Karin's Adventures

OK, this is the big day! We flew with Delta out of Munich at 11:00 a.m., into Atlanta, then Fort Wayne from there.

Everything went as scheduled, no mayor delays or problems - just the regular tiresome long waits and endless security checks. Our luggage was exactly within the limits, maxed out but not going over it. Two suitcases per person, weighing 23 kg each, plus one carry-on bag and one laptop case per person, weighing no more than 18 kg total.

The immigration procedure in Atlanta was a new experience for me. Carry your brown envelopes with paperwork to this office, fill out a form quick, wait a while. Then the officer calls me by my first name - which I didn't expect, so I didn't react immediately. Got our fingerprints taken, received an explanaton of our rights and duties, and a *welcome to the United States*. Nobody wanted to see our x-rays. The whole transaction took less than 30 minutes.

It took the relocating company two days and three workers to pack all our delicate stuff, box it up, take the furniture apart, make long lists for customs.

It had been snowing, so of course the entire house had muddy and wet footprints all over it. The new owners didn't mind though, they'll put in all new flooring.

While they were filling boxes, I thought they could never make it in time. But they did. Everything went kind of smooth, except for our food from the kitchen, which accidentally got packed too. Now they still have to find these two boxes and take them out of the shipment. Food or plants or anything organic is not allowed to be sent to the USA.

Standing there, all alone in my empty house, I felt a bit sentimental, awkward, lost. But after I had handed the keys over to the nice young couple who had bought my place, I was relieved and pretty happy again. 

A few days ago, early in the evening, two people from the relocator came and dropped 130 cardboard boxes into our hallway. We had to hurry, get those boxes out of the way, make a big stack in the basement.

We are allowed to pack books and clothes, because they can't break just for being *unprofessionally* packed. But we were told not to tape the boxes shut, and to put a label listing the content on top of each box.

Now we have a stack of 22 boxes filled with books in the living room, all numbered and labeled. And Excel-sheets on our laptops, with more labels ready to fill out and print for more boxes to come.

I couldn't believe how fast this transaction went! Listed the car on eBay at 8:00 a.m., got a phone call at 10:30 a.m. - sold my car for €1,200.

I had been looking forward to this day for four months, ever since I said *I quit*. But now, actually being there, I had a few mixed feelings. After thirteen years and three months of going to the same place five days a week, meeting the same people, working on the same programs, typing on the same keyboard and sitting on the same chair, you do get a little attached to it.

Packing my stuff up was easy. I had decided not to take much. Just my personal belongings, a few books I had bought with my own money, Alejandra's paintings and mine, the company magazines - and my mind full of memories. I'm leaving my plants, rows and rows of folders filled with project notes, software manuals, course scripts, and other documents - some of them older than myself in this company.

I spent my last day on a hand-shaking tour, personally saying *farewell* to roughly 100 people. I was a little surprised to realize, that I actually know 20% of the staff closely enough to be missing them - and maybe be missed by them in return.