Houston, we have an apartment

It is no secret that I am a nester.

I like to have my home decorated with things that mean something to me: art, souvenirs, pictures, things that tell stories.

So when we pack our HHE (and to a degree, but less so, our UAB), I like to include things that make our place overseas feel like home.

Apparently, my wife also likes that I do this, because this time, even she was clamoring for something to make our apartment (which is ginormous) look less like a corporate apartment.

So we were both really happy when our HHE finally arrived a week ago Tuesday. And there was lots of it, like 6000 lbs (and that number is low because I deliberately reduced how much we brought this time!). Of course, probably half that amount is books...

Lotsa Stuff

The cats approved of the boxes

And the paper

And true to form, I got all of our stuff unpacked and the boxes thrown out within two days (with the help of a local holiday...yay! Bajram!..on Thursday). Admit it, you wish you were married to me.

Making progress

Friday, I put in the order for GSO to come hang our pictures (I tried it myself, but the walls are concrete and I lack concrete nails or transportation to go buy some). And they came yesterday. So now we even have art on the wall.

Even my office at work has a touch of home:

Why yes, I am from SC, why do you ask?

Now it feels more like home...for another 21 or 22 months anyway...

Përshëndetje nga Kosova

View of Pristina from our Balcony

I made it to Kosovo. I had expected to arrive tomorrow with Oskar, one of our cats, and Noostie, our dog. Instead, I arrived Thursday with Oskar and Cayenne, our bird.

Let me back up.

The whole language training fiasco threw a monkey wrench into all of our departure plans. So instead of leaving with my wife on July 22 as planned, I completed another four weeks of language training and retested on July 31.

Oh, and I got my waiver, on July 29. But I opted to test anyway, because I really believed I was at a 3/3 or better.

And I passed! Yay!

Looking on the bright side, I know that the extra time in one on one training really solidified my language. I actually felt pretty darn close to a 3+ on the day of the test. And brighter side, I made some lifelong friends among the teachers. So I am profoundly grateful for that.

Still, getting here was an ordeal (in fact, worst PCS ever), and it isn't over yet. My beloved dog is still in Virginia, and I will be worried sick until she gets here.

So my original plan (original as of the initial language test failure anyway) was to pack out our stuff for storage on Monday and Tuesday (August 3 and 4) and to depart on Wednesday, August 5 with the cat, dog and parrot. I did all the pet appointments on July 27th and overnighted the paperwork to the USDA for their health certificates that night. But mix ups regarding what exactly they needed from my vet ended up meaning that I had to pay a courier to drive the paperwork to me from Richmond on Tuesday.

Then I discovered that the airlines only allowed one pet in cargo (but four in cabin...I am not sure which planet that makes sense on). And Cayenne, my bird, was not cleared to transit Copenhagen, even though I had jumped through all of the hoops to get an EU health certificate (trust me, she does NOT have bird flu) and her CITES permit. So then I had to decide...do I send my bird to the pet shipper in hopes he can get her to me, or to my wife's cousin, who could keep her for two years? I am sure the movers were perplexed about why I was bawling on the front porch. I finally got through to a supervisor at Scandinavian who told me the decision to allow Cayenne to transit had to be made by a ministry in Denmark, which of course was closed. She offered to call me at 2 am when they opened with an update.

In the meantime, I had other reservations on a flight for Sunday. I would have my dog and cat with me on that one. And I assumed that was what I would be taking. So I relaxed a bit in my preparations, even planning for dinners with friends.

The call came at 2:30 am....still no approval for Cayenne on the flight. So I got up at about 8 and started cleaning a bit around the house.

And then the call came at 9:30...she is approved.

So now I am having to fast forward...I have to leave for the airport at 3 to be there by 3:55 for the 5:55 flight. That gave me five and a half hours to finish packing, mail a box of stuff that I had no room for in my suitcase, take Cayenne to the vet for her last checkup (seriously man, EU rules are strict!), and make arrangements for the dog to go to the boarding facility that will hopefully be able to ship her (if not, I will be flying back this weekend to bring her here as excess baggage).

