It has been amazing to me, how much work it has been to prepare for the year. Just getting ready to be away for a full year is a lot. How to receive and pay all the bills. How to vote this fall. How to put a car into storage. How to keep your phone numbers.
Then there is the set of tasks I would call, “getting your affairs in order”. You know, all those things you’ve always planned to do someday – but now you really need to. We’re refinancing, finishing the back deck, bottling the wine, repairing doors and cracks in the walls, gathering information about the house for the exchange, updating our trusts.
Then there’s all the paperwork needed: lots of passport photos, work permits, visa applications, fingerprinting and criminal records, international drivers licenses, tax preparations, health insurance. Thankfully Autodesk is doing an excellent job of assisting us through these processes!
And finally, there’s the packing and traveling itself. We’re still waiting on the visas, so still anxiously waiting to make our plane reservations. We’ve been researching the costs and availability of our medicines and vitamins, and in some cases, taking a year’s supply with us. Shipping is so extremely expensive that we will be taking everything with us on the plane – which for us means 3 bicycles – our two individual ones, and the Tandem, along with our camping gear.
To handle all this I’ve been tracking the lists with a database on my iPhone. As of today we are down to about 50 items left on the list – so are actually feeling like it’s all almost done and ready! 🙂
Just 4 weekends left: a family reunion this weekend – to say goodbye for now, packing, bottling and final yard cleanup, one last concert to sing with the Marin Symphony, then a few days to introduce the Dellenbachs to our house – and we’re off!
Bottom line is … Life is not dull. And as I awake on my last day in Lake Shastina, I look out on the snow capped mountains and am looking forward both to leaving, and returning a year from now – back to the northern California I love so much.
I’ve lived a year or more in 6 U.S. states, from Virginia to California – and liked every one of them. It will be fantastic to add a year in Switzerland to that list.
