Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Europe

Okay-so here's the deal:
DH and I are researching the possiblity of living overseas for 2-3 years. Nobody freak out--it's just a possiblity. There are a lot of questions to be answered and so much info to figure out.
I'm trying to organize my thoughts--and I'm going to create a list of questions here that I need to have answered before we go any further on this.
1. Cost of flight (appx 614 per person one way).
2. Cost of living:
A. Apartment (flat) 2 bd (between 400-900 EU per month)
B. Food, Utilities, etc...
C. Cost of childcare/nursery school (I want the girls to be immursed in the culture as much as possible--which would mean that they would go to some type of class).
D. Transportation
3. Income
A. How much will DH earn with contract (initial research says about 1550 EU take home)
B. Can I earn anything? For example: Teaching English classes or a part-time job
C. Secondary Contracts for DH
4. Living
A. Will people hate us over there?
B. How will the language barrier work out?
C. What are the people like?
D. How will we deal with being away from our families?
5. Logistics
A. How long will it take to find a contract for Dh
B. Will he need to fly over there first and have us follow? Can I manage 2 kids by myself?
C. Will we find an apartment that can work for all of us?
6. Money
A. Will we have enough money to live comfortably?
B. Will we have enough money for the extra things? Like traveling?
C. Will we be able to earn enought to get us home too?
D. How would the taxes work?
7. Visas
A. How do we get them?
B. DH will need a work visa, can I get one too?
C. Do the girls need visas too?
D. How long do the visas last? Will we need to re-apply every year?
E. How much do they cost?
F. How long do they take to get?
8. Belongings
A. How much can we take with us?
B. How much will we need to ship over there?
C. How will we get our stuff back here?
9. The girls
A. Will they adapt okay?
B. Will they be okay away from family for 3 years?
C. What about having more kids?
10. Insurance
A. Will we all be covered?
B. What is health care like out there?
C. Will we be able to afford the insurance if we're not automatically covered?
11. Me
A. Will I be able to get out once in awhile?
B. How will I meet people?
C. How much can I count on you being home?
D. Should we start preventing again? Maybe a new baby isn't a good idea right now.
12. I think I might be missing some questions---so you can add some here....