We’re officially Geneva residents! We’ve been here for one week today and have spent the last 7 days getting to know our new home.
But before I get into all of the fun things we’ve discovered over the past week… some housekeeping.
I had fully intended to write a blog post during our move prep, since I do think there’s something interesting about what it takes to pack up a family of 4 in a month and move abroad. It was an absolutely crazy time. So I’ll give you a quick recap…
THE MOVE
The logistics of executing an international move in such a quick timeframe (during a pandemic, no less) is darn near all-consuming! We had to dig in and do some serious work to figure out the best way to manage everything to ensure minimal disruptions to our kiddos.
We originally had planned to do a full move, bringing all of our furniture and belongings. But we quickly learned that housing in Geneva is tricky, and if you find a good opportunity — TAKE IT! So when we ran across a fully furnished apartment that seemed pretty perfect for us, we jumped at the chance. However, this meant that we would now need to sell ALL of our furniture, and make the hard decisions what to bring and what to leave behind.
So, in short, we did it. It was exhausting and by the end of it we had no couch, no TV, no beds… but we made it work. My parents did a huge part of the heavy lifting (thank you, thank you!) and a small storage container’s worth of stuff is in their basement (thank you, thank you!), and we headed off to Dulles International Airport exhausted, excited and with 12 giant duffel bags in tow.
THE FLIGHT
The flight was fine. The kids did well enough, and it felt safe enough despite Covid. Things were pretty empty until we got to Europe, and even then it felt less crazy than airports used to be. Here are some images from our journey.
Evie, meet IAD. 
Quinn and I at Dulles 
With so many bags, it took awhile to check-in. Evie did great practicing her patience. 
All settled into our first flight to Amsterdam and ready to go.
Overall, the flights went great. Though I will say that upon arriving into Geneva, one of our children was exhausted and the other one was rearing to go. Ha!
Soon to come, details all about our fun first week in Geneva! (And get a preview on my Instagram, where I’ve been posting regular updates, here.)
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