Karin's Adventures - 03_leaving_germany

We're flying

noreply@blogspirit.com (Karin Brenig) — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 05:00:00 -0500

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.

Empty out the house

noreply@blogspirit.com (Karin Brenig) — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 14:22:21 -0500

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.

Start boxing things up

noreply@blogspirit.com (Karin Brenig) — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 08:00:00 -0500

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.

sold my car

noreply@blogspirit.com (Karin Brenig) — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 02:45:00 -0500

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 worrying a little bit, about maybe having trouble selling this old vehicle, in winter, around Christmas. I thought *Who'd want to buy a gas-guzzling car with 228,000 km on it's first engine and first transmission, with a big dent on the left front fender?*

And now I have something new to worry about: how will we get around to organizing all the stuff we still need to do, without a car? Well, I can use my mom's car from the 27th on - so it's just a few days.