I must say, this side is much better than the other side! Which is where we were last week, packing up all our earthly goods to move across town. Yes, it is a mid-tour move! I went into the reasons we were moving a few weeks ago, so I won’t repeat them here.

Even though this week has been pretty awful, I have to say, it has been totally worth it. I did decide, though, that next time I get to a post and the housing just isn’t right, I should not expect the embassy to fix it. Clearly, the system is not set up to deal with that. Instead, I should insist on a change of assignment before the HHE arrives, and save myself a lot of trouble and the taxpayer a lot of money!

Anyway, I’m sitting on my terrace right now, listening to the city sounds and the birds in the park below, enjoying my coffee and decompressing. The apartment is about 90 percent done, and the parts that aren’t done are mostly my son’s room and my husband’s office in which I am only peripherally involved.

See, I hate chaos. I am not a person who enjoys moving at all. I want it over with as quickly as possible. Not a fan of big men stomping all over my house, either. So, I’m the type who tells the movers to just unpack everything, put it wherever it fits, and then git. Which means the place looks like a bomb dropped on it. But it also means I can see everything, and I don’t have to trip over packing material all the time while I am putting stuff away. It’s a system, OK? And it gets it done quickly, which is the most important thing to me. Because I really, really hate chaos.

In this case, a lot of stuff needed to go to Caritas! The apartment is smaller than the last one (though the space is much more useful, not being mostly a massive foyer) and there are NO closets. Not one. There is a dungeon in the basement, but I don’t want to put anything down there that might get moldy. We each get exactly one dresser and one free-standing wardrobe for our clothes, for example.

So, we were ruthless, and altogether, about two packed carloads of clothes, dishes, and other stuff were donated. Because you know, there was some stuff I unpacked, looked at, and thought “do I care enough about this to find a space for it?” And the answer was NO. It’s just as well, because our house back in the States doesn’t have a lot of storage space either. And you know, this being my fifteenth move—I just counted, it’s a masochistic ritual I engage in from time to time— I’m kind of over unpacking and organizing junk!

Anyway, we are just loving the compact size of the place, the spiffy kitchen, and most importantly, not having to lug stuff up that stupid spiral staircase anymore! The neighborhood is great, too, with lots of restaurants. We had takeout Indian from around the corner (that was actually good and spicy!) one night, Greek from around the other corner the next night, and yesterday evening we went to a brewpub about ten minutes walk from the house. Could get expensive living where the action is, but we are going to enjoy it!

Finally, though Vienna is having a warm snap (temps in the 80s), and I am sure our old apartment is already stifling hot, this place, not being on the roof, and having all these built-in cooling mechanisms, like metal blinds and air shafts, not to mention bedrooms on the shady side, has been quite tolerable. They haven’t even turned on the “green” air conditioning yet, which pumps cold water from the Danube through the ceilings. The gearhead in me really wants to see how that works! I know it won’t be as powerful as a big old Carrier unit, but it has to be a lot better than squat-all, which is all we had before.

A few pics of the “done” parts of the house…