One of the great things about the Foreign Service is that we can live and work in new and interesting places. The drawback to the Foreign Service is moving every two to four years. We recently completed our second international move in six months. It is exhausting and expensive. It involves many late nights as we (TSP specifically) organizes our stuff. Her philosophy is that we need to make it as simple and straightforward for the movers as possible. There will be a smaller margin of error for the movers if we do this. For this move, we had to purchase a number of items including, but not limited to: a TV, DVD player, computer, kids’ clothing, shoes, suits, diapers, sheets, towels etc. We had to think about everything we would want from the U.S. and purchase it so that it can be shipped by the Department to our next destination. This involves a fair amount of research to find out what is available but also involves a lot of shopping to purchase those items. Many items are available but are very expensive so it only makes sense to buy it now.
The purchases and preparing for the movers is really the easiest part. We find that leaving friends (new and old), school and a relatively comfortable situation is much more difficult. With this move, all of this went as smoothly as possible. However, there were some issues:
- A week before leaving JTP was rear-ended in our new car. Little harm was done to the car. A big thank you to the other driver’s insurance, State Farm. They got us a rental car and paid for everything without any problems.
- JTP accidently slammed BLP’s hand in the rental car door. Although she was not hurt, she still was not happy. When they were talking about it on the way home AJP said, “What door did you slam your hand in?” BLP pointed to the car door and yelled, “THIS ONE!”
- We lost Elmo. BLP has an Elmo that we have no idea where it is. She’s stopped asking for him, but we’re going to have to fess up some day.
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