Pete's Log: Home is where your Wahlpflicht is
Entry #1426, (Life in General)(posted when I was 28 years old.)
An alternate title I considered for this entry was "Home Sweet Euro-Zone." It's the thought that crossed my mind as I crossed the border from Switzerland to Austria on my way home from a recent customer visit.
This is a bit of a reflection on my sense of home, as it has evolved over the past few months. The title is not actually an accurate reflection of this, as Wahlpflicht is German for voting obligation. The title struck me as funny, because I went through some efforts a couple weeks ago to register to vote in Belgium through the Belgian Embassy in Berlin. Voting is mandatory in Belgium, and I got an email advising me that it'd be a good idea to register before February 1st. So that's what I did.
But home, it turns out, is not actually where my Wahlpflicht is. My Wahlpflicht is in a country I have never lived in, but whose citizenship I cherish and use to make living in Germany easier. I still think that I would like to live in Belgium at some point in my life, but that's not going to happen anytime soon.
So that leaves Munich.
I'm two weeks short of the half-year mark. So far, my time here has been great, but I've only recently passed some threshold where this place really feels like home. The breakthrough moment was probably when I bought a bookshelf and finally unpacked all my little tchotchkes and other sentimental items.
I'm also finally getting around to some of the remaining tasks of my move, including registering with the Belgian Embassy and getting a German driver's license.
The thing is, I don't think I realized how much I needed a sense of home in my life. And since my new job here's been going well, I'm really starting to consider the possibility that I'll be here five, ten, or more years. So I dunno. I started this entry more than a week ago, and have been struggling to put into words what I'm feeling. But it's all good stuff... so I'm just gonna post this now, so that it's out of the queue, so that I might start posting other things again.
Off-topic, but none-the-less exciting, is the news that Branden and Brian are coming to visit Munich at the end of March. There's no better way to get to know your home city better than with out-of-town guests.