"boy, you sure take a lot of trips"

i hear this a lot.  i'm pretty sure most of my expat friends hear this a lot as well.  we do travel a lot, it's the light at the end of our tunnel, the thing we look forward to.


our day to day lives can get a bit boring.  most of us can't work in our host country.  some of us don't speak the language well enough to take classes.  it can get very frustrating, so we plan.  we plan trips.   


my day often consists of traveling to numerous grocery stores to find the 10 items on my list.  then possibly a trip to the post office, where my 9 year old has a better chance of getting across-in german-what i am trying to say then i do.  so i have to have something to look forward to.


so a common question we ask each other is "where are you spending_________?" fill in the blank with one of the many breaks that the kids have.  you can ask any of us what airline has discounted flights to cairo, or is it better to drive or take the train to austria and we can tell you.


we are really blessed to be so close to so many amazing things.  we are driving distance to most places in europe and my goal is to see as many of these locations as i can in the unknown time my family is here.  


i do wonder at what age my kids will actually appreciate what they have seen?  when ben is 40, will he want to take his kids to italy to see the mona lisa?  will oliver tell his family about the anne frank house when his kids are reading about it in school?  right now it just seems like "another old thing" that they are having to see, but i do believe that one day they will actually appreciate all of this.