Moving Up

In my US-centric experience, when you have a family and a job, you only change homes to make them bigger and better. For example…

STARTING OUT: We began in a brownstone apartment in Chicago’s Bucktown.

MOVING UP: As our family grew, we moved to the suburbs.

• Rent became mortgage.
  
• Two bedrooms became three.
  
• One bathroom became 2.5.
  
• 800 square feet became 1900.
  
• The strip of dirt between the building and the curb became a yard.
  

BIGGER AND BETTER: Before we considered moving to Switzerland, we had our next house planned out.

• We wanted a basement.
  
• We wanted an extra bedroom.
  
• We wanted a laundry room, not just a laundry nook.
  
• We wanted a pantry, not just a cupboard.
  

INTERRUPTION: But when we moved to Geneva, we went back to living in an apartment and paying rent.

This is typical for expats. And I think the success and happiness of most expats is based largely on our ability to ignore the notion that this as a step backward.