting task.

 

We keep thinking about what the immigration officer said about the greencard and immigration.  Our plan to make use of the greencard in a few years seems to be rather risky.  After a few sleepless nights and long discussions we make the decision to immigrate to the U.S. in the beginning of 2005 already.  The chance to live and work in the U.S. either for a few years or forever (who knows?) is a unique opportunity for us, which we do not want to loose.  And it sure would be the right time:  both of us full of energy and with a spirit of adventure, married without children (so far, so good), Max working for an American company … 

 

Since we made the decision to live in the U.S. pretty soon, Max decides to start studying for the American CPA (Certified Professional Accountant) exam.

 

May:

Max has a lot of fun in his new job although it keeps him even more occupied than his old job at PwC Cologne.  Because of our immigration plans, Max starts contacting several branches of PwC America and receives some very encouraging responses rather quickly.

 

Corina counts the days working at her old company.  Saying good-bye to her office desk is easy, saying good-bye to her co-workers is pretty hard though.

 

Summer tennis season starts.  Max knows that this season is probably the last one in “his” tennis club for a long, long time …

 

 

 

June:

Several PwC offices in the U.S. (Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Boston) offer Max a job in their public accounting division. Getting decision support from several friends in the U.S., we decide to go for Atlanta, where Max will start to work on January 17th, 2005. At the same time, Max´s supervisor at PwC Germany offers him to keep his position open for him for 3 years in case he wants to return to PwC Germany.

 

Since Max intends to take the CPA exams in October, he decides to take his examinations in Atlanta.  That way, we will get to meet his new PwC office and to take a look at several apartment communities in Atlanta at the same time.

 

We see our once-in-a-life opportunity to go on a long adventure trip before we move to the U.S..  Max arranges with his employer to get unpaid vacation from October until the end of December. This will give us enough time to travel for two months right after Max has taken his CPA exams and to prepare for our moving to the U.S. …

 

July:

Max’s  job at his PwC location in Duesseldorf comes to an end and he is having a good-bye party with his colleagues.

 

Corina starts her new job and enjoys consulting furniture buyers very much.  Although she has to learn quite a few things and underestimates her abilities (you all know her!), she receives very positive feedback from customers.

 

Max’s last tennis summer season in Overath ends.  The team almost made it into a higher league class.

 

August:

Corina quits her job in furniture sales at the end of the month. Right before she leaves she acquires a high-volume contract to build a library for a vet (no, it wasn’t Gerd , her father in law!), a nice good-bye present for her employer.

 

Max needs to work through his books for preparation for his CPA examinations and enjoys escaping into planning our vacation at least for a few hours a day.  We decide to go on a backpack travel to Ecuador right after the (business) trip to Atlanta.  There the Galapagos Islands, the Andes mountains and the Amazon tropical forest are calling for us.

 

Our time in Bruehl comes to an end.  We are having a garage sale, which is not very typical for Germany. After some hesitation from potential buyers at first, we are quite successful in selling many of the things we decided not to take with us to the U.S.. Max’s parents are happy to give us shelter in their home until January - back to the roots in Max’s old room under the roof. 

 

September:

Studying, studying, studying is Max’s motto for this month.

 

Corina works hard to plan our quest for an apartment in Atlanta and prepares the boxes and our personal stuff to be send  to the U.S. in December.

 

We arrive in Atlanta where we will stay for a few days until Max completes his examinations. In the meantime, Corina has the opportunity to get an impression of different areas to live und apartment communities in Atlanta.  Both of us like the city and its vicinity very much, not expecting a major city like that to be that green and nature focused.

 

October:

Max takes three of four examinations necessary to obtain the CPA.  Unfortunately, he has to wait until January when results will be sent.

 

Our time-off from work begins with Quito, Ecuador’s capital, being our first destination. The next day we continue to fly to the Galapagos Islands.  With 8 other passengers on board we go on an 8-day cruise on a charming, but small red sailing boat.  Despite seasickness, the islands’ abundant wildlife and nature are overwhelming and we are glad that we decided to go on this trip.  We proceed to visit the Amazon tropical forest. There we will stay at a simple bungalow for several days far away from any civilization.  Together with a man from England holding Canadian passport, but living in the U.S. (!?) we go on several walks and canoe trips lead by a native guide. He explains to us the incredible diversity of plants and wildlife in a tropical forest.  At the end of our trip to Ecuador we get a great impression of the imposing Andes mountains, with volcanoes up to 20.000 ft rising up around Ecuador’s capital Quito. Despite a great time in Ecuador we decide to travel back to Germany.  We plan to spent the rest of our time off from work to explore a continent that we had not yet discovered ...

 

 

 

November:

After a few days in Germany, we made up our minds about our next destination: Thailand, the „Land of Smile“.  Our backpacks are newly equipped and the trip begins…

 

Unlike our trip to Ecuador the only part we plan for our Thailand vacation is the flight. Everything else is to be decided spontaneously once we arrive.  We very much enjoy the really great smiles of Thai people, the awesome food and the overwhelming landscape of Thailand’s north and south. We spent our nights in simple, family-owned guesthouses most of the time and take buses, trains, tuk-tuks (three-wheel motorcyle taxis) und drive a (regular) motorcycle to explore the country.  This way we get to talk to many interesting and nice Thai people as well as travellers from all over the world..

 

December:

Our long-term vacation went by way too fast... December 7th will be our date to return to Germany.  At this day Corina will celebrate her 30th birthday for 30 hours (!) because of the 6 hour time difference between Thailand and Germany.  We are looking forward very much to see our friends and family and to celebrate Christmas in Germany – probably the last Christmas in Germany for us for some time. 

 

Now it is time for us to find an apartment in Atlanta, pack our things, study for the rest of the CPA examinations, complete all kinds of paperwork, write this Christmas Brief etc ...  Fortunately, we were able to get all of our Christmas shopping done in Ecuador and Thailand.  And on the 5th of January 2005 our one-way flights to Atlanta are all set...

 

 

For the two of us the year 2004 has been a very exciting year full of variety. We thank God for all these positive experiences and impressions.  In 2005, a new and different life will start for us in the United States, which we are looking forward to very much. We are especially full of excitement to get to see everyone in the U.S. more often than during the last four years.  On the other hand, we know that we will be missing our family and friends in Germany a whole bunch. We hope that they will be able to come visit us in Atlanta as often as possible.

 

For the year 2005, we wish you all the best, but especially health!

 

Merry Christmas!!!