Countdown minus....

To paraphrase, "it was the best of times"....It was the best of ideas; it was the worst of ideas!!! THAT was how I was feeling earlier last week. WAS I crazy to be moving out of the country for 9-12 months???
I was not having serious doubts, but I WAS STRESSING out about the myriad of details surrounding this junket! The stress has lessened somewhat, but still, where do these new things come from to get on my To Do list?

However, my "to do "list is shrinking....THAT is the good news.The bad news is that while I leave on July 29th, I'm don't have as much time as it appears...Last week I was on a delightful vacation for the week in Wells, Maine, with my four  siblings....(My brother Norm was the successful bidder for a week's rental on a house on a marsh and near the beach to benefit homeless veterans. He could have also used it in September, but kindly opted for june, since I will be away! THIS is a time when he is studying for the BAr Exam, which is the week that I leave!) I am going to Seattle in July for my son Peter's swearing in to the Washington Bar. Both of these are/were NOT TO BE MISSED EVENTS , of course!

I have a buyer for my 2006 Ford Hybrid Escape! Rather than deal with selling to an end user, I will sell it to someone who has a small used car in Burlington. Exact timing to be determined...I need to rent a car and cancel my car insurance in the interim and sort out the details around this, as I will need some transportation before I leave!
Because I didn't know who my tenants would be (that is, would they want the house furnished or unfurnished?)....I needed to learn how much it might cost to move my belongings. Therefore, I got one estimate from Roadrunner, whom Melissa had used and liked. However, I do have signed lease, and details on my tenants will be in a future blogpost....

On June 24th I returned to the French Consul in the Park Square Building at 31 St.James Avenue to apply for my visa. My earlier visit-MUCH too early it turned out-taught me that! The Consul website http://www.consulfrance-boston.org/spip.php?rubrique192
says that long term visa applicants must apply well in advance, but it does not say how long that time should be! Oh, well, details to follow!

Departure is Eight Weeks from Today....

Well, things are progressing on several fronts!!!
My house went into MLS for rent on May 24th. There are few rental options in Weston right now, so hopefully this will be rented soon!
I'm working on improving my French, so I took several Pimlser CD sets out of the library to practice my French. While I still feel that I do not remember many verbs and tenses, I am often surprised at what I do remember from high school, no less!!!! I may take some classes at the Alliance Francaise, while in Nice.
There is an update on my time with Pascale, whose charming home will be my first stop in August! We will go to Clermont Ferrand in Auvergne on August 14 to see her dad. On the 17th she will drive to the Pyrenees, and I will pick up a rental car to tour the area on my way to http://www.abritel.fr/location-vacances/p629835#map She and her friend Anne have rented this 5 bedroom home for the two weeks with various friends there at various times. I will be there from August 24-31. Pascale and I will drive back to Paris on the 31st.
On September 1st, I will meet Kathy and Diane, whom I met on my first trip to Greece with my friend Carol. Kathy met up with me in Cheltenham, when I first did a home exchange. She arrived right after there had been terrible rains and subsequent flooding. That resulted in the whole area losing its water supply for at least ten days, as there was a problem in the water treatment center in Gloucestershire. The city did provide plenty of bottled as well as potable water. However, the only showers were cold! So on the tenth day, Kathy started calling outside the area (where there was water) to see if there were a gym where we could go to take a shower! Luckily she found one!
And so it will be eight weeks from today that I leave....More to come...hope you will be traveling with me!!