Our tour in Nassau has been, well….interesting. We’ve learned some valuable lessons for future bidding. Life at work affects life at home. (We already knew that one, but I guess life thought it was time for a refresher.) The people you surround yourself with is more important than the job you do. No matter how much sun there is or how many beaches you are surrounded by, it’s still annoying to be without power/water/gas/(insert general necessity of modern life here) on a weekly basis. And “island fever” is a real thing. People tried to tell us this before we arrived, but I was sure they were exaggerating. Thank goodness Nassau is only a 45 minute flight from the US. I’m not a huge fan of southern Florida, but it has saved my sanity more than once over the past two years.

As much as I am ready to get off this rock, I’m finding this move to be an emotionally challenging one.

First of all, I have made an amazing group of friends in the Stepping Stone Quilters. They took me in and made me feel like a part of the group from day one. And their support and friendship are quite possibly the only things that got me through some very difficult times here. On more than one Wednesday, I found myself in a situation where I would cry myself all the way from work to our weekly meeting, pull it together for the meeting, and then after two hours of sharing, talking, problem-solving (and sometimes even quilting…) find that I felt like I could face the world again. Two weeks ago, the women in the group presented me with a quilt that they had made for me. I can see each of them in the squares that they made. And I will remember how blessed I am to have each one of them in my life every time I look at it:

Secondly (and harder to put into words), is the fact that this place feels like our last connection to Laika. I know that she’s not here anymore, but the process of leaving is like we’re completely severing all ties to her. The non-emotional part of my brain knows that we made the right decision. Every update we get from the woman that is currently caring for her is positive: she’s overcome her fears of bicycles and thunderstorms, and she loves going to PetSmart on adoption days. (What? We would have never even attempted an outing like that…) She’s clearly thriving in her current environment. And I have to admit that our pack-out was way easier without her here. But I guess I just didn’t expect these emotions to surface again.

On the bright side: in just 4 days we will be back in the United States, home of good food and shopping. I actually had a dream the other night that I was waiting outside Target for the doors to open so that I could get the best deals. Weird, I know, but I think it’s definitely a sign that I need to get back to the US!

If you’re interested, the password is: Nassau.

Two Years in Nassau from Jennifer Kobb on Vimeo.

We (well, I should say Shawn) scored an invite to a New Year’s Eve Eve party thrown by one of the local business associations, so we attended that. It was at a private residence on the beach that was just amazing. Several drinks in, there was a Junkanoo rush, which alleviated all of my guilt about not attending either official Junkanoo this year.

On our way out of the party we took a moment to hang out in the hammock.

As this is a moving year for us, I know that the big theme of the next 6 months will be cleaning out and throwing away. We’re going to be lucky if we can find an “affordable” apartment in one of the areas we want to live in that has more than 800 square feet, so that means a lot of things need to go. I’ve already started cleaning out my sewing and craft supplies — the ladies in my quilting guild are going to have fun going through the two LARGE boxes of things I’ve cleaned out already! And now that we have our Kindles, we’re weeding out our book collection. We had declared our DVD collection to be just stupidly large when we moved here, so the purge has begun there as well. And don’t even get me started on clothes. That’s going to take some serious time.

So the countdown has begun. The list of things we still need to do and restaurants we still need to visit before we leave has been started. I know from experience that the next couple of months will feel slow, but then after that time will take off and we’ll be out of here before we know it.

If you remember our struggles figuring out how to get Laika to post, you’re probably curious about how it all went. Well, the drive from Washington to Ft. Lauderdale was a long one. Both pets did well, though, so that helped with our survival. We did end up staying in separate hotel rooms for our one overnight, though, so that everyone could get a full night’s sleep. A dog and a cat that don’t get along in a small hotel room seemed like a recipe for disaster. The second day of driving was a little worse than the first – we were nervous about making it there on time (I’m never really confident trusting Google’s time estimates.) and we drove through a lot of rain and thunderstorms. But we made it to the airport right on time.

We were also a little worried about how much stuff we were taking with us and whether it would fit on the plane. We had rented an Expedition for the drive and had somehow managed to completely fill it. Yikes! When our co-pilot came out and saw how much we had, he recommended we drive over to the plane and load it directly from the car. This was the first time I got a look at the plane we would be flying on, and I have to admit that I started feeling a little nervous about the flight at that point. It didn’t help that the car actually looked bigger than the plane when they were sitting next to each other.

