Sometime during my pregnancy it came to our attention that
my husband’s junior research leave was coming up, and that we needed to make
plans for when and where we were going to spend this free vacation
opportunity. We applied for a few fellowships and research stipends, but thought
in reality that we had as much of a chance getting any extra money as we would
have winning the lottery. So we started planning for a more frugal one semester
visiting scholar position at a university close to family. Around the time the
baby arrived we had set dates, connected with a good university, and looked into
renting a home. We had also found someone to stay in our apartment for the four
months we would be gone. Since we were only going to be away for one semester
we didn’t have to move out, but could sublet, with our belongings remaining in
the apartment.
Just when we were about to agree with a contact on renting
his house near our university of choice, my husband received an e-mail from a
reputable university in GA (to be disclosed later) offering him a one year paid
fellowship. What? …What?!
Where do we start? First we had to get the approval from the
university for a one year instead of a one semester leave. Then we had to sort
out the housing situation, which worked out quite well – a visiting fellow at
AUB will rent our apartment while we are gone, and we can have it back when we
return. The only trouble is that we have to move out and put our belongings in storage
while away.
We are currently trying to figure out how and where we can
store our belongings.
We have no idea how we’re going to pack up this apartment in
just a few weeks.
We are looking for a furnished house to rent near the fellowship
university for 9 months. Not as easy as it sounds if your budget isn’t $2,700/month
plus utilities.
Our family is searching for a used van that we can buy to
use while in the US. I have absolutely no idea how to buy a car, get it
registered and insured in the US, so thank God for family.
We are working on the paperwork needed for a family such as
ours to relocate to the US for a year (more on this in a different post). You
know how much I love paperwork.
We are in the process of buying tickets, with a return date
over a year from now. Scary.
So there: stuff going on here, folks. Lots and lots of
stuff.
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