Today marks the end of our fourth (very full) week in Bend. In many ways, I’ve treated this like yet another overseas assignment because we had to do all the usual ‘setting up house’ things like finding schools, doctors, friends, and new activities. I’m not much for slow starts. I’d much prefer to do ALL THE THINGS immediately. :) We didn’t have much of a choice anyways, as there were several urgent things to figure out.
While we were hanging in Minnesota, Nick was scouring the internet to find us housing. Our goal was a one-year lease on a furnished place starting August 1st. That turned out to be shockingly hard given the immense popularity of Bend for vacationers and people moving here from Seattle and California.
Nick sent out a good 20 inquiries and only heard back on half. And of those 10, only two would allow us to see the property before signing the lease. But perhaps more problematic was that not one of them would rent to us over summer 2025. They all wanted their housing back for the summer to use themselves or put on Airbnb as a short-term rental for more $$$. Around July 20th, with less than 10 days ‘til our desired move-in date, we adjusted our plan, settling for a three-month rental that would get us to the end of October. We hoped that by that time, our stuff would be here, which would allow us to consider unfurnished places (which are more likely to do year-long leases).
Side Tangent: Speaking of when our stuff would arrive, that end of October date is looking increasingly unlikely. Due to reasons we don’t understand, our things remain in Kazakhstan (albeit at the edge of the country waiting to board a boat across the Caspian sea). I think it’s ridiculous that our things are still in country 10 weeks after we packed out! But alas, it’s out of my control. So given that information, we’re more likely looking at a November arrival, since it’s typically two months by boat. Fingers crossed that it gets moving soon because I brought very few winter clothes along!
Back to the housing update: Once we changed courses, we were easily able to find something for August through October that we could tour in advance. Thanks to Nick’s pre-work, we moved in to that new house just two days after arriving in Bend. Thus far it’s been working out great and we’re currently debating whether to extend the lease or find something closer to her school once our stuff arrives.
Besides housing, the second most urgent item on our list was braces since it had been a month and a half since Nia’s last adjustment. Back in Almaty, I had painstakingly called every orthodontist in the area to find out what brackets they used, with the goal of finding an orthodontist who would allow us to keep her current braces on. I found three who met our criteria and booked all three consultations for the day after we landed in Bend. When we showed up for each appointment I was very clear that we were getting multiple consultations and that the orthodonist that would get our business was the one who came in with the best price and would let us keep her current brackets on (I’d heard many a story of orthodontist switchovers where they charge you an arm and a leg to change out the brackets because they won’t work with the old ones). My straight-ball approach seemed to work as we got to keep our brackets, start within two weeks, and pay way less than expected. Not much has gone right on this move, so it dramatically boosted our spirits to have braces come through better than expected.
Next up was the school hunt. Our internet research had narrowed it down to two private schools in the area that offered an experience similar to what she’d had in international schools (we’ve really tried hard to minimize the difficulty of the experience for Nia since she’s had multiple transitions in recent years). We did tours of both and were quite impressed with their experiential learning (including multi-day trips off campus!), individualization, and inquiry-based learning. So different than the rote memorization and testing that was the norm when I was Nia’s age! After meeting with families from both, we ultimately went with the one that had the better arts curriculum and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program that she knows and loves. It calms me to know she’s heading into her first day knowing a few faces and with several other new kids starting alongside her. Her first day will be Wednesday, September 4th! Send her good vibes for another great year.
The last major area is our job search, but I have nothing to update you on yet. Nick is taking leave at the moment and still finalizing what’s next. I’ve started casually looking but am waiting for Nia to get in school before devoting significant time and energy to my job search. You know I’ll keep you posted!
When not doing all the things described above, we were busy spending time with Nick’s parents or exploring our new home. Here are some of the things we fit in this month:
