Tag: Diary of an International Transition

There’s no such thing as a free lunch…unless you work for Google.  

In addition to gyms, volleyball courts, gigantic gumball machines, bicycles, refrigerators full of free Odwalla juice, and the freedom to bring your dog to your office with you, Google has 23 restaurants on campus for their employees….for free.  Oh yeah, and they can bring family or friends for free too.  

I just happen to have a brother who works for Google.  So of course, we ask him for our free lunch from time to time.  That’s where we went today.  

If Google takes over the world someday, I am really glad I have a brother who works there.  

Other than that…well, let’s see.

I woke up at 5:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep.  

Darn adrenaline.  

I did some paperwork.  

I organized our important documents.

I went shopping and finally found a pair of sturdy, brown sandals I had been searching for. 

I helped Grace finish her scrapbook from this year.   

We went to dinner with good friends who have invested in my life and our ministry since I was a teenager. 

Tonight Lily had a nervous breakdown when the band-aid covering the (microscopic) cut on her knee came off in the bathtub.  Apparently the removal of such band-aid caused her knee to thus be in unbearable and unending pain.

I did not have the patience for this tonight.  

I sent her to bed and decided I needed to send myself to bed.  

We leave the day after tomorrow.  Thursday night is our last night in America.  

My head is too full of suitcases and documents and shoes and the tasks in front of me to really comprehend that thought.

I told Grace, “Guess what?  Zawadi is going to stay with us for a couple days next week while Ben and Lauren go away!”  

“YES!”  she yelled.  And then she gave me a funny look.  “Next week?”  

“Yep, Sweetie.  Next week we’ll be in Tanzania.”  

She knew this, of course.  It just sounds really strange when you say next week.  

Honestly, it’s one of the strangest thing to get through my brain.  I sit here in California, in the house where I grew up, with pavement outside and organized drivers and English speakers and wealth everywhere.  And this time next week, I’ll be on the other side of the world.  

Everything is different there.  It feels like a different planet.  I feel like a different person there.  It’s hard to wrap my head my head that I will be there next week, even though it’s the only thing I’ve thought about for days…weeks.  

Anyway.  

Today we went to the outlets to get Grace and Lily school shoes.  Because, of course, we apparently didn’t have enough to pack yet.  

Cousin Emma came to visit.  

Gil spent 5 hours detailing our car to get it ready to sell.  Anyone want to buy an Odyssey?

The living room now looks like this.  And I despaired as our “maximum” number of pieces crawled up from 10…to 11…to 12…to 13.

I went to Target to buy bigger tubs to replace some of the smaller tubs and prayed that the airline will have mercy on us.  

Next week, I’ll be unpacking them all, in my living room on the other side of the world.  

Adrenaline and butterflies have been my constant companions for the last few weeks.

I wake early every morning and instantly I’m up.  No alarm clock needed and no sleeping in these days.  Instantly my brain starts working and the blood starts pumping and the butterflies of excitement and anxiety start stirring up my stomach.  Many times, they all mix together into nausea.  

I’m going to attempt to blog every day for the next week or so, here and on the other side.  Have you ever wondered what it’s like to move overseas?  Well, here’s my diary.

We are now at my parents’ house until we leave.  Today, we took over their living room.  Actually, it’s more like we threw up all over their living room.  We unloaded every single thing that we want to take to Tanzania, in an attempt to get it organized for packing.  

Goal:  Fit all of this into 10 pieces of luggage.  

After the butterflies in my stomach took a few nose dives, I took a few deep breaths and dug in.  

Packing for plane travel is nothing like packing for a normal move.  In normal moves, you pack according to the room in the house, carefully labeling each box.

Packing for plane travel is all about weight and space.  Each luggage piece has to be a certain size and weigh no more than 50 pounds.  It’s like a giant game of Tetris.  There’s no “kitchen” or “bedroom” box here.  Everything is mixed up according to how it fits in the box.  For example, don’t pack a water bottle until you’ve filled up every inch of space inside it.

Get out the bathroom scale and keep handing tubs to your long-suffering husband so that you can check the weight.  Rearrange.  Add more.  Take more out.  Repeat.  

This is where I spent the entire day.  

Of course, between Gil and I, there was plenty of, What were we thinking when we bought this?  How on earth could we have this much stuff?  And many thoughts of wanting to set it all on fire.  

Tonight my aunt and uncle came over for dinner and brought extremely cool bubbles.  Thankfully, they don’t need to be packed.