Robin Chartier – Page 60

Waiting

Yesterday was a terrible day, but today was uneventful, so I’ll take that as a win. Carter (reading over my shoulder) would like to say “it wasn’t that bad” and he’s probably right. We just started the day stressed and fighting and I threatened to skip all the meetings that I was supposed to go to because I was mad and I knew that would make Josh crazy. But after 18 years of living with me he has learned a few tricks and when I said, “You can’t make me go” he knew the right answer was to swallow whatever it was that he wanted to say, and reply, “You’re right, I can’t.”

I decided to go and we got through it (meetings about our housing, embassy information, safety briefs, ID badges, etc) and now that’s behind us. Today Josh went to work and we all stayed home since we don’t have a car that I’m allowed to drive. My car is still sitting in Bahrain even though we shipped it over 2 weeks ago so who knows when I’ll be back behind the wheel. I’m sure we could rent one, but I am trying to stop the financial bleeding rather than increase it. Thankfully the house is furnished and comes with some basic appliances (coffeemaker, microwave), dishes, and linens so I don’t have to buy all of those while we wait for our stuff to arrive, but I need wastebaskets, a kitchen trash can, some laundry baskets and other basic household items (cleaning supplies, paper goods, pantry items, etc).

To take care care of some of those needs, we headed to IKEA after Josh got home from work. For the past 4 years I had dreams of going to IKEA in Saudi dressed in my abaya, but they never materialized (no way to get a visa into Saudi). At least now when I actually need inexpensive household storage items, I can go whenever I want. No abaya needed.

Passing the Grand Mosque as we cruise down the highway. It always makes me laugh when I think about our trip to Istanbul and the famous Blue Mosque. Carter walked through it and said, “Eh, it was OK. The Grand Mosque was better.” When you come visit, you can see for yourself why he likes it best.

All IKEAs look pretty much the same — even when we haven’t been inside one in years.

But this was new to me — a handmade Persian carpet section?! I’m home!

Not the same quality as the ones we have, but they are definitely handmade and in the traditional styles and patterns. I’ve missed that wooly smell of all the carpets stacked together.

No need to buy, I have plenty of beauties and I’m already scoping out places in our new house where each one will look the best.

We got home and my favorite part of the day was that I didn’t have to put a single thing together. The boys and Josh figured out how to stream the CrossFit games onto the TV so they watched and pieced my shelving units together. Our kitchen is small, but there’s a small room off the kitchen that we will use as a pantry/storage room once we get the shelves put up.

They figured out this one all by themselves.

Tomorrow looks to be more of the same. Josh will go to work. We will stay home and take turns going to the gym in our compound (I make myself go and they beg to go), cleaning the house, watching TV, and waiting around for him to come home. Josh slipped right into his place in the world and now we have to figure out where we fit. For now, we wait and settle.

New house, new quirks

I’m ready to crack. The house is great, but we have to figure each other out. Middle Eastern houses all have their own special features and learning how to navigate my way around them takes a bit of patience. I don’t have much to spare these days.

My bathroom has the hot water and cold water switched (not that unusual in this area of the world). I got stuck taking a lukewarm bath because I didn’t figure it out until the tub was 1/2 full. The next day I took a shower and felt like I was being molested by the shower curtain because it was right on my backside. My old shower may have had a droopy curtain and the shower head held up by a zip-tie, but I had plenty of breathing room and endless hot water. Oh, and it actually kept all the water in the tub instead of funneling it onto the floor in a glorious waterfall. I think this tub must be installed on a slight backwards slope because any water that hits the walls or sides of the tub runs to the back and along a line of grout onto the floor. Enough to flood the entire bathroom.

And the nonstop blowing air from every vent in the house. It feels like I’m in the Arctic. I am wearing layers as write this. Yes, I want the house to be cooler than outside, but I can’t figure out how to keep from feeling like I’m under a blast cooler without turning off the AC entirely. Which I have done and feel marvelously comfortable for about 10 minutes until the air starts getting sticky and stuffy from the humidity creeping in under the doors and through the window cracks. Our old house had separate AC units that would drip water and I could never find the remote to adjust them, but I could angle the vents toward the ceiling so when they were working properly I didn’t feel cold, just comfortable.

I’m trying to figure out how to feel comfortable.

The longest short move . . .

It’s a good thing this flight is only an hour long because I don’t know how much stress management I have left in me. In my head, when we land, I’m done, off the clock, finished. That might be a foolish assumption and I’ll be sure to update if it turns out to be a fallacy, but I have been prepping for this move for months and when we hit the ground in Abu Dhabi, we will have moved. It will be behind me. My work completed.

