Stuff!

After 10 months of separation (6 months storage, 4 months shipping and quarantine) we are finally reunited with our stuff! It was like Christmas as we were unpacking the boxes (I had forgotten half of it). Our kitchen is now fully equipped. Not only do we now have an assortment of pots and pans, we even have such luxury items as mixing bowls, a butter dish and a set of matching silverware! It might sound funny, but after living off of a few borrowed odds and ends for almost a year that kind of stuff makes you feel rich. The best part for me is my books - I have really missed them.

We also had a few things arrive that were…less than thrilling. I could have probably titled this blog “What were we thinking?” We probably gave away about a fourth of our stuff prior to packing up, but we still had things arrive that were completely pointless. It’s obvious on a few things that we weren’t really thinking about what we were packing. The very first box we opened we were practically dancing around wondering what kind of wonderful long lost items we were going to pull out. I produced a little drum roll, Emily reached into the box and pulled out…an old syrup bottle?! What is that doing in there?

A couple of boxes later, she opened up a box clearly labeled (by me) “kitchen items” to find that it was filled with nothing but plastic hangers. In my defense, I packed up the entire apartment in a couple of days. Somehow the box of hangers that was supposed to be put outside for the neighbors is now in Australia. At about $40 a box those are some very expensive plastic hangers!

This wasn’t so much a mistake as it was a jolt of culture shock. After three months in Australia, our American glasses look huge! I read not too long ago that Americans get 1 out of 4 of their calories from beverages – the highest in the world. Now we know why. (If you’re trying to lose weight, you might want to think twice about that sweet ice tea at McAlister’s). Here’s one of our glasses next to one of our borrowed Australian glasses:

Emily shipped most of her teaching stuff over because she knew she would be tutoring. Of course one of the things that an elementary school teacher teaches is money counting so her money lessons went in right along with everything else and…oh yeah, we're not in the US anymore are we?

Perhaps the funniest thing was finding two travel mugs that belong to Matt and Erin Steidl. We (accidentally!) took them home with us to Memphis the first time we visited Legacy back in May. They should have come back with us when we came back in June but instead they are now in Wollongong…oops. One of them is from the ACU study abroad program (didn't you guys go to Lipscomb?) and the other is for giving blood. Sorry Matt and Erin (especially whichever one of you had to give blood to get this mug!)