\t\t![\"Boxes\"](\"https:\/\/www.wanderlustandwetwipes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Boxes-min.jpg\")
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The movers arrived yesterday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Out came flat brown boxes and packing tape and bubble wrap. Black t-shirted men moved though the house like locusts (credit to Mr Wanderlust for the word choice), completed boxes appeared almost out of thin air, and discussions were had about everything from plants and broken picture frames to who was going to move the fish.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Easy-peasy<\/h2>\n
I\u2019ll probably live to regret these words, most of which were typed on my phone late last night as we went to bed, quietly smug at how smoothly it was all going: As expat moves go, this is far and away the easiest one I\u2019ve ever done and here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n
There are no visas to arrange for the new country or bank accounts to close for the old one. No one cares if the Original Thing (Doggy Wanderlust) has up to date rabies vaccinations (he does \u2013 you just never know!) and there are no medicals or quarantine requirements for humans or animals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u2019re not selling cars or house hunting in a new location. There\u2019s no new doctor or dentist to find, no hours to be spent navigating new supermarkets and which groceries the Things will tolerate or turn their noses up at. We\u2019re not organising leaving parties or wondering how we will operate in a world without our amazing friends<\/a>. <\/p>\n I\u2019m not worried about accidentally packing something we might need 3 months from now in a climate completely different to the one we live in, or strategically planning how to maximise our luggage allowance to the nth degree while simultaneously panicking about excess baggage charges. Mr Wanderlust isn\u2019t starting a new job, we don\u2019t need to find new schools for the Things, and I don\u2019t need to build an entirely new friendship group<\/a> from scratch.<\/p>\n We aren\u2019t leaving with things not done or words unsaid.\u00a0<\/p>\n Because while we might be moving, we aren\u2019t leaving. And for the first time, maybe ever, I\u2019m learning that those are two completely separate things.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are other transitions for us, of course. It\u2019s the expat summer after all. Once again there have been too many goodbyes and we still have some left to go. Changing house means changing expectations for good and for bad. New opportunities sometimes come at the expense of letting other ones go. And that\u2019s ok, it\u2019s just a case of finding the grace to do both at the same time. \u00a0<\/p>\n Already the walls in this house have stopped being ours. There are outlines on them where our pictures once were and the cling-wrapped furniture propped up on them just doesn\u2019t have quite the same vibe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Boxes of new uniforms and boxes of a few baby cloths that I can\u2019t quite let go. Boxes filled with laughing faces in photos frames and boxes with messages in old birthday cards. There\u2019s a box with a wedding dress, boxes of pictures from our childhoods alongside my latest journals (woefully underused), boxes holding my new favourite anti-aging face creams and charging cables to keep us connected. <\/p>\n Some boxes are filled with books \u2013 kid books, adult books, old baby books all holding stories that once captured our imaginations and one day will again. Some boxes have more packing paper than things, such is the fragility of the contents. Others have paintings from our travels poking out of the top because they don\u2019t quite fit but they\u2019ll be easier to carry that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n People saw boxes on my stories and assumed (as did our Doggy Wanderlust who is triggered by the sight of removal men) that we were leaving and rightly so. In our world, leaving and moving are, more often than not, the same thing. When I\u2019ve said we\u2019re just changing house, they\u2019ve told me it doesn\u2019t matter because it\u2019s a pain whether you\u2019re going to the next street or to the other side of the world. <\/p>\nEasier doesn\u2019t mean easy<\/h2>\n
All the while there are boxes in my house<\/h2>\n
What\u2019s in a word?<\/h2>\n