My last full day in Germany! Unbelievable. I'll miss Hamburg greatly, but I'm looking forward to California, too.
This morning I woke up earlyearly and continued the rituals of cleaning and packing. I think that we're gonna make it. Right now I feel like one of the walking dead -- but even if I didn't have any chores to do, I still wouldn't have slept in, because I'm too keyed up.
As always, packing took many hours longer than expected, and involved a couple of trips to the post office. In the beginning, I approached the empty bags with a spirit of optimism -- plenty of room! Of course everything will fit! Later, as I found myself cramming clothes into every nook and cranny while eying the pile of stuff still left to go, I admitted to myself that I might have to ship another box . . . okay, I will have to ship another box. So, go down to post office, get box, return, fill box. Getting that box was a great idea! Look at all the space that freed up! Now everything will fit for sure!
Oops . . . let's repeat that get-fill-mail cycle one more time . . .
After the second box, though, everything finally did fit. Hopefully both bags are under British Airways' 32 kg/bag limit. I can lift both of them without undue problems, so that's a good sign.
After the packing, I did a cursory cleaning, since someone from the rental-management company is coming at 5:30 to do a final inspection. I was assured that I didn't have to clean anything at all, that the cleaning ladies would come the day after I left and take care of everything, but given the hell we experienced during our last move-out inspection, I'm not taking any chances (especially now that we're moving out of the country!)
Once everything was clean, I went to the Einwohneramt for Hamburg-Mitte to unregister ourselves. It was similar to what we went through when we first came here, but in reverse and a little simpler. Tell the local government when you move in, tell them when you move out. I filled out a form with our names and some basic information (listing our new address as "returning to the USA"), waited my turn in a take-a-number line, and eventually arrived at a desk where I presented my form and passport. After some tapping at the keyboard, the woman behind the desk printed a piece of paper, stamped and signed it, and handed it to me, and that was it: as far as the government was concerned, we were outta there.
The Einwohneramt happens to be a short walk away from Züge und mehr, so I browsed around there for a little bit. Being very mindful of my luggage situation, I didn't go on a big last-minute buying extravaganza ...
And now back to work; off to meet the rental company rep in just a little while. Something was mentioned about taking me out for drinks later, but unless they're planning to surprise me, that plan seems to have fallen by the wayside (my co-workers aren't big ones for socializing out of the office ... or surprises). If there's no socialization, I think my personal plans call for dinner and sleep -- I have to meet a cab around 4:30 AM or so for the trip to the airport!
Posted by Kevin at July 29, 2004 04:35 PM