For some years I had been feeling this urge to travel the United States. I couldn’t explain why as I have always had this love-hate relationship with the country. When I was 16 I spent a year in Madison, Wisconsin, attending a high school and living with an american family. I had a ball and a very intense and intimate experience. My issues with the States and its inhabitants are no different from other liberal, ecologically and politically aware people: overconsumption, conservatism, individuality, political and economical pressure and dominance, a devastating lifestyle and a poor education system to name just a few. On the love side there is a country rich in diversity with a fascinating history and an unparalleled “let’s do it”-spirit. Not to mention places like New York and San Francisco, the American dream myths, feminist history, the civil rights movement and incredibly beautiful nature. As a manager – and having had enough American colleagues and superiors to be familiar with an American management culture – I highly value the team-focused and anything goes spirit.
And of course since Obama was elected president, the attitude of people like me towards the USA has changed dramatically.
All attempts to go to the States during summer vacation failed because of the inflated airfare prices. There was one piece missing to the puzzle: schools. While having had the States as a travel destination in the back of my mind I had been thinking about how we would be able to go on an extended trip. Not just during school vacation here, a long weekend there, maximum 9 weeks during summer. I wanted to take off and have enough time to go places without having a deadline in my head or an itinerary that needed to be covered. I wanted to go even without a clear idea of where exactly we would be going and what we would be doing.
The solution came to me one day when a magic word popped up in my head: homeschooling. Now that seems like a simple, logical answer rom where I stand now knowing about all those fantastic things that are going on with world schooling etc, but in winter 2014 homeschooling was extraordinary, something only the most conservative or most alternative weirdos did. And I sure did not feel a calling to teaching Nella and Elena myself. Far from it! They would rather have repeated a grade I’m sure. And right I was: When I first started researching on how it could be done (Austria is not a very progressive country when it comes to the education system as the PISA results proof every year) the only helpful information I found was on a Jehovah’s Witnesses’ page. Once I knew what and how to do it, the rest were formalities. Luckily the official responsible for Elena’s school district was as supportive as her teacher. Nella had just started a new life in a (private) Waldorf school where taking her out for a semester was not an issue. I had decided to take them out of school for the winter semester as this gave them the chance to finish the school year (instead of “losing” it) upon our return.
So that was done. I resigned my job, and from then on everything ran on its own: one night February when routinely checking airfares suddenly this incredibly cheap flight to New York popped up with very short lay over and excellent flying times. The flight had never been there before when I checked, and it was never there after when I did a control check. I’m mentioning this to emphasize the following: once you decide to follow your intuition and you get into the action mode, miracles can happen.
And so we took off on our great adventure in July 2015.
