We heard back from the travel agent today who heard from the school. They've made another reservation for us to fly from Orlando to Brasilia (the first one may not have been the best situation for us), and hopefully by tomorrow our tickets will be purchased. Yeahhh! I won't say too much until they have been bought, but this appears to be the best deal for us. I'm excited and will feel wonderful once everything is taken care of regarding our flight.I don't want to worry about packing, shipping, or travelling with a cat, but I do realize that this is all part of moving abroad. I guess I should be grateful that we don't own a home or that we won't be moving to an unfurnished apartment. Now that would give me something to complain about. All of this, well, it'll all work itself out in the end.I'll keep you updated as to who we fly with, what's the deal on shipping and our cat, and when we depart. We have a lot to look forward to, that's for sure.
PS: By the way, this is my 100th post :)
My husband told me this afternoon that he feels like he's in Brazil. He means that in his mind he's in Brazil; this of course was said as he was taking off his t-shirt while driving. To my delight, he's constantly talking about the move, and since it's almost March and I've applied for my visa, we're starting to feel like we're really on our way. I can't concentrate as much at work and when I'm supposed to be studying. I read blogs and make lists and dream of Brazil. Probably not the most responsible thing to do, but I can't help it. I'm excited. I have started to post ads on-line about the sale of our belongings and to my surprise have received a lot of "hits" from interested buyers. We are basically going to sell everything, with the exception of our valuables, my books, and our electronics. Anything that is of value in Brazil, or a rarity, is what we are going to ship down, or take with us.The first item that we sold was an old laptop. It was one that I bought when I first moved to Florida and used extensively, especially when E was still in Brazil and the phone and computer were our major means of communications. The laptop was easy to sell and we received a good deal for it, considering it's age and current capabilities.I am also working on making arrangements with people who are interested in buying our furniture - desks, bookshelves, drawers, etc. My goal is to sell everything little by little so that we're not overwhelmed later and so we don't sell all of our furniture now and spend weeks or months sitting on the floor and with no place to put anything that is left behind. Also, my family is planning another trip to Florida before we leave and I can't ask my parents to sleep somewhere uncomfortable because we sold everything.In addition to selling things, we will also need to buy items that we want to have in Brazil. My husband wants a GPS (well, he's wanted one for years), and I want a Kindle. I never thought I'd ever want an e-reader because I love books: the feel, the smell, the pages, etc.; however, as I started to think more about the lack of English language books in Brazil, I decided that it was something that I couldn't do without. So I got excited about the Kindle and figured if E was going to get his GPS, then I'd might as well put them on the same order. I also plan on buying DVDs of shows that I know I'll want to watch in the future - like Tru Blood and Sex in the City. What I don't already own I'll need to make sure I purchase before we depart, and I'm afraid that is just the chip off the iceberg. Well, at least all of the shopping will be fun. And next thing we know, we'll be in Brazil before we know it.
Phew. I am finally done with compiling our (small) stack of documents and photocopies that we need to take the consulate in order to register our marriage. Of course it was not without help that we were able to do this. Thank you, again, to Zack and Glaucia (and her kids!!!) for taking time out of their day to help us out out by being our witnesses (attesting to the fact that E and I were both single before we got married). After an enjoyable meetup with Glaucia (the second "witness") and her children this afternoon, we went to my bank (which will remain unnamed since I didn't have an issue with the branch closest to my house when I went to see the notary only two days before) to get Glaucia's signature notarized. The notary we met today refused to notarize her signature since she is not a member of the bank even though I am and I was with her. Really? I explained to him that it was for me (the customer) and that just two days before another notary at another branch of the same bank had just "put it on my account" and not bothered my friend about whether or not he was a customer. The guy told told me that it is not the bank's procedure to notarize the signature of a non-member and sorry he wouldn't do it. Ugh. We then went to my friend's (nearby) bank thinking we would have luck there; however, her bank also refused since the document is in Portuguese and the notary didn't understand what it was she was notarizing. She said the bank would be liable should anything go wrong. Finally, we ended up at a small store around the corner from the bank and there the owner gladly notarized her signature for only $10. Now I have everything that I needed notarized done, so I guess, all well that ends well, right? E signed his part (which did not have to be notarized, go figure) and I made copies of each document, our passports, our birth certificates, and our marriage certificate. All done. We're just waiting on E to get his work schedule for next week so we know which day we can make our trip down south. I love progress.
uptight organized than E, I have taken on this "chore" rather than ask him to do it. Plus, I did all of the immigration paperwork for him to live/work in the U.S. so I feel almost like a pro at this.