It was seriously down to the wire, in fact, even more so than I thought. My taxi arrived a bit late because of traffic and we got to the airport a little later than I had hoped. The line for security was about five miles long, and they were letting some folks ahead because they needed to make their flights. But I had no worries, right? Plenty of time!

Except when I got to my gate, and was at the little store getting some water, I hear the LAST CALL for my flight. At like 4:40. So I saunter across to the gate and ask why they boarded so early. They said they got started early. So I board, find my seat. Everyone else is seated. And we pull away from the gate at 5:15. It was only then that I looked at my ticket again (I didn't have a printed copy, just a link on my phone) and saw that my flight was at 5:15, not 5:55! It was the Sunday flight that was at 5:55! In hindsight, I am glad I didn't know.

So we are here. Noostie should get her new health certificate Tuesday and be eligible to fly until the 19th. Please pray. if you are the praying sort, that she gets here safely sooner rather than later. There is a doggie-sized hole in my heart right now and I need her home and to have my family together.

I do think once Noostie is here, I will be really happy here. It is great to be back with my wife so we can explore together. Our apartment is ginormous and really nice and is about a block and a half from the embassy. Even with my bad knees, I can walk it easily. The embassy compound is nice and I seem to have an awesome staff. I am excited to work with them.

The city so far seems nice, with a great restaurant scene and some decent grocery stores. And of course we have the commissary at work and the PX at the KFOR Base for the must-have American goods, including diet Mt. Dew (which my amazing wife actually had waiting for me in the fridge when I got here!).

Also great, our UAB had already arrived and was even mostly unpacked! So we have stuff!

Life is good.

Change of Plans

Our UAB and HHE are on their way. My wife will be in two days. 

I will not.

Those of you who know me from the real world (and, who are we kidding, from Facebook, though to be fair, all of my Facebook friends are people I have real world ties to), know that my language test did not go well. Almost there is not what you want to hear about 43 weeks. So our transfer, including this past weekend's packout, has become maddeningly more complicated than it needed to be.

My wife and I were supposed to leave together (though on different flights because the main airline the Department uses doesn't allow parrots and the cost construct for that flight was pretty expensive, so my wife will use the regular flight). We were supposed to leave on Wednesday. This Wednesday. So we arranged our packout for this past weekend.

It was supposed to come after a week of leadership training and a few days off (read, days organizing) for me and a week off and a few days off for my wife (also for organizing). But with the test issue, that didn't happen. Instead, my week of leadership was exchanged for more time in language class, because it turns out that it takes four weeks to have your test reviewed, to pursue a language waiver, or to take enough additional language training to retest.

I am pursuing all three, in case you were curious. My plan now is to head to post on August 5, two weeks after my wife gets there (and no, this doesn't means she will unpack and set stuff up for us...she didn't unpack her shipments in Azerbaijan in the three months between her departure for post and my first visit there. Nesting is not really her thing.)

So I am still in language. No vacation for me. Meaning I couldn't help much with the packout of the UAB and HHE. Also meaning that the packout for storage and the car had to be postponed until August 3. So there has been much more stress than there should have been. I feel far less on top of this PCS than I have previous ones (though the movers were impressed with my labeling system...stickers on everything for UAB, HHE and storage since there wouldn't be two of there to organize and then supervise).

So our UAB and HHE are on their way to Kosovo, and my wife will begin her journey with one of our cats in two days. I have two more weeks in language and I retest on July 31. It is possible that either the waiver or a positive review of the test will come through by then (because I actually felt like I did better than my score on the test, but that is another story...), but it is already too late to change anything. So even if I get the waiver or find I passed at least one part of my test, I will still retest in the other part and leave on the 5th (Me, the dog, one of the cats, and the parrot. Fun.).

And if you are the religious sort, I wouldn't mind any prayers or positive energy you want to send my way. I am already carrying around a four-leaf clover my mother found in West Virginia. Can't hurt, right?

Preparing to Pack

And so it begins.

The long goodbye to our stuff.

