There a lot of things that a person can normalize. For example, for a time it was completely normal for me to milk a cow every morning and have 2-3 gallons of milk in my fridge. Neil is now perfectly acclimated to working for a large company with all the benefits and politics that involves. Lately it’s become completely normal for Neil to be a world traveler. His latest addition to places he’s good at is Berlin, Germany.
Quick work update: Grammarly has a hub (a branch) in Berlin. It was created when the war in Ukraine broke out so that everyone based at the Kiev hub could be relocated. It has thrived and over time become the central location for their windows developers. Neil is the lead guy on a project that will be a foundational piece of the company’s development strategy moving forward. (His stellar presentation to the CEO and CTO while he was in Berlin did help tip the needle in their favor a bit.) However, the project will be moving to a team in Berlin to continue development. Neil, though, will most likely be going back a few times a year to collaborate and support.

So this last trip was kind of a last minute thing so he could give said presentation. The “real” trip was planned for the middle of March. After some debate we decided that the girls and I will be tagging along. I’ll admit my inner home school mom was very much swayed by the fact that Corra’s English class is reading a book all about The Berlin Wall. So when my 11 year old cares about things like Check Point Charlie and we have a chance to go in person…you kind of don’t say no. I want to see the graffiti and The East Side Gallery, Naomi is looking forward to seeing the actual Nefertiti bust, and Layna will be able to talk to her friend Thea who lives on the western edge of the country. There will be many blog posts sharing our crazy, last minute adventure, rest assured. For tonight though, Neil did a fabulous job of scoping it out for us.

He had good company, good food, and it even snowed. Standing outside his plane in Iceland almost did him in, but he made it home with German candy bars for the girls, good chocolate for me, and other fun snacks. We can’t wait to pick out our own snacks!