What's Left?

The defence is done. After five years, I can't believe it is over. Thanks to mom and dad for the great celebration/get-together on the weekend. We have kind of found an apartment too, and we actually put a damage deposit down on it. That's the first time we did the damage deposit thing, so I am thinking this is the real deal, but of course, we are still keeping in mind it could fall through. We also got our visas/passports back this week. Things are looking up. There is a huge amount of things to be done before we go though, like finishing up work stuff (thesis corrections, packing up my office, training the new guy), repacking our containers we are taking on the plane, booking the rental car and hotel, selling our car, and a whole pile of little things like getting more passport photos (who knew?), buying voltage transformers/plug adapters, etc. We have ten days left in Canada and we could probably use an entire month and still not have enough time.

So, the new plan is:

1. Reese's party on the 16th, in Red Deer
2. Pack on the 17th, leave on the 23:59 flight
3. Clear customs/immigration in Frankfurt (May 18, 17:30 local time), get our car rentals (we are getting 2 cars, one for the stuff, and one for the people - cheaper than getting a van)
4. Get to Freiburg around 23:00 (it's a 2.5 hour drive, so we are giving ourselves some extra time here)
5. Enjoy hotel in Freiburg
6. Get keys for our apartment around 11:00 (May 19)
7. Go get some mattresses and essentials from Ikea
8. Return car rentals.

The apartment has no furnishings, like we thought. No kitchen (not even a sink), no light fixtures, maybe not toilet seats. All we will have is some clothes, blankets, and a computer, so it is going to be pretty crazy with a completely empty apartment. But, it is going to be great to have our own place for the first time in almost four months.

Jeff