Thursday, July 26, 2007

Mon Dieu!

Man, I've been busy. Laurence is already in Haiti and I'm just about to finish my four months of French with an oral exam tomorrow -- that's vendredi, for those in the know -- and then I'll have a little vacation in New England! Huzzah! I am sure in the three weeks between the end of French classes and our arrival in Haiti that I will forget enormous amounts of the language, but as my French is extremely funky to begin with, who will guess?

Preparing to leave has definitely been a different experience; normally, when I've lived/worked overseas, I could only bring a suitcase, even if it was for 3 years in Japan, 1 1/2 years in Bangladesh, etc. Now we've sent our entire household, with the exception of furniture, to Haiti. We have a consumables shipment, which is utterly new to me too, that we've filled with things like whole grain pasta, Splenda (the decadence!), and Dundee marmalade (the decadence again!). We bought an old Jeep Cherokee, which I'm sure we'll beat up on the Haitian roads, and it's also on its way down south... What will life as a diplomat's wife be like? I must admit I'm a little nervous, but I do have a crystal punch bowl, dammit, and many strings of pearls thanks to my former colleagues, so I should be ready! Right? Ugh.

Anyways, I've had a pretty good job interview and I have a follow-up interview this afternoon, so hopefully I won't be languishing at chez moi for too long. Wish me luck, o few and faithful readers!