Moving Home: Souvenirs

It's hard to believe that we'll be moving back to the U.S. in six weeks. We'll be moving back to the Atlanta area, though south of the city instead of north of the city where we used to live. David's new job will be at the airport and if we moved back north of the city, it could easily take him over 2½ hours to get to work every day.

We're looking at moving to Peachtree City, a town known for being home to airline employees (over 20% of the adult population works in the industry)and its golf carts. The town was planned out in the 1950s in such a way that there are 90 miles of paths criss crossing the city. People walk, bike and drive their golf carts on these paths to school, stores, church, etc. Over 9000 households own a golf cart, more than any other city in the world. And kids as young as 12 can drive one with an adult sitting up front with them. In July 2009, Money magazine ranked Peachtree City eighth on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States.

Things are starting to move along for us. David left Germany on Sunday and is beginning his new job with Lufthansa today. The kids and I will remain here in Germany to finish out the school year. In the meantime, David will be checking out homes for sale that we have been keeping track of on-line. There's no guarantee that we will end up in Peachtree City, but it's our focus city for now.

With less than two months to go, we have all begun reflecting on our time here in Germany. People have begun asking us what we will miss and what we have missed from the U.S. I am already planning blog entries about that.

For the moment, I have begun a new series: Moving Back to the U.S. Any time I think, "Oh, I should blog about that before we move home," I'm going to unceremoniously blog about it. Nothing fancy and undoubtedly random.

And here's my first entry. My bag collection.

My good friend Kathy had the right idea before she moved here. She told each of her children to pick out something they would like to collect on their travels here in Europe. Her daughter chose city landmark figurines, her son chose magnets. They have traveled extensively and at each stop, the kids have found a souvenir.

I wasn't that forward thinking. During our first year here, I noticed tote bags with city names on them from all over the world. They were especially popular at the kids' school, where people come from everywhere. I've seen these Robin Ruth bags from New York, Jamaica, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Sarajevo, Seoul, etc. Only after a year did it occur to me to begin my own collection, and Micaela has collected some as well. If you find one on your travels, just be sure not to take off the rubber Robin Ruth tag. It's like cutting a tag of your beanie baby!