Happy birthday to me
It costs a lot of money to move a household internationally. Even a small household like ours. It's wasteful too; there are all sorts of things I wish I had brought with instead of giving them up or paying (more money) to store thousands of miles away only to repurchase here. But you only turn 48 once, right?
Our street is quiet and it seems like it will be easy to get to the school from here. Speaking of that, we almost really stepped in it with them--we were supposed to have submitted documents in different formats by a certain date and instead we caused confusion and delay with the enrollment process and almost got poor Pocky kicked out before he even had a chance to start. I don't know what we would have done, honestly. The school has a deep waiting list of plenty of other kids who also need French language support and who would have taken our spot in a hot second. And then poor Pocky! He would have gone to school somewhere else, of course, but we picked out this house because it was near that great school and we're in this lease now. Schlepping bus-tram-train to the other side of town to go to a school without the help he needs in French because his parents were too dim to follow the instructions for enrollment. Désolée indeed, too little too late. But the six hour time difference to US came in handy and there's a wonderful lady who lives deep in the bowels of the APS records department and now she is getting some chocolates from us is what is happening.
I haven't tried to get to my job yet from here but I think I can probably walk a bit to the nearest metro and take one train, or make some kind of combo platter of tram and bus. I'll report back on that after I start next week. I did declare my residency today and must expect a visit from a municipal officer sometime in the next week to verify things, so I understand. [UPDATE: he just came by, same day service! He wore a badge with a panther on it and had a gun and told me to put my last name on the mail box. I just peeked out to see what the car looks like and it's a bubbly baby minivan shaped object with blue and yellow stripes.] [UPDATE 2: was out walking later and another same one of those police wagons came peeling along and two or three hopped out and surrounded a man on the street. they're not. so. innocent.] I was late for my appointment because I got lost on the way from the tram to the commune center and had to ask twice for help to find it. I discovered it was much easier than I'd made it only after I left and walked out of the main entrance instead of the ass backwards entrance I'd developed all on my own.
I have a phone number now! I haven't memorized it yet.