The money I begrudged the pet importer is looking like the best $$ I ever spent. We picked up the animals from the kennel in the morning and dropped them at the cargo terminal at the airport. They were not happy.

It’s going to be a really l o n g day for them.

Thankfully I don’t have to see them again until the importer delivers them to our house sometime later in the evening.

They were not enjoying their ride on the forklift. I’m not sure if they’ll ever fully recover.

Then it was back to the hotel to pick up the kids and all of our luggage. I didn’t ever publish the post about our excess baggage fiasco and trying to mail items to ourselves and the headache involved in stuff management this past week, but I was proud to say that I got it down to 6 suitcases that weighed 55-60 lbs each, 6 carry-on pieces, including a guitar and ukulele, and backpacks for all. A friend who agreed to help haul us to the airport walked in and all he could say was, “Wow.”

We made it out — expired visas and all! (we knew they were past date, but the word on the street was as long as we were within 30 days, it would be fine. Glad that turned out to be true, with only a little extra paperwork).

We checked with the flight attendant to make sure that the animals had made it on board and she said, “Oh yes, I can hear them barking down below!” Oh great. Not only was he barking, but barking enough for 2!

Coming in over Abu Dhabi — not the best first impression, but for the last 2 weeks Bahrain has been covered in a sandy humid haze as well so it didn’t look that pretty from the air either.

Stop watching your screens and look at your new home!

Wow, it’s really brown. It almost makes Bahrain look tropical . . .

Ah, we made it!

I was right. The work was done. Everything after landing went flawlessly. No line at passport control, our luggage was waiting on the carousel, and we all piled into two cars and headed to our new home. At this duty station we were assigned housing, hallelujah. All we had to do was show up with our bags. A friend had even bought groceries and stocked the refrigerator for us.

I haven’t constructed any thoughts about our new house, neighborhood, or life in a different country yet. I’ve been too occupied with unpacking all those suitcases, figuring out where each kid is going to sleep and put their clothes, and running the washing machine (which takes 3 hours for each wash cycle!) non-stop. It’s not hard or stressful, just busywork. Which turns out to be a nice change from the stresses of the unknown of the previous weeks.

We did get to run out to the shopping center behind our house to grab cat litter, pet food, and a few more groceries. Did I mention how thankful I was to have hired the pet importer? While we were getting settled at home, picking up food, and getting SIM cards for our cell phones, the pet importer supervised the process of getting the pets inspected and authorized to enter the country. We landed at 6:30 and the pets didn’t make it to us until after 11:30. If we had been stuck at the airport until almost midnight, waiting on the vet’s approval, this blog post would be a hand-scribbled note on a napkin: “make it stop!”

But the pets are here and getting used to our new home and yard

making themselves comfortable

We’re all trying to settle in.

This is the end . . . (and a Budapest day)

I don’t think there is anything else for me to do. The move is finished except for the actual travel to Abu Dhabi tomorrow. Every detail has been hashed out and if we forgot anything, it’s too late now. I have an afternoon ahead of me with no suitcases to pack (I got them zipped and NO ONE BETTER TRY TO TAKE ANYTHING OUT), no errands to run, and no car to go anywhere. I’m going to sit and do nothing. Absolute bliss after our schedule the past 2 weeks.

So I should probably write a bit and then I can marathon Gilmore Girls without feeling completely unproductive. I’ve been wanting to write this post about our trip to Budapest’s Zoo Cafe before we leave for AD, but have been too brain dead to do it until now.

When I was researching things to do in Budapest, a friend said a must see place was the Zoo Cafe. She warned me that it’s weird, but that the kids would love it and that would make it worth it. When looking at a map I found that the Zoo Cafe was only about 3 blocks from our apartment so on Thursday morning we set out to have a mid-morning coffee and see some animals.

That was the plan. Camille is pretty stubborn at times and decided that she didn’t want to wear a pair of purple corduroy pants that I had packed for her because they were boy pants. I don’t know where she got the idea that they were boy pants, or why that would even be a problem for her, but she had a bug up her butt that morning and refused to wear them. 99.5% of the time I give her free reign of her clothing choices, but for reasons I can’t remember now, those pants were not negotiable that morning.

It could have been that her other ones were in the wash, or maybe I had a bug up my butt, but we ended up in a face-off over those pants. Somehow, eventually we got them on (I’m pretty sure it involved both Josh and I putting one leg in each side). So as she’s crying on the floor (in her boy pants) I have this thought, and she evidently had the same thought, because I said, “You better not angry pee!” And she yelled, “I already did!”

She thought if she peed in her pants then she wouldn’t have to wear them. Well, we proved her wrong.

Oh, vacations are so much fun!

