So, it seems my updates are going to run monthly. Maybe more if I'm having a good day. But today is a good day. In spite of the 95 degree heat (with east coast humidity) and the "condition orange" air quality warning.
Today I started to grasp avoir été. And am getting better at pronouns. That was the true test my French Prof said (thanks, Teresa!) So, I'm getting there. Or at least somewhere.
I'm working at not panicking that we have less than three weeks left. And Fred is going back to Caifornia for a week Saturday. While he's gone I have to file our 2006 taxes (yes, truly) find a new insurance company, sell the car, arrange for packout times 3, continue to do my French homework, and attend a 3-day class instead of French class, go to a housewarming party, and who knows how many bon voyage parties for my classmates (whom I will miss greatly!)
Before Saturday, we have to figure out how to get to the Costco, without spending three hours on the freeway; buy a flatware set, buy new glasses and contact lenses, buy cat food for a year and the containers for them, finish buying the "consumables" we think we'll need at post for 1-2 years (we've already spent thousands, it's scary) and start mailing ourselves packages of stuff we'll need before the UAB arrives.
Here's how that works:
We get one shipment of Unacompanied Air Freight...450 pounds of the stuff we'll need "right away" (e.g. before the household effects shipment arrives via boat) like linens, kitchen supplies, cat supplies, clothing, computer stuff; basically everything that we can't pack in suitcases and take on the plane that we can't live without for six months. The UAB comes "fast" in between 6 and 12 weeks after we get to post.
We get 7200 pounds of Household Effects. The house is completely furnished so we don't need any furniture. Except for bookcases, since we've been advised there are never enough of those. And, with our book collection, I suspect, but cannot confirm, that half our HHE allotment will be consumed by the books. We had originally planned to only ship some of the books, but we can't find the master list of which books are in which boxes, so they may just all have to go. Sadly, I have no idea how much our furniture, rugs, washing machine and the other misc things we're leaving in storage actually weigh, so we may wind up being overweight on our very first shipment. Which means paying somewhere around $2.50/pound for every pound over that 7200. One way to avoid or at least mitigate that is to take a 2 hour drive up to Hagerstown, MD on a weekday (when I'm supposed to be in class) and beg, bribe and plead the warehousemen into helping us figure out how much weight we have and what we can/should leave behind. (There are people in this life who ship pianos to every post! I guess they don't have books.)
Then, we get 2500 pounds of "consumables." Because Guinea is a significant "hardship" post, we are allowed and encouraged to buy ALL our food and sundries for the next two years at one time, and the State Dept will pay the freight. We get to break it up into two shipments, which is good, because who knows actually how many boxes of tampax, how many cases of kitty litter, and how many bottles of shampoo one uses in a year. Of course, this means we're significantly out of pocket for all these supplies, and we'll probably need more when we get there, at which point we *will* be paying for shipping to post. (Net Grocer is one of the companies many FS people use. They charge top dollar for stuff, and then tack on 15% for shipping and handling. So you'll understand why we're buying all this stuff now.)
So, those are the three shipments we have to prepare for. Oh, and figuring out what to mail to post before hand to get there when we arrive, and what to take on the plane in suitcases.
Our small 1BR apt is getting smaller by the day as we stack up 220v appliances, consumables and linen clothing for Africa. So, no real entertaining before we go, which is sad, because I'd have loved to do a going away here, but it just doesn't look possible at this point.
The cat is naturally a bit disturbed. Like her mother she deals with stress by eating too much. :-)
We've also just purchased a scanner so that we can reduce some of the weight of our HHE by archiving all our documents on CDs. Of course, I probably won't have time to do any of that until we get to post, so it won't help this trip, but certainly the next one.
So, this is why I haven't posted a lot...it's mostly boring logistical stuff. It's what fills my mind on a daily basis. When I'm not trying to cram in French with a 2x4.
I'll try to make a more fun post next time. Love you all.
