I just read an email from our international move coordinator, Rainier Overseas Moving, telling me that our container arrived today, sailed through Customs, and will be delivered Wednesday, July 2. I was just getting used to living a Spartan life, with one furnished bedroom and one furnished eat-in kitchen. But, as the late great George Carlin might say, my 'stuff' is coming home.
It is a little after midnight. It's a moonless night, there is no sound but the kitty water fountain burbling away and the refrigerator humming. I am sitting by an open window, it is cool out...though we are expecting a build-up of heat coming tomorrow.
Angel asked me today...or was it yesterday?...if I had thought I would be so happy about being home. My instant reply was YES. I think I knew in October of last year that my time in Italy was limited. There were just too many problems with where we lived, and the Euro was just too strong to continue to support. My biggest clue came that October at the beginning of only our second trip home in the time we were away, when we were leaving Newark Airport, had cruised onto Route 80 West, and I innocently said, I could kiss the ground, I am so glad to be home.
WELL! Angel did not react well to that honest remark. After all, I was the Queen Mary who had set sail for Italy in 2005 with the intention of never looking back.
We got through that moment of clarity. I think it started us both talking much more honestly to each other about how we really felt about daily life in Italy.
Mornings here in Long Valley we awake with the birds, to the quiet, the blessed quiet. We're up early, have our cereal and coffee, and then out in the garden to work on claiming the flower beds back from the weeds, moving mulch, putting in new plants, puttering. Angel said to me, as I was attacking some particularly tangled root systems of persistent weeds, 'The little girl loves playing in the sand'. And that's me...playing in the sand. I have dedicated garden clothes that could stand on their own after two days. I love it.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
May 31, the flight home
May 31 was our reentry into life in these United States. I am very happy to be home. Somewhere on http://www.expatsinitaly.com/ someone wrote that 3 years is the decisive barrier...if you can make it past 3 years, you will stay for a long long time. If you don't make it to 3 years, then you were meant to just be on a very very long vacation.
We liked living in Italy for a lot of reasons, but we didn't love living in Italy for a variety of other reasons. We left behind wonderful friends, and it will be very sad not to have them in our lives on a daily basis.
Our daughter picked us up at Newark International after 7 PM EDT. It was a very long day, beginning at 7 AM CET, when we awoke, got dressed and ready for the day, zipped up suitcases and then went out for cafe and brioche at our favorite coffee bar, Tubino. We did our giro (walk around the Centro) one more time, and came back to the apartment in time to be picked up by our great friends the Willemsens, Agnes and Alexander, with eldest son Guillaume as our driver, and second son Julien coming to say goodbye. Youngest son Florian was sound asleep after a late late night at his job, so I sent him a hug and a kiss.
It took from 11:00 AM to 12:10 PM to check in, due to computer problems at Lufthansa. Then we had to immediately start the trek through security, ending up among the last to board the plane. On to Munich where we had a 45 minute window to get to our flight, again being among the last to board (the last to board was a couple from Princeton NJ who had arrived at Pisa Airport to take their flight to Munich to find the airport completely closed down for an Italian military airshow...don't go there!).
We sat in the last row, with Annie and Emily in their carriers under the seats. They never said a word; Annie looked scared so after the meal service was over, she slept under a blanket on my lap until my legs couldn't stand it anymore, about 3 hours. Annie never ate but Emily, an old pro at travelling by now, chowed down on her Science Diet moist nuggets.
The plane was full. Fortunately I always order a Low Sodium meal (to avoid water blowup) so I got my bland food, and Angel got a tray with a roll, a wilted salad and a little dessert and a promise that after Business Class was served, they would see if there was anything left for him. He eventually got a hot entree of dry fish, creamed veggies and something else. Uck.
At Newark, our first three pieces of luggage (4 suitcases, one bike box and one wheel box total) showed up almost right away, and then the system imploded for 45 minutes. The carousel started up again, we got our last three pieces and wheeled our two trolleys, carrying our cats, and went out to meet Sandra.
Home never looked so good.
We liked living in Italy for a lot of reasons, but we didn't love living in Italy for a variety of other reasons. We left behind wonderful friends, and it will be very sad not to have them in our lives on a daily basis.
Our daughter picked us up at Newark International after 7 PM EDT. It was a very long day, beginning at 7 AM CET, when we awoke, got dressed and ready for the day, zipped up suitcases and then went out for cafe and brioche at our favorite coffee bar, Tubino. We did our giro (walk around the Centro) one more time, and came back to the apartment in time to be picked up by our great friends the Willemsens, Agnes and Alexander, with eldest son Guillaume as our driver, and second son Julien coming to say goodbye. Youngest son Florian was sound asleep after a late late night at his job, so I sent him a hug and a kiss.
It took from 11:00 AM to 12:10 PM to check in, due to computer problems at Lufthansa. Then we had to immediately start the trek through security, ending up among the last to board the plane. On to Munich where we had a 45 minute window to get to our flight, again being among the last to board (the last to board was a couple from Princeton NJ who had arrived at Pisa Airport to take their flight to Munich to find the airport completely closed down for an Italian military airshow...don't go there!).
We sat in the last row, with Annie and Emily in their carriers under the seats. They never said a word; Annie looked scared so after the meal service was over, she slept under a blanket on my lap until my legs couldn't stand it anymore, about 3 hours. Annie never ate but Emily, an old pro at travelling by now, chowed down on her Science Diet moist nuggets.
The plane was full. Fortunately I always order a Low Sodium meal (to avoid water blowup) so I got my bland food, and Angel got a tray with a roll, a wilted salad and a little dessert and a promise that after Business Class was served, they would see if there was anything left for him. He eventually got a hot entree of dry fish, creamed veggies and something else. Uck.
At Newark, our first three pieces of luggage (4 suitcases, one bike box and one wheel box total) showed up almost right away, and then the system imploded for 45 minutes. The carousel started up again, we got our last three pieces and wheeled our two trolleys, carrying our cats, and went out to meet Sandra.
Home never looked so good.