Half-Assing It

(1.) "Hey, aren't you leaving the country or something?
-Yes,and all too soon.

(2.) Are you ever going to post those pictures of your Barcelona vacation?
-Sort of.

The relocation back to the USA has been proceeding at an infuriatingly glacial pace, though we are expected to move at a rocket sled-like clip once we get all the facts and dates in... and sadly, that really hasn't happened despite/because of an oft-revised-- sometimes pushed forward, sometimes pushed back-- move-out date as dictated by B's employer (who are handling the actual logistics). As of today, it would appear that it's going to happen on or about August 10... except that the arranged temporary housing they set up in the USA doesn't kick in until the 15th, making us homeless for 5 days. It's a weird two-step we have to work with-- As I've been saying for nigh on 3 years here, Germany is different, so we have to more or less gut the apartment (renters in Germany are generally responsible for purchasing and installing all light fixtures and their entire kitchen, then removing everything upon leaving an apartment), and yet still figure out how to live here before the moving truck arrives. We're dumping all of our goods from the microwave to the car at fire sale pricing, and even something as basic as that was a hot mess due to a flubbed posting date that gave the general public a shot at the goodies before our circle of friends had a proper crack at it. We're going to lose thousands of Euros on the car alone, give away/donate a whole mess of other stuff (what? nobody needs a coffee maker?!) and we really can't do much about that-- we've run out of time. The actual paper trail of moving out has been a bit of a slog as well-- in Germany, canceling a contract is a 3-month process, meaning that even if you move out of the country you still have to pay your rent-- we notified our landlord on June 30, so we're obligated to pay rent until September 30 if nobody else wants to move in. We also found out from our local relocation agent (and thank the stars we have one of those) that certain papers have to be filed after we physically leave. I joked with blog doyenne Katherine With a K that for a country that really didn't want us here in the first place, Germany sure makes it hard to leave. Oh, I should mention that B has been in China on business for the last 2 weeks so our ability to coordinate and communicate with each other and the relocation company has been severely hampered. I wish I could spin this with my usual jollity and snark, but the process has become a long, slow grind. All moves stink whether it's across the street or halfway across the world. The fact that we have to work with 8-10 different people on 2 continents (while B is in a third continent) who aren't necessarily speaking with each other makes this one especially, um, challenging.

So between fending off the likes of ravenous buyers trying to nickel-and-dime me on the DVD player (and who then expect drop-off delivery 3 cities away-- true story), being at the beck-and-call of my relocation person for impromptu meetings and contract cancellation visits to the power company and attempting to keep the place clean for drop-by apartment hunters and assorted furniture buyers, I finally got around to posting the Barcelona photos. I really don't know if anybody bothered to read the commentaries I wrote for the previous photo sets-- if you haven't then feel free to proceed to the photo site and jump right in. For those who do read them, well it's still a work in progress. Part of it has to do with my lack of time; the other part of it has to do with the fact that the middle third of the photos were taken in "parts unknown"-- we really just wandered around wherever the wind took us, and I have no clear idea of where we were. Trying to cross-reference guide books and maps to get a bead on things (not to mention researching and writing about them) is terribly time consuming, and that seems to be one commodity I don't have at the moment. Patience, please. Barcelona photos can be accessed by the link on the right hand side of the page, or simply clicking here or here.

As with everything folks, this shall pass and we'll be out of here soon enough. In fact, I've hatched a crackpot plan that will give us one final Euro holiday weekend on the way back to the USA. Don't want to jinx anything, and everything is contingent on getting those move-out dates locked down and the destination to be reasonably affordable that it won't break our piggy bank (remember that August is high tourist season here on the Continent). More soon on that.

Photo is of the famous Sagrada Família Church in Barcelona, the most famous structure in the city and probably the most important piece of Surrealist architecture in the world. Construction began in 1822, and it still has several decades to go before it is completed. It's less than half-complete-- sort of like our move and my photo captions. See? I really work hard to tie everything together thematically!