We have the good fortune of two back to back local holidays this Monday and Tuesday, meaning we have a four-day weekend. Yay, Estonia.

Our first day back, Wednesday, is when we have our packout survey. If this were the states, I would tell you that this would be when the moving company would come by and grossly underestimate how much stuff we have and how long it will take to pack our stuff. They would then use that gross underestimation to bring too little of what they need to actually pack our stuff, or at least too little of what they need to pack our stuff the way they tend to pack it (really, how many trees died to wrap my shoes in that much paper?).

But this is not America.

This is Estonia, where people are efficient and generally accurate. So I am cautiously optimistic that I will get a reasonable estimate of the amount and the time involved.

I'll let you know.

And then Friday, they come for our UAB, or Unaccompanied Baggage.

That is the stuff that arrives, or is supposed to arrive, fairly quickly. The stuff you need immediately, like clothes, sheets, towels, some dishes, etc.

I say supposed to, because when my wife was posted to Baku, they forgot to send her UAB until she had been there for FOUR MONTHS. That is a long time to live with the stuff from your suitcase. And coming home from Jerusalem, where we dutifully packed out our UAB two weeks before leaving post so it would get home around when we did, they didn't bother to send it until AFTER they sent our HHE. When I called post to figure out what happened, they asked if there was something in there I really needed immediately.

ALL OF IT! THAT IS THE POINT!

Of course, these are also the movers that tied down our car, the one going on a ship, with bungie cords. Ships rock, bungie cords stretch, and our car was scraped down to the metal. Thank god for insurance.

So it is that time again. It is all I can do not to put things into a UAB pile, but with the in-laws arriving tomorrow, there is just no good place to do it. So instead, I have a list.

Here is what I have for the UAB so far:

Clothes
Summer blanket
Sheets
Pillows
Towels
Shower curtain and rod
TV
PS3 (doubles as a DVD player)
Kitchen - Pots/pans/dishes
Dog’s blanket
Cat food
Cat bed
Litter box
Tool box
*Camera backpack
*Walking stick
*Day packs
*Small cooler
Bose Radio
Shower radio
Laundry hamper
Baby gate
Scale
Flashlight
Step stool

Of course, I also have lists for my suitcase and carry on. I really want to pack them too.

* For our home leave hiking trip.

Done!

My HHE is gone.

I had been given a window for their arrival of 11-2. So guess when they arrived?

1:50.

At least that is better than Comcast, right?

I had everything sorted in piles, each pile with a label that read "pack all the contents of this____" so they would hopefully have an easy time of it. You can see from the picture below why the cats actually did have to be put in the "safe room."


It took them about four hours to pack up my stuff, which ended up being about 2500 lbs.


I am much calmer now that it is done. I am getting all the last minute things on my "to do" list accomplished and think I will be ready to leave come Wednesday.

Except for the whole leaving my wife behind part. I'll just go ahead and apologize now if my first bit of blogging from Estonia is a little whiney.

I still have one hurdle...the EU form for birds is a bear, and it may be that I end up taking a trip to Richmond on Tuesday to pick up her health certificate. Because we had to get her tested for Bird Flu within seven days, had to overnight the test to the lab, who didn't finish it until today. They faxed the results and now THAT form has to be overnighted to the USDA.

All to prove she doesn't have a disease she couldn't possibly have.

Ah, Foreign Service life.

Sigh.

Well That Was Fast...

Wow...250 lbs goes FAST!

The movers were supposed to arrive between 10 and 12 this morning. To my utter shock, they got here early!

Luckily, I was ready.

I set aside a pile of stuff on our spare bed. I told them to start with my clothes, and then we'd work through the pile in priority order.

Who knew I had so many clothes??

They packed all my work clothes, shoes and golf shirts.

And that was 150lbs!


I immediately knew I would not be getting all of my pile into the the next 100lbs. So I put in pet food, pillows, some sweat shirts, coats (gotta have the coats!), towels, extra sheets, a blanket.

And that was 107lbs!

Well crap...

