THINGS WE’RE GLAD WE PACKED
1. Tampons (I laid in an 8 month supply!)
2. Pans (We brought two All Clad pans with us, a stock pot and a frying pan.)
3. Chef’s Knife
4. Paring Knife
THINGS WE WISH WE HAD PACKED
1. Glide Floss
2. Leopard DVD (Tom could have then restored his MAC operating system in English after [...]
This stint in Argentina is my second foray spending an extended period of time overseas as an expatriate. The first time around, I was just out of college and spent four years overseas–three in Asia working for an aerospace corporation, and one in Europe, well, just messing around.
Some might think that being an expat [...]
Here are two images from our arrival.
The first image is the “we are so exhausted why the hell do you want to take our picture” that Ian forced upon us. On a positive note, this pic does do a good job of illustrating the amount of bleeping luggage that we had!
(May I [...]
Tom and I have decided that whenever we want to spend a protracted amount of time in a foreign country, we should send Ian as our advance man.
My brother has made our arrival in Argentina a breeze. He greeted us at the airport, whisked us into a gigantic van, well, really a shuttle bus, [...]
The juxtaposition of experience after a long flight is always overwhelming. When I think back on today, many memories float across my consciousness:
The Southerners at the Hot-lanta airport declaring, “Aahm goin’ to Argentina to hunt duuhhvs.”
The Argentina city bus pulling away with the girls still hanging on in the open doorway while Tom and [...]
You start off very excited and optimistic…you are going to a far away land on a new adventure, just like how you feel when you are going to have a baby.
You obsess over every detail when you get on the plane, just like you do at the beginning of a pregnancy (you know, the baby [...]
Our last morning in Portland!
We woke up early and took our eight 50 pound bags to the airport at 7 am to check them. It was pretty cool, we could scan our passports in the automated check-in kiosks–that was new to me.
Next, we left the airport and went to Elmer’s Pancake House [...]
As we come to the end of the planning/preparation phase, the nerves are really starting to kick in.
When there isn’t stuff to obsess over in terms of packing, storing, calling, notifying, etc., then the knowledge of what we’re embarking upon is hard to avoid.
We will be getting into a big metal box tomorrow and [...]
Start throwing things out the second you consider leaving the country–it is never too soon!
Don’t sell the kids’ beds early on Craigslist so that they have to sleep on camping mats on the floor for a month–they get really mad at you!!
Definitely build a gap between the time you move out of your house/apartment and [...]
The Setup: Sitting on the floor in the middle of the living room of my parents’ loft surrounded by a ring of stuff we think we want to take to Argentina.
The Challenge: Getting all of that crap into 8 checked bags. (It sounds like a lot of bags, but with a family of [...]
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