Sunday

Today is the official beginning of our last days in México. With thirty-five days before we return to the US, we began our first physical steps toward moving out today. This involved making four piles of stuff. Moving out will be a confusing, if not arduous, process: four distinct steps to negotiate getting our property out of this country, with pitfalls of red tape tripping us up at every turn. Step one: movers arrive, box up our stuff, transport it over the border, and store it in Maryland until whenever. Two, some of that load will then be moved on to Vietnam next fall. Three, movers will return to pack just things we'll have access to while in DC. This load will eventually be stored in Maryland or shipped to Vietnam next fall when we move again. Four, we will have to pack whatever remains in the tiny little Toyota car and drive it over the border ourselves. This step includes a terrified The Cat in its little cage. Now, steps one and two are tricky because the places (where we may end up living) in Vietnam come more completely furnished than what we're used to. We'll have to keep an inventory so we can decide what to take with us and what to leave in US storage when we move again. We have to do this without further access to the stuff in question. Keeping "storage" things in boxes together, then, and separate from "Vietnam" things, will be very important. The fact is that we do not have a solid handle on what to take and what to leave. Furthermore, step three has a pretty limiting weight restriction, but we do not yet know exactly what that restriction is. And step four? Well, the car's just little. [Cavin]