Almost there! Tomorrow the adventure begins. In 12 hours we’ll be off to the airport checking in luggage and I am mentally preparing for the inevitable: another crowded, terrible flight with every seat taken and peanuts the only choice of food (I bought Sushi to take for our discriminating boy today). Our American citizen son is all checked in online and set to go, his poor alien parents still need to go through several layers of security, scrutiny and checking before we can rest our weary butts in worn-out seats.
The house is ready – sort of – for Luisa and the kids to arrive on Sunday. I never knew how much cleaning a generally clean home needs. I put my 24 years of formal education to good use over the last few days and weeks, rolled up my sleeves, put on my rubber gloves and scrubbed grime where I never knew there would be any. Oh what fun …
People ask me all the time whether I am excited but frankly I am just too tired to be excited. Tomorrow I’ll be – for sure.
Temporary Farewells
We had an emotional farewell at Nelly’s, Max’s day care center, today. She’s not going to see “her boy” for six months now and was sad about it (of course) but Max promised that he will return and come back to her. Almost made me cry as well ….
Another farewell is even sadder for me. My good friend Jutta decided to move back to Switzerland after 18 years of living in the Bay Area. I understand her motifs and reasoning and they make sense but it will be different here without her, without her infectious laughter and the opportunity to once in a while try my rusty Swiss German. For years now Jutta, Pamela, Sandy and I would get together once a week (big achievement considering that Jutta and Sandy live in Oakland, Pamela in San Francisco and I in the boonies) for girls night. I wanted to post a picture of our “last supper” last night at Le Cheval in Oaktown here but due to some modifications Uli made to my email account I can’t access the pic Pamela, the gadget queen, took with her iPhone yesterday. Instead I am posting a warholed version of us four I made recently.
Okay, another sip of champagne and then I better go to bed because by 6:00 am my adorable rascal will crawl into my bed and after a few minutes of quiet will blurt something out like: “the capital of Burkina Faso is called Ouagadougou” or “Mount Saint Helens is very angry” or simply push his teddy bear in my face (hard) so I give him a “besito” and confirm that I do, indeed love both Max and the bear.
Then we’ll get up and pack the rest of the stuff, the last of Max’s toys will be put away and I am sure I will something else to clean and wipe but by tomorrow evening we will be in Merida. Can’t wait!
Tomorrow, the adventure begins ….