Leaving friends behind

After having spent the first month with my parents and friends in Kirchheim, I returned to Berlin this week. It's a really weird feeling to be back. Nothing here seems to have changed, but I've experienced so many new things meanwhile. Being back at my apartment also reminds me of the hard time I had in spring. Now I'm trying to get used to Berlin again and trying to set up a new life!

Although I always felt it's hard for me to make real friends in Bishkek (mostly because of the language barrier), I almost started crying when I looked at some pictures of my farewell party yesterday. In the end it's not about how many friends you have, but the kind of friends you have. I feel so fortunate to have met these people and I truely feel like we have a deep connection (don't ask me why) that will last into the future.

Thank you Aia, Aiyma, Guillana, Altana, Marat, Benja and Boka for welcoming me into your family. Now I know why Philipp still - after 6 years - hasn't stopped talking about you. You are very generous, funny and you are the most fun people to have dinner with. I hope, our families (with more kids by then) will get a chance to meet again in the future!

Thank you Jennifer and Dave for your positive attitude, for all the laughs we shared and for being my friends. How can you feel so close to someone you've only met for a couple of weeks? Honestly, I don't get it, but I do hope that this connection will last and that we all meet again with Kyrgyzstanley, Grant and our kid(s). Maybe on our extended honeymoon in California...?

The "big" (not so secret anymore) reason for coming home early

Well, after we had some time to inform family and close friends I feel now it's ok, to finally post it. The reason for me coming back earlier than originally planned is 6.5 cm long (by now) and 14 weeks "old"...















We are very excited about this new and surprisingly quickly started "project". At first, we didn't consider going back to Germany just because of a pregnancy. But after we had some worries and had seen 2 different Kyrgyz doctors, we realized that we'd feel more comfortable, if I could see a German practitioner. I have to point out, that there was no sign that the Kyrgyz doctors were not right or competent. But we only then realized how hard it is to trust someone, if the language is not your own. Other than that I knew that in Germany they do a lot more tests in the beginning. In Bishkek you always had to ask the doctors to do a test. So knowing you might miss important tests, didn't leave a good feeling in me. Plus, foreigners have to pay a lot more for medical treatments (more compared to Kyrgyz people, not the German treatments of course) and often it's hard to get the kind of receipts you can hand in to your German insurance. So this point just added to our decision, that we would all feel better, if I'd go back earlier...

Which I took with one laughing and one crying eye (a German proverb). On the one hand, I wanted to make sure everything is ok with me and the baby (which it is, by the way!), but on the other hand, I felt like I didn't accomplish my mission in Bishkek. We wanted to do so much travelling in the end, but the doctor recommended better not to travel to the little villages and over the high mountains. So I would have been stuck in Bishkek for the next 2 months with Philipp being busy with his work most of the time.

Oh well, it was a hard but good decision. At this point I'd like to thank Hajo Schmidt - our German friend and practitioner, who luckily had done some projects in Bishkek before - for all his long distance advice over e-mail and the quick and generous support after my return. Your advice meant a lot to us and we feel very lucky to know someone like you! Hopefully we can see you again at the end of October so you can personally present the baby to Philipp with your super-cool 4D real time ultrasound device...