I went through the preparations again and again, painstakingly identifying each line item with a 1, 2, 3, or 4. I got Harley's bone ready. I prepped my clothes. I took a shower. Finally, at 12:30AM, I was ready. I had done all I could...it was in God's hands now....
I collapsed into bed exhausted, but sleep was erratic. I was too excited; too nervous to sleep. I had the first-day-of-school jitters.
Monday morning, I jumped out of bed at 6 (that NEVER happens!), I paced and looked out the window every 30 seconds. Wei Ayi did laundry and randomly cleaned things. She, too, was trying to contain the excitement. The suspense was killing us!
Finally the phone rang - it was here! I locked Harley in the office with a bone and some water. I ran to the window and started snapping pictures.
Santa Claus had arrived.... a Chinese Santa, driving, not a sleigh (heavens, in this heat?!!?!?), but a truck. A truck with a container. MY CONTAINER. The one I packed 8 weeks and 8 million miles ago in Michigan!!!
See, everyone told me it would be like this, but I didn't believe them. The day the sea container arrived is truly like Christmas!!
I grabbed my list - 130 boxes to be placed in Yi (guest room and general box drop off), Er (Rita-mart storage room), San (master bedroom and office items), and Si (everything for the upstairs). I was a machine. The box number was called out; I shouted the number of the room, and off the mover went. At one point there were 4 men inside the apartment and 3 more running hand carts up and down the elevator. For 2 hours this went on - Yi! San! Yi! Si! Er! Si! Er! It was a work of art...a well orchestrated production...an OCD dream...
After 2 hours of moving the boxes and furniture into the room, the unwrapping began. Seven workers went room to room, ripping open the paper around things, slicing open the boxes, throwing the now empty boxes back into the hall and down the elevator. For the next 2 hours, they opened every box, and I looked inside at every treasure. I laughed at some, cried over others, and was puzzled by a few things (I really packed THAT?!).
The dog food boxes came in, as did the "kitty litter" - Anu's genius idea. Immediately, they were unpacked and placed in the tubs that awaited them. Enough soap to survive the apocolypse was put in the empty cabinets under the sinks. Everything had a place, and Wei Ayi seemed hell-bent on finding it!
The workers assembled the shoe rack (yes, I packed the rack!), and Wei Ayi found a box of shoes and began filling it. They opened the mirror box, and it was immediately placed on the easel in the living room. The trunks were unwrapped and stacked, and my bed was assembled. I found sheets and a dust ruffle and the comforter and immediately put the bed together. It didn't matter that the room was floor to ceiling in boxes, I wanted to have a made bed (it helped that I was able to eliminate 3 pillow boxes in the process!) to have some sense of stability.
At 12 o'clock, all that remained for the workers was to bring the couch upstairs. The loveseat had already gone up...only the sofa was left. They were reluctant, so they added it to my living room instead. Clearly, this was against the carefully organized plans. I looked at the one in charge, Arnold, my former trainer, and advised him - "This is a moving company - it's time to get creative and start moving! I don't care if you hoist it up over the railing and bring it in through the deck -- that couch is going upstairs!"
I was less pleasant the second time when I explained exactly where the couch would go if he chose not to have the workers bring it up the stairs. He hemmed, he hawwed, he tried to save face. I was sore, sweaty, and tired of his crap. I stopped being my rational pleasant self and went a little New York on him.
Guess who won the battle of the couch?
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| (Fiesty b**ch 1; Lazy movers 0) |
After the movers left, Wei Ayi and I went to town. We unloaded 100 boxes the first day. A worker in the building paid us 45 RMB for the empty boxes. During the week and the next weekend, we finished the rest. Another 25RMB was given to me to rid my home of all remaining cardboard memories of the move...Not bad - I didn't have to deal with the boxes, and $11 pays for a massage!
Now that everything is here and I'm settled in, I think back on the 2 months (!) since I moved. I went 3 nights without a sheet and 2 weeks without a blanket or real pillows. I lived 2 months without a television in my bedroom. I did without pots for 2 weeks, and I lasted 8 weeks without needing a converter.
And really, it wasn't a sacrifice. And I really didn't miss anything that much.
So many of the things I thought "essential" to my survival turned out to be luxuries. I didn't need a collection of DVDs - I still haven't gotten through the ones I bought during my first week here. I didn't need a full set of pots, dishes, etc. Most went straight into storage. And I didn't need to pack 15 boxes (!!!) of clothes. I packed over 40 pair of black socks and 35 sweaters! Not to mention the sheets, towels and canned goods I just HAD to bring with me...
I see what I was able to do without and not miss, and I think about what the people here have never even contemplated. 40 pair of socks to a local is not a luxury, it's stupid and wasteful; a squandering of money. Even Wei Ayi laughed and shook her head at the box-o-briefs she unpacked... 75 pair of underwear for 1 person. But in the US, I don't have Wei Ayi. I have a basement floor where laundry accumulates. And a blatent dislike of doing anything about it.
So, I guess I may have overpacked just a bit - I don't really need wine glasses for 20. Or 30 pieces of tupperware. Or 11 boxes of ziplocs.
But, despite my excess in other areas, I somehow managed to pack EXACTLY the right number of shoes....
At least I got something right!
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| The dual function room - Rita-Mart and Imelda's Closet |
1 comment:
So great to see you settling in so easily....you're DOING IT and DOING IT WELL! You are indeed a DIVA! CAROL
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