So we took some stuff out. I can mail myself the sheets. I had wanted to have some office decorations early on, but that too can wait.

So we pulled stuff out, added in the wii and a few games.

The rest, including the new tv, will have to go into my HHE. Thank goodness post has a tv in the welcome kit!


Tomorrow, the HHE folks come. I am nearly done with all my sorting. I have created a "safe place" where I can stash anything I want to make sure is NOT packed.

Like my suitcases. And the pets.

Packing my UAB

Whitney over at The Dubinsky's Travels said that they are packing out this week and wondered what I am putting in my UAB. Since I am packing mine out tomorrow, I thought I'd just make a new post of it.

First, it is important to get a list from your post of what is in your welcome kit and to find out whether you get to keep it until your HHE arrives. Because if you have to return it once you get your UAB, that changes everything.

My post, according to the list I got and to some friends who arrived there recently, has a pretty decent welcome kit. And we get to keep it until our HHE arrives. So I won't be packing any of my kitchen supplies into my UAB. (And as of today, it is all sorted and ready for the HHE packers...hooray!).

For my UAB, I am packing a small tv, wii and games, and a vcr. Check with your post about whether the welcome kits include a tv...this could be vital if you have kids (I don't but I still want one. My post actually includes a tv, but I am probably bringing mine in the UAB anyway if I have the weight). Also bring toys and maybe some favorite snacks for your kids and pets. It will ease their adjustment.

I am also bringing sheets, pillows and towels. Yes, the embassy provides those, but I bet they won't feel as nice as the ones you sleep on at home. In fact, I actually mailed myself a set of sheets and a mattress pad (embassy bedding is notoriously uncomfortable, at least in my experience. I am actually bringing my own bed, and I am putting a set of sheets for it in my UAB so that I don't have to unpack all of my HHE before I can make the bed when it arrives.)

I am of course bringing most of my clothes in my UAB. I am packing five or six suits and two weeks worth of work shirts in my suitcase, but the rest is going in my UAB. As are my heavy coats...I don't want the Estonian winter to arrive before my coats do! And of course my electronics...though they will be in my carry on...my computer, ipad, kindle (gotta have books!), ipod (gotta have music!)...plus all of my important documents, like passports, animal health certificates, etc, will be in my carry on.

I also put in a few pieces of art or carpets to make the place a little more homey until my HHE arrives.

I think that is everything I have in mine. Did I miss anything?

Like I said, yours could be very different depending on how long you get to keep your welcome kit and what is in it.

Do.Not.Want

...to do anything.

I haven't been motivated to blog much lately.

Or do much of anything else since getting back from vacation.

Periodically I put something in my UAB pile. I took clothes to the dry cleaner and Cayenne to the vet. Then sometimes I take stuff OUT of the UAB pile (I can't decide if I want to take dishes and utensils since that will be in the welcome kit that I get to keep until my HHE arrives.

But mostly I am unmotivated.

Don't get me wrong. I am eager to get to Estonia...in January.

But I am not eager to leave my life behind. Specifically, for me, home is where my wife is. So Estonia won't be home for the first six months.

So I am moving more by remote control than anything. I am driven by necessities...vet visits have to happen at a certain time, UAB and HHE get packed Wednesday and Thursday. Last minute consultations tomorrow.

I'll get my act together eventually...maybe by January.

Surveyed

One more thing off my list...my packout survey is done.

He estimates that I will be taking about 2,200 lbs worth of stuff with me to post.

That is only because my wife, and all of her books, are not joining me immediately.

I have also designated a cat (and therefore cat-barf) free zone for my UAB and have begun taking stuff there. I have a a tv in there and I just packed up my wii and guitar hero, so you know you want to come visit and play with me.

My lists are getting more and more crossed off of them.

And tomorrow starts the most important thing of all:

VACATION!

I'll *try* to post some during the course of our trip, which will take us down to Savannah and then over to Asheville, with a stop in Hotlanta (an especially apt name today...) to see my dad.

Speaking of the heat, here is a picture my cousin sent me today of an ice cream truck in South Carolina.