This is our basement. This is our reality.
It is the morning of July 3rd and we are bouncing between the joy of summer and the panic of the fact that we leave for Brazil on July 20th, ready or not. Lila put it best when she asked me, "Dad, shouldn't our house look a little more empty if we are leaving in less than three weeks?"
A little background for those who haven't heard. Sara and I accepted two year teaching positions at the American School of Brasilia in Brasilia, Brazil. I will be teaching kindergarten and Sara will be teaching 5th grade. Hannah and Lila will be attending the same school, in 8th and 5th grade respectively. Our school district here in Bend granted us a two year leave of absence, so we will have jobs to return to when we finish in Brazil.
This blog is where we hope to share the joys, struggles and day to day realities of teaching and living in Brazil as a family. I'm not sure what it will turn out to look like, or how often we will post things, and it may simply become our own digital diary of our time there, but it helps me sometimes to just stop and try to put thoughts into words. So here are few of our most current thoughts.
One, a family of four accumulates just a few things in the deep dark corners of a house over 19 years. Goodwill might just start making trips by our house, and the big garage sale happens this weekend, but we have a lot of stuff in our house. We are making progress, but everything feels like it takes more time than we thought. We are still in the mode of thoughtfully going through every drawer and deciding if we really want to keep it, or if it will even fit someone when we come back. The pure panic where we just start shoving things in boxes to go into the storage unit hasn't hit yet, but I think it's coming soon. As our amazing property manager explained it to us, renting really is moving, your house is not yours while you are gone, and that's daunting.
Two, leaving is hard. This is the only home both of our daughters have ever known, and the place Sara and I have lived for the longest in our lives. All of our friends and family in town are incredibly important to all of us, and leaving has really made that reality clear. And as much as we tell ourselves that it's just two years and we will be back, it is still strange to be saying goodbyes that end with, "see you in a couple of years."
Three, packing is harder. We have been hit by an airline baggage embargo, which despite our best efforts to circumvent, means that we are limited to one carryon and two checked bags each. That is not a lot of space when you are moving to a new country for two years. Thankfully we will be arriving to a fully furnished apartment, but it still isn't a lot of room. Before the embargo, most folks brought between five and ten bags each with them, which seemed like too many to us, but we were hoping for three to four each. We are just starting to get down to the brass tacks of what exactly we are going to bring. In some ways, it simplifies things because we won't be bringing a lot of things that we were wondering about bringing.
Four, the girls are really doing ok with it. As we have found ourselves saying, "they are doing as well as we can expect." Lila, our soon to be 5th grader, is really on board with the whole adventure. She and Sara have been practicing their Portuguese, she is excited for the new fruits she will encounter, and she seems to be the calmest one in the house right now. Hannah, our soon to be 8th grader, has some much deeper connections with her friends that is making this harder for her, understandably. As part of the move, Hannah now has her first phone, and as much as we don't want that to take over her life, it has helped. She has downloaded Whatsapp and is connecting with her friends and making sure that everything is set up before we leave so that she can stay in touch. That part of our new digital world is great. The percentage of their lives that the next two years makes up is much higher than for Sara and I, and I need to keep reminding myself that this is an even bigger deal for them in some ways.
I'll leave thoughts five and beyond for later. The basement is calling.
No comments:
Post a Comment