Whoo-hoo, moving week is finally here! Fall term classes wrap up at the uni later this week, the sun goes down at like 5pm, and we only have to live here for four more days!1
So, you might ask-- have we started to pack things up? Clean things up? Okay, how about dig through the stuff on the floor so that we can see the carpet?
Nope. Too busy working. We honestly believe that because four months ago all our worldly possessions2 came in under United Airlines international baggage limits, it won't take us more than an hour or two Saturday morning to move out of here.3 So, we'll probably leave for our tropical vacation in Cairns and far north Queensland without having slept much the night before. Ah, well, it's not like we'll be doing anything dangerous or requiring concentration in the first few days.4
Since we're storing out things for the two weeks we'll be out of Sydney, we've been working through all the random food left in our fridge, which means we've been buying a lot of bread for weird leftover sandwiches.5 There are always those odd perishable foods, though, that you can never make come out right... like jam. We finished a jar of jam four or five weeks ago, but then we went hiking last week and we wanted PB&J sandwiches, so we had to open a new jar. But how can you really finish a whole jar of jam in like two weeks? Life is tough...
The good news, for D at least, is that the past two weeks of long hours and intense work is sort of going to pay off-- she is within a day of finishing her second chapter of her dissertation! Of course, she's trying not to think about the fact that she has to write a conference paper by Friday... and that she wanted to have finished a third chapter by this point in time. In her bad moments, she starts to worry that she is not on track to defend by March 2006, but really, it's too early to tell at this point. As for Chad, some minor hurdles have been leapt, in spite of the fact that the supercomputers at Michigan are conspiring against him. Keeping our fingers crossed that they keep working steadily enough that he can get the last piece of new code running by the time we leave this weekend!
;)
- D
PS: Okay, we'll be travelling from 12 June - 27 June, so the next few blog entries will be posted once we get back. No promises, but I'll try to get some new photos up from our hike and our roommates before we leave!
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NOTES
1Although D has generally considered herself one of those kids who "plays well with others," at this point in her life she has realized that she isn't very good at sharing after all. Houses, at least. Except with Chad, of course, although not even with him when we're talking about ice cream.
2Not including, of course: the 6-8 cubic meters of stuff stored in D's parents' basement, all the things still at Jeff's house in Ann Arbor, the various items living in University-owned buildings at the University of Michigan offices, two cars, and let's not forget the cats.
3We forget, as it suits us, that is took more than four or five hours to pack the suitcases in the first place.
4Wink, wink to the two or three people out there who know what we're doing our first week in Cairns. I would tell you now, but then I'd have nothing to tell you next week!
5D, however, draws the line at chili sandwiches, a concoction dreamed up by our Aussie roommates after we cooked them all a chili dinner a few weeks ago... Did I tell you that we cooked them all a chili cinner a few weeks ago? They don't have chili here. Just chilis... as in the peppers, and the chili sauce.
Back to the GAA page!