The Relocation Puzzle

A hopefully quick post, for a brief update on what's been happening. This relocation has its roots back in March, when the offer was signed and we were contacted by the first of many groups whose role was to safely transplant the two of us halfway across the world. We've now managed to knock off the following important milestones:

• Get our drivers licences - we're now officially licensed to drive on the wrong side of the road
• Find a place to live - we found a four bedroom house with a great kitchen (two ovens!) which is not too far away from work
• Convince the Department of Homeland Security that I'm legally authorised to work in the US - somewhat important, given our current situation
• Buy a car - we're now the proud owners of a brand new Mazda CX-5. We had no intention of buying a new car when we first arrived, but the need to establish credit history, along with the comparatively low car prices here ended up convincing us to do so
• Buy a KitchenAid! Especially as the mixer arriving in the shipment has a motor which is about to blow... which would mean no cake :(
• Discover Ikea... and spend lots of money there
• Find the local Buddhist temple - very different to Sydney

Currently our house has a small table, four chairs, a bed... and that's it. Not entirely true - we got sick of this situation and went to Ikea (of course) to buy some more comfortable chairs to sit on. As a result, pictures are not worth the effort, until...

Our stuff arrives - on Friday! Our shipment containing a lot of our worldly possessions has cleared US customs, and will arrive at our new house, to be unpacked, unwrapped, and classified as either:

• Stuff that will work anywhere in the world (i.e. no power required)
• Stuff that hopefully will work, even with power requirements
• Stuff that should have stayed in Australia, but I was too rushed to sort it out (this will lead to a collection of perfectly good appliances which won't work over here)
• Stuff that just should have been thrown away... many many years ago

And with that, one of the final pieces of the relocation puzzle will fall into place. After that - you could say we're almost settled in! Now to furnish all of these extra rooms...