Brisbane, Australia (Aug 2007)- Just a quick update of the ongoings in the past few weeks. Andreas and I have been desperately trying to sell the majority of our larger household items so we don't have to worry about them in the last few weeks. We have also been frantically packing our 4-year's worth of belongings into 8 relatively large (but not large enough!) suitcases. We've decided that paying excess baggage on the plane will be the cheapest and easiest solution to our moving woes. Taking photos, cards and postcards off the walls has been by far the most traumatic experience for me though. We simply can't believe it's all coming to such a quick end; the four years just flew by. I know we'll be back though, probably sooner than we think, especially for Andreas who will have to defend his PhD in November.
In between these traumatic events we've been enjoying our last months here. We've been going out to nice breakfasts during the week (that's a big deal for us!), meeting up a few times with some friends visiting from the Netherlands- Kelly, Douwe and their gorgeous 5 month old son, Kaemon, meeting up with other friends who have just had babies (man-- EVERYONE and their mom is pregnant or has a newborn!), spending quality time with each other etc. I've just sent Andreas on his way to the US for the first time this month (he'll be going twice) with a few of our well packed suitcases. He is attending an accounting conference in Chicago for 10 days where he is scheduled for no less than 7 tenure-track job interviews. He's SO the man!
All in all, and despite our feelings of apprehension, we are very much looking forward to starting anew and being closer to family. And who knows... I might just be back in Oz next year to do some fieldwork for my PhD!!! Thank goodness for tropical fish!
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Santa Barbara, California (Sept 2007)- Here are a few photos of our newly decorated apartment (there are still a few things out of place or missing). I just now got all of the stuff off the floor (I can't remember where I put it all though!), with the exception of our road bike boxes. I am still trying to figure out where to stash them! We have two bedrooms (ours is the one with the tan bed), one bathroom, one large balcony and two small balconies (off of each room), over two stories. The area around the apartments is really cute; each group of 8 are placed around a central courtyard. There are a lot of kiddie toys and bikes around and heaps of families to go with 'em! Hopefully you can all come see it for yourself some day!
