so we made it… barely.

(this is just our carry on stuff, and I’m carting some too!)

We were still moving and cleaning the house on the morning we were supposed to leave. In this haste, I thought I packed stuff I needed only to find out once I got here that I didn’t. Benjam and Co. were still making trips to the storage about 2 hours before we needed to leave to the airport and at the end, anything was being tossed into any box just to get rid of it. We never would have made it out without the help of our families and friends over the last few weeks, and are forever in gratitude.

The hour of our departure came soon enough and emotions were running high as we had to say goodbye to loved ones and dear friends.   Once we got to the airport the madness continued. We had way too much stuff to fit into 6 suitcases, 3 carry-ons, a diaper bag, a laptop, a purse, a backpack, a stroller, a car seat, and a travel bag. We had to pay for an extra bag, a mere $200, for stuff we probably could have lived without. Needless to say, going through the security check at the airports with all of this baggage was a terror. The bags, the contents of our new life, on the x-ray belt spanned the entire length of the belt going from where people put stuff on all the way to the end where they took it off.

But we made it on the plane with a big exhale and sigh of relief. Now we just had to make it through the first leg of travel, a 10 hour flight to Paris. Immediately things were different as the stewards’ safety instructions were in French first, and then English. The flight over was as terrible as I thought it might be. At first things were all right. Skye was managing fine in her car seat between me and Benjam (luckily the plane was only about half full and we were able to take her car seat on board).  She even went to sleep at her normal bed time. She started to stir about 2-3 hours into her slumber. There was a movie/TV screen playing, lots of people moving about and it was just dark enough to confuse her. With all of the stimulation, she was just not sleeping well. She had the dreaded meltdown that I was hoping to avoid when most of the plane was asleep. She was overtired and in an unfamiliar environment that created cries and screams I’m sure the pilot heard in his closed off cockpit. No one said anything or gave us bad looks, but I felt so bad for the other passengers and for Skye. There was nowhere to go to calm her or stifle her top-of-the-lung screams and eventually I had to hand her off to Benjam, which after about 20 minutes, he was able to calm her down.   I’m not even sure why I’m writing this down since I never want to remember it or live through it again.

We had a long layover in Paris which only added to the situation of sleep deprivation for all along with the new surroundings. I was on autopilot at this point and don’t recall anything other than the second, slightly less serious meltdown Skye had on the flight from Paris to Vienna when the plane descended. By this time, there was no English spoken at all by the stewards which emphasized the point that were starting a new life in a far off land.

We slept for 14 hours that night. I woke up during the middle of the night and had forgotten where we were. Lying in our new bed and looking out a window into a place I was wholly foreign too, I cried. It felt so final and absolute. I felt so very far away from SLC and from Amber in Argentina.   The darkness also brought back memories of January 9th. Since that night I have been afraid of the dark, the deathly things that lurk within. Both of these heavy thoughts turned me into a mess and I just cried and cried for several hours.

Things were better the next day, as things usually are. We went to the grocery store/Wal-Mart called Tesco, with Michal, and spent almost 3 hours getting stuff for our new home. We live, apparently, in the swanky part of town, somewhere like Capitol Hill in SLC. It’s nestled into the mountains and is very beautiful, from what I’ve seen thus far. It reminds me of old town in Park City sans the decrepit houses and with Avenue style houses and condos instead.   The flat is much larger than I expected with a bedroom, bathroom complete with a glorious bath tub, separate toilet room and a lovely, stocked kitchen and fair sized living area. It’s still much smaller than our house in SLC and everything else is smaller too; the washing machine (they don’t have dryers here at all), the fridge, the milk carton etc. Honestly, we can’t complain about our accommodations. When we find our final home that will allow Sammie (I miss her so much!) and with a second bedroom, I hope we are half as lucky as this place. It’s taking some adjustments from all, with sleeping in the same room with Skye again. She’s still on SLC time and will wake up for about 3-4 hours in the middle of the night. This is hard for obvious reasons, the biggest being work schedules.

The second night we were here we had dinner at Michal’s house with his adorable kids, which only made me miss Kylee, Cole and Seth more, and a friend from work who has no idea how much we are about to lean on him. It was nice being with people after our rough night the night before and we were in good spirits as we went to bed. Until Skye woke us for her 2-3 hour playtime at 1am. We had to be up and ready to go by 9am the next day to get our bank account in order and get phones. We were at the bank for 3 hours getting all the paperwork in order. Yes, we sat at the bank with a cranky 9-month old for 3 hours signing endless papers. When we had to exchange our dollars, they had to scan every single one for counterfeits, even the one dollar bills. That took 40 minutes right there. Then the next 4 hours was spent driving all over Bratislava trying to get a new SIM card for our Blackberries, proving to be totally unproductive since we are still without phones.   I threw together some dinner and it was the beginning of another long, lonely night filled with doubts about the move and mourning for Amber. It’s the worst at night, again because of what the darkness holds, so it was a difficult night again. However, this night was different in that after my sob session I felt a little more positive than my first night of crying. As much as we wanted to get on a plane and come home – well maybe not a plane again with Skye, but just be teleported home somehow –  I felt the inclination to make the best of where we are, since we are all the way over here.

Actually, the shock of the move hasn’t been as shocking as I was expecting. Maybe I was expecting a lot worse or maybe we have a lot of help over here, or both. Sure everything is different, but more so in the fact I’m not in my own bed or own desk at work or grocery shopping where I’m used to. But everyone here still goes to work, still buys groceries and still worries about day to day. We have to wing it at the grocery store since we can’t read instructions or what exactly is in that sauce, but we can see everything. They have an entire corner of the grocer devoted to fresh bread, not just one little section, and it smells sooo good and taste even better. They also have a fresh cheese and meat area that is just glorious with smells of gouda and Hungarian sausage. Their produce smells like a freshly picked garden and because we are close to the source of everything and it all tastes pretty scrummy….so far. All of the younger woman wear knee-high fashionable boots over their pants and all of the older women wear real fur coats. They play US 80-90’s music everywhere and it takes me back to the good old days of middle and high school. The language is impossible, but pointing really gets you pretty far if need be.

We haven’t really seen much except in trying to get settled like the grocery store and such,  so I can’t really comment yet on where we are or how different it is. That acclimation will start soon enough. For now we are still trying to find home and be comfortable. This is difficult since we don’t have phones or internet yet and feel even more disconnected, but I know that will improve a lot once we do.