Mail

I feel like I am back in college when it comes to getting mail.

The Americans have a separate post office on the SHAPE campus.  It is a room filled with those little mail boxes with combination locks.  Unlike my college mail box, these don't have windows, so I never know whether or not something waits for me behind the little door or not.

The rate at which mail is delivered varies by a good deal.  Sometimes it takes 3-4 weeks for a package or letter to reach the states and vice versa.  Other times, it takes less than a week.  Sometimes we get magazines in a timely manner, at other times we receive three issues of Newsweek or the Economist at once.

It is nice to open the door and find something waiting for us (other than bills).  The best find is a yellow card.  Yellow cards mean packages!

For packages we have to go to a window, give them our yellow card and our ID.  The package room is an interesting study on the shopping habits of Americans at SHAPE.  At this time Amazon boxes and Zappos seem to dominate.

It is a wonderful thing to have internet shopping and a US mailing address.  There are so many things that are not available to us any other way - soy nut butter, dance shoes, guitar strings, and more.  Not every country offers this service to their people serving overseas.  I think Canadians have to use international mail to ship and receive.  So yes, it it an extra errand but it's worth it.

IKEA

In the land of boxes, we have come across a few things that did not survive the move - this screw on Kyra's loft bed that is supposed to be straight, a lamp and two metal frames that hold organizing drawers.  These frames are from IKEA and they are called Antonius.  

The packers assumed that these could sit at the bottom of a crate and withstand loads of furniture and boxes being placed on top of them.  Their assumption was faulty.

As these frames (with drawers and a top) are used as Allen's dresser, we needed to do something.  Fortunately there are many IKEAs in Belgium and one of them is within an hour's drive.

So this morning, I programmed the address into the GPS and off I went.

With the exception of the signs being in Flemish and French, this IKEA looks like the IKEA back home.   First one winds one's way through the showroom and then through the marketplace and finally to the self-service shelves.  A Billy bookcase is called a Billy bookcase, Effectiv office furniture is Effectiv office furniture and so on.

When one lives day in and day out in the unfamiliar, it is refreshing to come upon something familiar.  I didn't have to wonder how this store worked, where to find things, if I would find what I was looking for, how to pay for it, etc.  I knew precisely how to navigate the store, use the self-service aisles and check-out.  In a while when I assemble my purchases I know that I won't need to navigate instructions in a foreign language - I'll just follow the pictures.

As I continue to unpack and try to figure out where to put stuff, I imagine there will be another trip to IKEA in my future - so that I can buy stuff that is useful and so I can get a small taste of the familiar again.

Boxes, Boxes Everywhere

I have a few more things to share about Versailles and I'm still noodling through thoughts on vivification but as the long awaited day arrived yesterday, I thought today needed to be about boxes.

Yesterday we received what was packed up 2 and a half months ago.  Last night we slept in our own beds.  We are sitting on our own chairs and wearing clothes we haven't seen in months.  I really wanted to find my slippers (it is cold here!) but they are still hidden.

Kyle and I worked continuously yesterday and we have made some good progress but boxes still dominate the house.  I'm pretty sure I can get the china cabinet taken care of today.  The problem remains with what to do with all my kitchen stuff that doesn't fit in the kitchen.  I shipped my baking stone but it doesn't fit in the oven.  I shipped the toaster, Kyle bought one here.

The kids get to do their own rooms.  As their rooms are bigger here than the rooms they had back in Virginia, they are not struggling with space issues.  Here's what it looks like when Allen unpacks.   This isn't his room, this is what he has done to the office area when looking for a particular item he wanted for himself.

These four are empty!

I keep hoping I am more than half way done, but then I turn around and there are more boxes.  I remind myself I wanted this, so I really can't complain.

My goal is to have all the boxes unpacked and the stuff put away within the week.  I've got a busy week ahead but I don't like chaos, so we'll see if I make it.