Yes, we made her wear the angry pee pants. Josh and I quick conferenced and decided she was wearing the pants until she got over wearing the pants and because her daddy is nice, he packed something for her to change into. As we were walking she sniffled, “I’m cold and wet, but it’s my fault because I angry peed.” (She rages, but snaps out of it really quickly.)

In the end it didn’t matter that she was wearing pee soaked pants because the cafe smelled like everyone peed their pants. Cats roaming everywhere, birds and other reptiles on display, and even a small alligator in an aquarium. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that the Zoo Cafe smells like a zoo.

We had coffee and hot chocolates, but when lizards and baby hedgehogs run and poop all over your table, it kind of takes away the appetite. At least there was hand sanitizer everywhere! We kept giggling how the restaurant health inspectors in the US would flip if they saw this place.

Cats lounging and shedding where people eat

The hedgehog was adorable, but he left droppings with every step . . .

and he was in danger of walking off the edge of the table.

Everyone else was scared of the snake and refused to hold it until mama showed them it was safe.

The cat making friends with the snake?

Caleb got the cockatoo to spread his wings and flap along with him. They had us rolling.

The cat teasing the alligator — quite bold.

In spite of the rough start, we had a great morning. Yes, it was crazy and yes, we loved it.

And yes, Budapest in winter is cold!

Let’s pretend this never happened

4 days. That’s all we have left. I have a ton of ridiculous moving stories, but no sense of humor left to tell them. This about sums up our week:

Tears:

Caleb’s birthday. Yes, he’s crying because I spent all day taking care of pet paperwork and other moving administrative necessities. I warned him that there was no way around it and we would celebrate for real later, but . . . Camille keeps crying that she misses Josie. I feel like crying because I’m living in the midst of too much stuff and my brain feels as cluttered as our hotel room. Josh brought home our medical records which is another 15lbs to add to our already overweight luggage allowance.

Discomfort:

Carter’s lip swelled up and started taking over his face. I’m on edge that the kids are too loud in the hotel and living like swine. Towels everywhere, bedding tossed on the floor, electronic cables everywhere. I came home from an exasperating appointment and in my short temperedness shrieked that I could hear them down the hallway and that they needed to clean up their mess. I retreated to my own sanctuary of crap and I hear Caleb start singing “It’s a Hard Knock Life . . .” I guess I deserved that (and yes, I laughed. Just call me Miss Hannigan).

Sweat:

Oh, it’s one big slimy, drippy mess here. Back sweat, boob sweat, dripping down my chin sweat . . . just stepping outside I can feel each individual water molecule clinging to my skin. Walking and breathing is a workout all its own as we suck in the heavy air and push our way through the haze.

To sum up, every little thing has taken twice as long and been more complicated than expected. Nothing is going smoothly. It’s all getting done, but taking extra effort and persistence that I’m running out of. For example, today I had to go book the flight for the dog and the cat. We brought them out to the airline cargo terminal about 10 days ago to weigh and measure them and their crates. Today all I was supposed to do was bring paperwork (each piece with it’s own separate tale of woe), have the cargo guy create the airbill, and pay.

I hand over the paperwork and tell him I’m here for the final booking and he says, “We need to have the pets to measure.” I tell him we did that days ago. He doesn’t remember. “Are you sure you came here? I’m here every day. I don’t think so. There are lots of offices. Maybe you are confused.”

Yes I did. There isn’t any way I could have found my way back to that tiny office on the back lot of the cargo terminal if I hadn’t been there before. He said, “You can bring them Saturday.” UM NO. I did this once already, before we shipped our car so we would have room for the giant dog crate. I no longer have room for the dog crate in my car. I describe how they brought the scale outside, how I brought the dog around on his leash, how we put the crate on the scale, how I put the dog in the crate and his guy measured . . .

Blank stare. “I don’t think so. We have to measure.” “Yes, and your guy with the tape measure gave you the numbers for the length, height and width for both animals.” Totally annoyed, I’m hitting redial on Josh’s phone number over and over, hoping he can help jog his memory, but of course he is nowhere that he gets a signal.

The guy is puzzled, not sure what to do. So we sit there, at an impasse. I tell him that he did all the calculations and the fee is to be 145 BD for both pets. Still a blank look. “I don’t remember you.” He then starts to look through his desk and piles of paper on the floor and eventually finds a scrap of printer paper with some numbers scribbled on it: “Oh yes, July 24th? I found it. Now I remember.” And that is how this entire move has gone — something easy aways goes sideways.

After all that, when I hand him my card to pay, he says, “Cash only.” Of course it’s cash only. I guess it would have been too hard to mention that the last time we were there. Or not there. Cause everyone walks around with $400 of cash on hand. So I have to go back. Again. I hope he remembers me next time. (Or I’ll make sure he never forgets me!)