"Stuff"

On Wednesday our 20 foot container was FINALLY delivered to our house, exactly 3 months to the day that it left our home in Elkridge!

I really cannot explain how exciting it was to watch the truck pull up, knowing that we were about to see all of our belongings, often referred to in the last few months as our "stuff"! Over the last few months we have watched and tracked our container as it sailed down the Atlantic Ocean to the Bahamas, over to Europe and through the Suez Canal, then up through the waters of Southern Asia and finally to Australia. We sent most of what we owned, as I did some research before we made the move and discovered that things would be much more expensive to buy here in Oz. Much of our furniture is Ikea and most of it has been around for close to 10 years (or more!), so our thoughts were to get 3 more years of use out of these things and then leave them here when we return to the US.

As we began to unpack, we found some funny things that made in on the ship that were NOT supposed to make the trip. We sent a rice cooker and a fondue pot, both of which are useless here. The 2 attachments for the Kitchen Aid mixer made the trip even though the mixer did not, as appliances run on a different voltage here and we learned before sending everything that even though our kitchen appliances could work here, running them would cause damage to the motor(s). I sent lots of US stamps (luckily they are "Forever" stamps, ha!), and both of the titles for the cars we sold in Maryland were in our file cabinet that was shipped (hmmm, that might have saved me a trip to the MVA!).

I was most excited about our kitchen utensils, cookware, and the box full of toiletries that I stocked up on before the container was packed. The shipping company advises against shipping liquids due to the extreme temperatures that occur while the container is at sea, but I stocked up on hair products, miscellaneous toiletries, and some make-up, packed them into large Zip Lock bags, and they all made it over safely! My shampoo/conditioner is more than twice as much here and mascara is $16, so thank goodness for my pre-shipping shopping trip. :)

Just try to ignore the mess and focus on my smiling face. :)

At this point we are about 75% unpacked and I think that the last 25% will take a bit longer to accomplish because I will be starting work tomorrow! I've accepted a temp job at a non-profit organization where I will be making phone calls and updating a customer database. The job is supposed to last 4 weeks, and I'm hoping to earn some money for our Christmas vacation, destination still TBD. I have not been to work since mid-June, so this could be a rough week!