Aug 11 Our awesome 8 months summer is about to end... We have just boarded the last flight in this trip, Frankfurt to Vancouver. It is the single inter-continental trip that involves only one, direct 10-hour flight, and you can imagine that it feels like a breeze. In half a day we’ll get back to our normal lives! We’ve had an incredible trip. Exactly 8 months, to the day. We visited or lived in 11 countries (Fiji, New Zealand, US, Netherlands, France, Romania, Monaco, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium) and drove 13 different cars. I visited 7 different research groups and worked closely with 3 of them (co-supervised or advised 6 graduate students, and put the foundations for 2 inter-university exchange programs). The kids attended schools in 3 countries in three different languages (English, French and Romanian). Almost 10,000 photos capturing unforgettable memories. The numbers can go on, but what made our trip REALLY AWESOME is the people we’ve met, the way this experience changed our kids, and the fact that there are now two other places where we feel like home: in Auckland and in Strasbourg. Writing these posts made me realize that this blog has been not only a great communication tool with our friends back home or those we met in the countries we traveled. It has allowed me to document the many places and to include many photos of our trip, in a wonderful and unique memoir of our family’s time together when Daniel was 10, Thea 6 and Sebastian 3. This blog has also allowed me to reflect upon our experiences in these different places: the different ways in which people live, work and enjoy life, and also how they regarded us and our travels – a reflection of how much they understand and appreciate travel and cultural differences. We talked a lot with the kids about the places, people and situations we’ve been in, and hopefully they are now more understanding, appreciative and tolerant of these differences. We know for sure that they feel more connected with each other as siblings, having shared these unique experiences together, away from the familiar home. Both Daniel and Thea now feel proud of being Canadians, but also of their Romanian heritage. As a final way of reflection, each of us (except Sebastian) spent some time summarizing some of the lessons learned from this Exploration together, as a Family Affair. Here they are (I promise that Daniel and Thea’s contain their exact words): Daniel: 1 How to make new friends: start playing with one and then he will invite others. 2 When leaving in different countries, the houses vary in size (and sometimes they are really small!) and the food and the grocery stores are also different 3 In different countries, kids start school at different ages and different times 4 My favorite place was New Zealand because it was hot, you could go to the beach anytime and I made lots of friends 5 When I was traveling in the car my little brother annoyed me because everything I played with he also wanted. So my strategy was I get one thing that I did not want and one I wanted it. He then ended up playing with the toy that I did not want and so I was happy and played with the toy that I wanted. Thea: 1. How to learn new things: listen to your teacher, read a lot, write a lot (I can do these now!) 2. It was cool to change countries and cities because you learn new languages, new things and see new stuff. 3. My favorite place was New Zealand because it was very hot, we seen lots of kids and I learned to read and write. 4. In the car, it was hard with two brothers. What I did was to read and write in my little notebook. Adi: 1. Never trust a GPS especially the ones in rented cars. In Victoria I do not need a GPS to find my way around. In New Zeeland, Google Maps suffice. But in Europe, GPS is a must. Since most of the rented cars there come with GPS, I had to learn how to program all kids of devices. While typing the destination is pretty straightforward on most of them, however other more hidden features such change language, avoid tool roads, or avoid highways etc. are not always obvious and I’ve learned it the hard way: visited country side in Italy on a 9 hours trip to Côte D’Azur (GPS pre-programmed to avoid toll roads), drove through the remote mountains in Germany between Stuttgart and Strasbourg (GPS was pre-programmed to avoid highways – who the hack did that?), or the totally unexpected drive to the centre of Paris (failed attempt to change the original Paris centre destination with the destination of our hotel). 2 I can work shifts. I was very fortunate to be able to telecommute and perform my duties from all these places we’ve been. And the technology worked pretty well from everywhere we’ve been to Fiji to New Zealand, Romania to France and last to Netherlands – the Internet is amazing. This time around however I had to be more involved with my team in Victoria and that included short daily meetings and lots of interactions. So in order to make that happen I had to adjust my working hours. No more 9 to 5. In New Zealand I had to get a fresh start at 7am in the morning for most of the time but the last few weeks there I had to begin at 6am or even 5am. In Europe, on the other hand was the night shift. I would start work in the afternoon and quite often be online after taking kids to bed to midnight and even later. And it worked. It takes some adjustments (and sacrifice from the family) but it worked. The fact that I was on part time schedule was also essential. 3 Language is not a barrier (at least for kids). Thea has shown me that you can make friends and be happy without necessarily speaking the same language. In Strasbourg we were afraid that going to school without speaking French will be a big obstacle for her, that she’ll be bored and would not want to go to school. On the contrary, Thea had such a good time. She was invited to birthday parties and sleepovers. She never said she would not go to school. 4 A new place requires about a two-week warmup. Not counting all the small excursions we’ve done in these trips, we had 3 main bases: Auckland, Strasbourg and Amersfoort. In each of them we’ve needed a couple of weeks to settle in and start enjoying. At the beginning there’s always where am I, how do things work here, how do I do that (groceries, cooking, eating, Internet, phones, transportation etc). It’s nice because you discover new things but it could also be frustrating because there is a lot to assimilate and a lot to do (have I mentioned the un-packing part?). And these are the bare necessities so they are essential. But after this initial period, the fun begins. You can pretend to be a local and you try to do what they do. Everything new that you discover is to enrich your experience. And, as Dana has mentioned in her posts, meeting people and making new friends is a big bonus. This is where the beauty of traveling for longer periods of time with a family like ours is: you stay long enough to see how others leave and do but short enough so you do not have to deal with the ugly side: beaurocracy, taxes, etc. The perfect combination. 5 Dream big and plan it carefully. Or otherwise get yourself a good planner. I am lucky to have next to me one of the best planners I know. Dana continues to amaze me with her planning abilities. She’s not only masterminded this whole trip but she was continually planing the next steps as we went along. Relentless. And she masters her career with her family life marvellously. When she first laid down her plans for visits to universities and research groups in Europe my first reaction was: “You gotta be kidding me!” but at the end these trips have included unexpectedly interesting side trips… Like the majority of other people I’m more the “let’s enjoy the moment” type of guy and I get quickly tired of this continued planning. I’m pretty sure that without her this entire trip would have probably been a prolonged NZ beach experience. But once sold on the idea I’ve done my best to make it happen and I think the two of us made a good team. It wasn’t always easy. Travelling with 3 small kids is sometimes challenging. This blog mentions nothing or very little about frustrations and upsets, stress from time to time, there are no pictures of crying kids, but all these happened. You just have to deal with them because in the schema of big things they will be quickly forgotten. So, to conclude, the lesson I’ve learned from Dana (and I hope I don’t sound pathetic, just enthusiastic): dream big and with careful planning and determination you can make it happen. It’s not easy but it’s worth it. As someone said: One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it’s worth watching. … and the last thoughts/lessons from me: 1. To respect each other, each of us have different pace in enjoying the different places 2. When making new friends in a different culture, leave your assumptions home, give generously before you get anything in return, and don’t give up 3. When traveling, don’t assume that people know who you are, where you come from, and that you have the best intentions in making new friends. People have their own busy lives, and may not be interested in making new friends. Not everything is about you necessarily. 4. Kids do function well within structured environments, regardless of the new experience they are exposed to. Should they have the guidance and ability to reflect within this structure, they do listen, follow and grow along with the experience. 5. Final lesson: I will definitely do it again, any time. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity and the great family to accompany me on this awesome trip. I encourage you, the dear reader of my blog, to be bold and to travel, work and collaborate across borders, be they geographical, cultural, or those that stretch your imagination.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Aug 2013 11:41:03 +0000
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