The Coming Culture Shock (HYD to SLC)

And there we were...living in Hyderabad, the capital city of the State of Andhra Pradesh in the southern-central region of India. We were pretty sure that my wife (Amy Suzanne) was going to take a position up in New Delhi. We had begun our fourth (and final) year in Hyderabad ... and had even taken a trip up to Delhi to do a "look-see" visit to check out local neighborhoods and high-rise apartment complexes. I think we were as mentally prepared as possible to make the move and spend the next two years (2014 and 2015) in the north of India.

Then I got a short, cryptic e-mail from my wife that seemed to change everything...on September 10th of this year, I saw this message in my in-box:

"What do you think about moving to Salt Lake City

instead of Delhi in June 2014 ?"

I actually think the best answer I could muster at that moment was: "Huh? Salt Lake City??"

When I received the email (which was marked "TOP SECRET!!") ... I was over in the coastal city of Chennai visiting friends and attending a wedding. For that story and all about our four-year stay in India... see our blog from March of 2010 until the present day at "At Home in Hyderabad" on Blogspot.

The next few weeks were spent in silence as there was nobody we could talk to about it. We talked a lot about it between ourselves - and became really happy and excited about the process. And the possibility of not just going home to the U.S. - but the chance to begin yet another NEW CHAPTER in our lives that have been so blessed by the opportunities we have had over the last 4-years!

Week by week, day by day it seems... we got sucked into the wormhole toward Utah. The word came from the "higher ups" that we could not only begin to tell people what was planned... but also to start making plans for the move. Things in India seem to move at their own pace...so it's never too early to begin planning such things. Here is a photo taken at a Deloitte expat party the night we were told that everything was "all systems go"!

Right now the plan is... to do our yearly Christmas/New Years trip (this year to China!) - come back to India - where I am planning to have my much-needed and put-off-for-far-too-long hip replacement surgery here in Hyderabad, get Amy Suzanne through this year's Spring Tax Busy Season... and get outta Dodge. Our Indian visas and the lease on our house here expire on the 1st of May... so it should be shortly after that when we arrive in the Beehive State to begin "Chapter 5" of our lives.

We can't wait!

Stay tuned for more!!

Scott, Amy Suzanne and Beloved (the Lhasa Apso)