I bet you thought I was gone. Like really and truly gone. Maybe "hoped" is a better word. No such luck.
As I sit here in my house full of furniture from storage and unpack boxes of UAB items, I have plenty of time to reflect on just how little thought I gave to the whole "storage" thing. As much as I agonized over what to send or not send in our HHG, UAB, and consumables, I gave virtually no thought to the items I put in storage other than to acknowledge that they were things I would not want to have while we were overseas. You see, the beauty of most embassies is that they are very used to people showing up with nothing but the clothes on their back (and those they managed to cram into a suitcase). Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find... We walked into a fully furnished apartment where someone had even already done all of our grocery shopping for us to get us ready for the first few days. We had pots, pans, dishes, glassware, a television, an iron... I could go on, but you get the point. Essentially we had everything we required.
Leaving Dhaka, we gave great thought to the items we put in our UAB (after contacting Student Detachment to have to them authorize a UAB shipment for us since it was not included in our original orders). We put in a set of sheets for each bed, towels for each person, a small television, the all-in-one printer, kitchen knives, extra clothes, the DVD player - everything we thought we'd need "right away". We flew from Dhaka on the 22nd of June (I think?? - it's been too long...) and signed the lease on our new place in Florida on 1 July with high hopes that our UAB would arrive within the first 2 weeks of July. Here it is, the end of August, and our UAB just showed up. In theory, it came by air, so the delay was not in the actual transport phase. But when we got an e-mail 3 weeks after our departure from an embassy employee asking for Josh's rank (which was clearly indicated in the signature block of the e-mail he had sent them only a few days before) before he could submit the paperwork for our shipment, I had a bit better of an indication of the sort of timeline to expect. Submitting the paperwork is of course only the first step. Then the funding has to be approved. Then the shipment has to clear customs. Perhaps most importantly, the hartals have to stop long enough for airline employees to actually be at work loading planes. <sigh>
So as much as I had good intentions when I packed my UAB, really I needed to put more thought into what we left in storage. Really, my storage should have included:
- at least one small-ish TV (TV, phone, and internet generally require that you actually have a television and phone ready to be plugged in before they will schedule you for installation; as much as we wanted internet, we had no phone and no TV)
- at least one set of sheets/pillow/blanket/mattress pad/waterproof cover for each bed
- bath and hand towels
- kitchen towels and at least one hot pad
- ideally, I'd love to have dishes and a set of silverware in my storage, but I think that might just be too much extra "stuff" for me to hang on to
- a phone (see note above on TV)
- basic kitchen implements
Since Josh and I were both in the Army, and weren't always stationed in the same place, we already have most kitchen items in multiple. For example, I have not one, not two, but three colanders. Ask me where they are. Just ask me. That's right. All 3 went to Dhaka. One fortunately made it in to the UAB shipment, so I have it now, but I really just wasn't thinking. For all of the "extra" mixing bowls I have, you'd think I might have left at least one or two in storage...
So my warning to everyone who is getting ready to head overseas is this: Think about the return trip as well and try to plan for only having your "storage" items for two months or longer after your return. Think about what you will want/need and what you're willing to buy in duplicate.
Note to self - read this post again before you pack up a year from now...
Anyone else excited that open assignments will be posted in less than a month??