Shawn and I took care of the pets while the pilot, co-pilot, and an airport worker loaded the plane. (Did I mention that our co-pilot looked much, much younger than us? Another moment of concern…) Then I took Laika for a walk in an attempt to burn off some of her energy while Shawn returned the rental car, and we were off to board the plane. It was pretty weird, but extremely nice to not have to deal with security and an airline schedule. We all managed to fit in the plane, even will our stuff taking up half of the back. I sat behind the pilot, Peema sat behind the co-pilot, Shawn sat behind me, and Laika paced the aisle for most of the flight. She did stand up on the seat by Shawn to press her nose against the window and get a better look out at one point, which the pilot thought was pretty funny.

And then as quickly as it began, it was all over. I was amazed at how smooth the flight was. We had to go around one storm (which I know because I spent a good portion of the flight watching the pilot’s control panel), but that was it. We unloaded everything, went through customs (a much less painful process than when we arrived in Kyiv), met our sponsors, loaded everything back in their cars (they were smart enough to have brought two!), and in 15 minutes we were home.

We didn’t have to deal with jet-lag this time, obviously, but a general sort of exhaustion overtook us by that evening. I think it will probably take a few days to recover, plus there’s the general confusion of being in a new place and figuring out how everything works. But we’re finally in Nassau. For our first dinner out, our sponsors took us to a nice restaurant where we sat on a deck over the beach and watched the sun set while the moon rose over the ocean. I think I can get used to it here.

Click here to check out some photos from our trip.

And after:

As you can see, the tiny house looks empty now. Which is kind of a nice change of pace from having to step over boxes of laundry detergent to get to the refrigerator. I’m currently going through post-pack-out remorse: Did I buy enough sunscreen? Should I have sent certain items in our air freight rather than our household effects shipment? And on and on. It’s such a frustrating process.

But the good thing about being done with pack-out is that I have very little left to do before we leave. So I’m trying to enjoy the last few days in the US. Movies, eating out, etc. With a lot of Laika training thrown in – we don’t want her to lose all the things she’s learned at her training camp. And I was forced to send my big summer craft project off with all of our stuff (a quilt is just too big to move with us), so all I have to work on is a counted cross-stitch project. Yeah. Things are quiet now.

And one more photo:

These are what Shawn brought me to make up for the fact that I had to deal with pack-out on my own. (He was in class all day.) I think I’ll keep him.

I guess I do need to point out that we did not have to move Laika (who is the most lovable bane of our existence ever) to Kyiv, and that makes all the difference. Because commercial airlines will not fly pets when the temperature rises above 85 degrees (F). And one of the reasons we wanted to go to Nassau is – you guessed it – it’s over 85 degrees for most of the year. Shawn has spoken to several people at the Embassy in Nassau, who have all been wonderfully helpful and the only reason that I’m holding it together at all. It turns out that we’re going to have to charter a flight from Florida to Nassau. That’s right – charter a flight. Yes, I realize how completely ridiculous that sounds. No, this is not anything I ever imagined we would do. (I also realize that this is going to further the notion that some people may have that we are elitist snobs. But seriously, people, it’s this or leave our dog behind and homeless.)

I also want to point out that as exciting as it sounds to charter our own flight, we also have to get ourselves to Florida for said flight. Which means 16 hours of driving with a dog that howls, whines, scratches, and makes sounds (and sometimes smells) that should never come out of a living creature. So what could have been as simple as a nonstop flight to our next post will now be turned into a 2-day ordeal. And don’t even get me started on the fact that we’re arriving in the middle of hurricane season…

This week is proving to be a mentally and emotionally challenging one as we get ourselves settled. As much as we move, I always manage to forget how difficult the first few days can be. The car is one of our biggest problems at this point. On Monday, I managed to find a parking spot to rent for the month so that we didn’t get ticketed/towed from the spot we had parked at on Sunday. The next challenge is getting it registered. I attempted to go to the DMV yesterday to try and find out exactly what we need to do. Since the car is new and has never been titled anywhere, the info on the DMV website isn’t very helpful. Unfortunately, in typical DMV fashion, the person I talked to yesterday wasn’t very helpful either. So I think we’re just going to try and get the emissions inspection taken care of tomorrow, and Shawn’s planning on spending his entire Saturday at the DMV.

