Moving Day

Well, the time has come for us to leave our lovely little quartier and move on to bigger and better arrondissements. Tomorrow is moving day, and for anyone who doesn't know, we've found a cute little place really close to Gare Montparnasse. Technicalities aside (more on them later), one of Erik's colleagues has offered to help us move with a car, which should make things about a billion times easier, as it appears that our initial four peices of luggage have been busy multiplying in the three months that we've been here. Zoe is coming over tonight to lend us one of her suitcases, and Erik found some boxes in our building this morning, so we should be all set, but I still can't believe how much stuff we have! I have to say that being a teacher without a classroom means that I tend to cart a large amount of papers and books around, all of which have ended up on our table or any other available surface near by. It probably also doesn't help that I went to the library this week and went overboard in the ESL section which I just discovered.

Moving tip #1: don't go to the library right before you move.

Anyway, probably the best part of this whole move is that I'm working until noon tomorrow, which is the time we are supposed to collect the keys. So, if everything works out, most of the heavy lifting should be done by the time I make it back into the city.

These past two weeks we have been busy figuring out how to get the internet connected in our new place, debating whether we need a phone line, etc. It turns out that you need to have a phone line for a reasonably priced internet connection, and it also turns out that it takes 3-6 weeks after the phone line is connected to get the internet hook up. This has been a very stressful situation for me, as I seriously don't know what I will do without my internet connection. So much of the planning I do involves the internet, or sending things to Erik to be printed. I guess I will become very familiar with all the cafes in our neighbourhood with free wireless, and I will also be spending a lot of time at the library. But regardless, expect the blog updates to be less frequent for the next (gasp) six weeks! Come on!!! How long does it really take to get something like this done? Ok, that's enough venting for now.

Moving tip #2: don't wait to the last minute to do anything. Especially if you live in France. For the best results, you should start organizing all these things before you are born.

The hot water heater at our new place isn't working. The landlady was kind enough to email us last week and let us know, but she also told us to 'patienter' while the electrician or plumber or whoever got their act together to fix it. So, there is a large possibility of there not being any hot water tomorrow. And this time, we're not going to Brugges for the weekend.

Moving tip #3: shower at your old place before moving.

That's it for now, got to go! Wish us luck tomorrow, and I hope everyone has a relaxing and move-free weekend.

Talk to you soon (hopefully!)