Home, Bitter Sweet Home

Our adventure has come to an end and we are almost back in the United States.  None of us wants to say "finally," because the return is bitter sweet.  Sweet because it will be wonderful to sleep in our beds tonight, and see our friends, and return to some semblence of normalcy.  Bitter because we enjoyed our time in Europe so much and now it is over.  Because we will miss the friends and colleagues we saw there and made there.  There are things that we've missed from home and now there are things we will miss from the last two months in so many different places.

Here are some of our take-aways.  This was fun for us to sit down and think about, and it can also serve as an FAQ for this blog's close followers (nearly 4000 page views in the last 8 weeks!)

Favorite City
Eli - Edinburgh
Emmma - Paris
Sharon - Paris / London
Andrew - Edinburgh / Leiden

Most impressive thing you saw or did?
Eli - Miniland in Legoland
Emma - Notre Dame
Sharon - View from the Eiffel Tower
Andrew - Edinburgh

Where would you live?
Eli - Amsterdam
Emma - London or Paris
Sharon - London
Andrew - London

What does Europe do better than the United States?
Eli - Trains
Emma - Trains and Fish & Chips
Sharon - Public transportation & Credit cards
Andrew -  Coffee (on the mainland) and Beer (in Britain)

What does the United States do better than Europe?
Eli - TV channel setup
Emma - Peanut butter, crowd control, air conditioning
Sharon - Restaurant customer service
Andrew - Ice

Where would you like to visit again?
Eli - Amsterdam
Emma - London
Sharon - London
Andrew - London

What did you want to do that you couldn't?
Eli - Ireland
Emma - Ireland
Sharon - Scottish Highlands
Andrew - Meet the Queen (I wanna tell her that I love her a lot, but I gotta get a belly full of wine)

What is the best meal you ate?
Eli - Chicken and potato salad with balsamic salad (Edinburgh)
Emma - Penne with spinich, chicken, pancetta, mushroom sauce (Sheffield)
Sharon - Goat cheese ravioli with pine nuts & pesto (Sheffield)
Andrew - Wolf fish (Leiden)

What is the best dessert you ate?
Eli - Waffle with chocolate and whipped cream (Amsterdam)
Emma - ditto
Sharon - Hot chocolate (Cambridge)
Andrew - Shared dessert plates at product management dinner (Amsterdam)

What did you miss the most while you were gone?
Eli - My bass
Emma - My friends, chocolate and peanut butter, Beaufort
Sharon - My bed with a top sheet and my shower with a door
Andrew - My bed

What will you miss the most when you're settled back home?
Eli - Familiarity with our home away from home
Emma - Being able to easily go to different countries and site-see
Sharon - Getting around without being so dependent on a car
Andrew - Working face-to-face with European colleagues and libraries


One take-away that we all share is that we will have a very different view of people coming to the United States to live for the first time or for extended visits.  Some people made us feel very, very welcome (I will never forget the public works employee who saw us lost in Sheffield's town center and went out of his way to holler "'elp ya?"), and that is a feeling that all of us want to share with other people in a strange land. 

I would be remiss if I didn't thank OCLC for supporting my professional endeavors, and all my colleagues in Europe who helped me out, and all those back in Ohio and Seattle who endured (or enjoyed?) my absence. 

The kids have a few weeks of summer vacation left, though Emma will be busy with Band Camp and Eli has an epic Nerf battle to finish planning.  As I write this, we are almost home, sitting in the airport in Toronto for our final leg.  It will feel like 4 am when we get to the house, but at least it will feel like home.