Its been a quiet year in Arlington, our hometown.
We've spent the past year settling into our current lives, and we've settled in quite comfortably. We've spent precious little time or energy thinking or worrying about the next step. We've simply focused on the current. I decided sometime last year that all things related to the Move should wait until September. We are scheduled to begin life in Caracas in December, and so September seems a logical point to begin planning.
We have reached the last week of August, which is also the last week of summer. We're spending it at the pool. We're staying up later than we ought to, because we're breaking back into the habit of waking to an alarm. We're deliciously relaxed. My To Do List for next week is silently growing while I enjoy these last few days with all of my girls surrounding me.
But yesterday, we did take one of our first steps of preparation. Our family took a field trip down to the Main State Department building to apply for passports. In our Virginia complacency, Sophia and I had both let our regular passports expire, so there was that to do. But our travel to Venezuela will be as diplomats, which requires a diplomatic passport. I believe this is partly to serve as solid identification of our diplomatic status in the country. I believe it is also because our travel and customs rules are different when we travel as diplomats. For instance, none of our luggage is to be inspected. Our diplomatic visas mean that we carry our luggage straight through customs and are not subject to those laws. We also get a shorter wait in the passport line, although I imagine that's more to do with different laws and questions than with keeping us from waiting.
So, our black passports are in process and our family will travel with 10 passports in hand when we move. Other processes have begun, slowly as well. Dave has been studying Spanish full-time at work since the beginning of July. He is a good student, but feels that he is an average Spanish learner in his class. Although he expects to pass in the 6 month allotted time-frame, he almost hopes to fail his test at the end of December. You see, Venezuela has been rather snooty about handing out visas to their American diplomats. No one has left on time for the past few months - most folks receive their visas after a few months delay. Dave and I both like the classroom lifestyle that he enjoys right now, and he'd love to spend those extra few months studying Spanish. More likely, he will pass his test on time but we will not move in December without visas. We will likely be in Virginia a few months into the new year.
This causes some stress for our family. We allotted a budget which allowed us to live comfortable in Virginia until December. Those extra few months will be difficult. We will need to cancel our lease with one month's notice, but we may move within a few weeks of receiving our visas and lose our security deposit. Also, I'm unsure how to explain this to the girls. Come December, we may not finish school with the knowledge of when we will move. Possibly the girls will leave their classrooms in December without a visa, and it will arrive a few weeks later - in time for us to arrive in December. A crazy month that would make - but it is what we are hoping for.
So, we plan for a December move. And we begin that planning soon. I plan half-heartedly, knowing that those plans will likely all be canceled for a later move - one I will not have the time to plan. But I cannot complain too much. I like life in Virginia. And I like planning.
We've spent the past year settling into our current lives, and we've settled in quite comfortably. We've spent precious little time or energy thinking or worrying about the next step. We've simply focused on the current. I decided sometime last year that all things related to the Move should wait until September. We are scheduled to begin life in Caracas in December, and so September seems a logical point to begin planning.
We have reached the last week of August, which is also the last week of summer. We're spending it at the pool. We're staying up later than we ought to, because we're breaking back into the habit of waking to an alarm. We're deliciously relaxed. My To Do List for next week is silently growing while I enjoy these last few days with all of my girls surrounding me.
But yesterday, we did take one of our first steps of preparation. Our family took a field trip down to the Main State Department building to apply for passports. In our Virginia complacency, Sophia and I had both let our regular passports expire, so there was that to do. But our travel to Venezuela will be as diplomats, which requires a diplomatic passport. I believe this is partly to serve as solid identification of our diplomatic status in the country. I believe it is also because our travel and customs rules are different when we travel as diplomats. For instance, none of our luggage is to be inspected. Our diplomatic visas mean that we carry our luggage straight through customs and are not subject to those laws. We also get a shorter wait in the passport line, although I imagine that's more to do with different laws and questions than with keeping us from waiting.
So, our black passports are in process and our family will travel with 10 passports in hand when we move. Other processes have begun, slowly as well. Dave has been studying Spanish full-time at work since the beginning of July. He is a good student, but feels that he is an average Spanish learner in his class. Although he expects to pass in the 6 month allotted time-frame, he almost hopes to fail his test at the end of December. You see, Venezuela has been rather snooty about handing out visas to their American diplomats. No one has left on time for the past few months - most folks receive their visas after a few months delay. Dave and I both like the classroom lifestyle that he enjoys right now, and he'd love to spend those extra few months studying Spanish. More likely, he will pass his test on time but we will not move in December without visas. We will likely be in Virginia a few months into the new year.
This causes some stress for our family. We allotted a budget which allowed us to live comfortable in Virginia until December. Those extra few months will be difficult. We will need to cancel our lease with one month's notice, but we may move within a few weeks of receiving our visas and lose our security deposit. Also, I'm unsure how to explain this to the girls. Come December, we may not finish school with the knowledge of when we will move. Possibly the girls will leave their classrooms in December without a visa, and it will arrive a few weeks later - in time for us to arrive in December. A crazy month that would make - but it is what we are hoping for.
So, we plan for a December move. And we begin that planning soon. I plan half-heartedly, knowing that those plans will likely all be canceled for a later move - one I will not have the time to plan. But I cannot complain too much. I like life in Virginia. And I like planning.