Laika has added another challenge to things. After a month on the farm, living in the big city has been quite a change. Every time we leave the house she gets so overstimulated that she can barely function. I guess I hadn’t realized how different Washington would be from Kyiv. Going out with Laika is forcing me to see it in a new way. First of all, it’s loud. And constantly moving. The biggest challenges are bicycles (Laika’s not a huge fan and there’s a LOT of them in our neighborhood.), other dogs (This has become a 50/50 sort of thing with her – we just never know when she’s going to decide that she really doesn’t like another dog.), and squirrels (She’d never seen one before Sunday, and they’re everywhere here, just taunting her.). So we’ve been keeping the walks short and making good use of the “heel” command she learned at camp last month. Hopefully if we pace ourselves, she’ll be able to adjust in another week or two.

Well, so that this post isn’t a complete downer, I’ll finish up by sharing how our home leave ended. My brother got married last Saturday! It was a pretty stressful time (with moving and all), but I’m really happy that I got to share in his and his new wife’s big day. And since I hardly ever (or never, really) get to see his friends, I forget how much fun they are. In fact, it’s a good thing that I was standing on my brother’s side during the ceremony because his best man kept me from totally losing it. At least my new sister-in-law cried a little too, so I wasn’t the only one crying in front of everyone. I’ll share photos when I get some so that you can see how beautiful the day was.

For lunch I made a ginormous batch of tuna salad. Had to use up the last of the tuna, you know. And I found a can of “Mexican” vegetables in the back of the cupboard to go with my sandwich as a side. That can must have been back there for over a year and while it may have been a life-saver as part of our emergency kit (had the need to use it ever actually happened), it was not that great as part of today’s lunch. I’m not sure why the adjective “Mexican” was used – “strangely salty and chewy” would have been a better description.

This afternoon’s projects include organizing my fabric stash and sorting through several folders that contain things that I thought were worth saving at some point, but probably don’t want to save today. Exhillarating, I know. Just 12 more days of these mundane pre-moving tasks and then the real excitement begins.

The main problem I have with moving is the fact that there is an entire list of things that I feel like I should get done. And there’s the subset of that list of things that I can get done. And the further subset of things that will get done. And my perfectionist self has a hard time dealing with the disparity of those lists.

The other problem I have with moving is my general love/hate relationship with change. Granted, I’m so excited that we’re moving. I think it’s no big secret that I’m mentally and emotionally done with Ukraine. And I’m going to be happy to spend some time in the US after two years away. After that, I’m excited to see what it will be like to live in Nassau. But I find change to be so…draining. I’m not sure I can even put into words exactly what I’m feeling right now. Think of pretty much any emotion you’ve ever felt, and I bet I’m feeling it right now. Along with a million others.

I guess if I had to sum it up, I would say I’m feeling uneasy. I’m not sleeping well. I’m not functioning well. Which adds to the joy of the list of things I feel like I should do to prepare for departure.

But at the end of the day, I remind myself that what has to get done will get done. And I will survive if the rest of it doesn’t get done perfectly.

*deep breath*

After only one experience with movers (from Providence to Arlington), I’ve learned that if you don’t institute some sort of organization before they arrive, you’re going to end up with boxes of random things packed together. Well, there’s really no way around it, you’re always going to end up with some random things in boxes, but I decided this time I would do my best to control the chaos. And after more than 12 hours of preparation, I think it went rather well. I did see them pack the bulk vitamins I bought at Sam’s Club with my new Singer dress form, but what are you going to do? It’s not going to hurt anything…it will just enhance the excitement of opening all our boxes when they arrive in Kyiv in a few months.

Here are some “before” and “after” photos:

And the “after-after” photos:

That’s right, all that’s left is our rental furniture. They’re coming to get that today and then we’re off to the airport Sheraton to spend our last night in the US. It’s been a crazy week and I’m just ready to get going. Peema, on the other hand, is not looking forward to the trip.