Hey there, welcome to the Long house, or as we (are learning to) say in Swedish, Det Långa Huset. Come along with us on a great adventure as we relocate our family from the middle of the midwest to the town of Gothenburg, Sweden. (For reference, Gothenburg is located on the southwest coast, about halfway between Copenhagen, Denmark, and Oslo, Norway. It is situated at the mouth of Göta älv, which feeds into Kattegatt, an arm of the North Sea. What does it all mean? Water. Lots and lots of water all around.)

As a family of 4 (that’s counting our Vizsla pup, of course), we plan on chronicling details about our move abroad (including all the information we scoured the internets for, sometimes coming up short), assimilating to a new culture (Publicly provided healthcare? Family and elder care? The metric system? Whoa…I’m probably not even skimming the surface here), and field trips as we explore Scandinavia and beyond. There might will be some feelings-heavy posts sprinkled in as well, as this move is certainly not happening without leaving bits of a heavy heart back in the states…

It’s a thrill to have this opportunity to share our stories with you, and to be able to show our son that the world is his to explore (can you imagine learning that at the tender age of 6?! Lucky!) Please feel free to contact us with subjects you think we might want to touch on, places we shouldn’t miss, or just to say hi. Thanks for reading, now let’s go see what Sweden has in store for us!