As for the shipping, the housing provided by the Supreme Court of Palau is furnished--thank goodness--leaving the clerks to provide linens, towels, and some electronics. The dress code at the courthouse is quite casual, where women wear simple cotton short-sleeve shirts, and skirts or capri pants. Because Palau is so remote, clothing and household items are very expensive. I decided that I couldn't live without my DVD player, ipod dock, coffee maker, and a few other creature comforts, so I knew that I'd be shipping quite a few somewhat large items along with my clothes and linens.
I'd never shipped more than cookies to friends, and those were pretty pathetic attempts that often ended in the boxes being returned to me (sorry Ellie!) so I turned to prior clerks for advice. I received quite a few tips as to how I should pack and ship my stuff, which I promptly forgot. Even though my predecessors all suggested shipping small priority mail boxes, the idea of shipping 20 or 30 boxes made my skin crawl, and against my better judgment, I decided to ship things my own way. I bought ten rubbermaid 20 lb containers from Target, filled them up, put about 5 pounds of packing tape around them, and shipped them off. To say that the postal workers were skeptical of my rubbermaid tactic would be an understatement. I'm pretty sure Mr. Davis in Chicago, who helped me ship four of my containers, is still shaking his head and laughing at the silly girl with the bright blue rubbermaids. But somehow luck was on my side, because as you'll see below, all of my boxes made it to Palau! So if anyone needs advice on how to ship, I'm your lady!
As for getting myself to Palau, that was a lot easier logistically, if not emotionally. As most of you know, my family consists of 2 parents, 8 sisters, 3 brothers, 5 (soon to be 6, Trey!) in-laws, and 11 (soon to be 12) nieces and nephews. Here's the most recent photo of us:
Yup, that's my immediate family. Clearly it was tough to leave behind Schu clan. But they're all incredibly supportive, and sent me off with the perfect celebration--a combined birthday, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July, and Opening Day party, where they decorated for the occasion(s) and made all my favorite holiday treats. Thanks everyone! I'll still miss the holidays, but you softened the blow!
Beyond leaving the Schu fam, I had to say goodbye to my friends, boyfriend, and cat Bailey. Bailey made my goodbye pretty easy. She'll be staying at my friend Steph's place over the next year, and when I went to say goodbye, she hid underneath the couch and refused to acknowledge me. It summed up our love/tolerate relationship pretty appropriately. Saying goodbye to friends was a lot tougher, but like my family, everyone has been incredibly supportive and excited for me. Not to mention the fact that my going away party gave me enough of a headache to make a trip away from the Chicago bars seem appealing.
My first flight left Chicago at 5:35 a.m. on October 13, so I spent the day before running errands, saying goodbye to a few more friends, eating an obnoxious brunch, taking one last run around Chicago, and packing, packing, packing. My boyfriend Jesse and I had big plans to stay awake and hang out until my flight. Apparently we're much older than 27 and 28 because we ended up eating a ridiculous amount of Indian food and falling asleep while watching Elf (he's visiting over Christmas, and I informed him that quoting the entire movie is a prerequisite to spending the holidays with me). Given that I played outside, hung out with friends, and watched mindless TV, I was pretty content with my last day in the midwest.
So after a long goodbye at O'Hare, I flew from Chicago to Houston, which took about 2.5 hours, then Houston to Honolulu, an 8 hour flight, Honolulu to Guam, a 7.5 hour flight, and finally Guam to Palau, a 2 hour flight. No biggie, right?
The 2 long flights were actually a lot better than anticipated, and the final flight from Guam to Palau was downright pleasant! I was able to entertain myself with my new kindle, repeat episodes of 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation, writing this blog, and an unnecessarily large bag of Mambas. When I deplaned, I was greeted by all of my luggage (wow!), a 30-second trip through the airport, and my two co-clerks Ben and Veronica. An incredibly nice marshall from the Supreme Court drove me to my new apartment where all of my boxes were waiting for me, almost completely undamaged! I was so proud of myself that I had to document it.
After washing off my 28 hours of travel, I managed to grab a quick beer with a few folks at a local bar. (Palau has a national beer called Red Rooster, and I'm happy to report that the wheat is delicious. Sorry Milwaukee, I'm switching teams for a year!) After all the travel and a beer, I passed out pretty easily. But because I was incredibly excited to see what Palau looked like in daylight, I didn't mind waking up at 5:30 to the dulcet tones of my neighbor and new beer's namesake.
No comments:
Post a Comment