Last Day / Dernière Journée

It's my last day in my home and native land, c'est ma dernière journée dans mon beau pays. I'm going to miss it here--a lot!

The movers came at 8:30am. I didn't finish packing until 3:45am and only slept intermittently from 4 til 7am. Ugh. But the move at my office (which they did first) went extremely well, in and out in 30 minutes, and the move at my downtown storage locker went just as well, another in and out in just 30 minutes, and although it was a bit slower, 2 hours, the move out of my apartment went very smoothly too. I'm at my office now taking advantage of the internet connection before locking my keys inside, going to eat a 3pm breakfast, seeing a film, and then going to a BBQ a friend is kindly throwing for me at 7pm.

I fly out tomorrow at noon, connect in a major hub, will be hoping that my bags connect too, since I don't normally check baggage but will be checking two suitcases this time, and then arrive in nearest major city to Middle-o'-nowhere-ville at about 6pm. Thanks to priceline.com and American consumerism, I got a 4-star hotel for dirt cheap and can spend the night there so that I can meet a new friend for coffee in the morning before doing a stock-up shopping trip to Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and, of course, Ikea. Being an hour and a half away from this city sucks, but at least the shopping is good when one can get there! I've rented a car from the airport for the next two weeks since I'll be in my new home for two weeks before flying off to the fancy-pants, by-invitation-only conference in England, and then hopefully the new car I'm buying will be there ready for me when I get back. And hopefully all my belongings will arrive a full week before I have to go to England. The movers say they will arrive either Thursday or Friday of this week, so fingers crossed they do!

I am going to miss Canada a lot though.

Le Québec va me manquer beaucoup, beaucoup.

I've been so busy with non-stop planning for all this basically since I got the job offer. The past few weeks have been even more hectic, and I've been too busy so far to mourn or cry much. I hope that I can hold myself together for the next few weeks of unpacking too. They say the first year as an assistant prof is hell year, and this summer has definitely been the summer from hell so far. In a way I'm grateful that I've been too busy to have time to be upset, but at this point I just want this whole stressful moving experience to be done and over with, even if I'm not at all keen about where I'll end up once it is over. The new apartment is ok though, and hopefully it will look even better once my stuff arrives and I can begin nesting. It will feel good to feel settled and grounded again.