Preparing to
spend the next two years at the International Centre in Le Puy has been a mix
of excitement, detachment and hard work over these past two months. At times I
felt as though I were free floating in space and at other times I was just
focused on getting things done.
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| Olga on a field trip to the Confluence Museum in Lyon while studying at language school |
The
opportunity to live and work in France has been a lifelong dream and when it
seemed as though I’d never finish emptying my condo, dealing with paperwork or
packing light, I’d think about that dream and keep moving.
I thought I
lived simply in my three-story condo, but found out I had accumulated much stuff
over the years. So I divided my worldly goods into four groups: things to sell,
things to give away, things to store, things to take with me to France. Since I
calculated that upon my return to the USA I would live in a much smaller living
space, it was easier to detach myself from my 54-inch dining room table.
Electronic equipment might not survive two years of storage, so out that went.
Clothes that had been hanging in my closet for years without use were obvious
give-aways. However, the hardest things to unload were the countless scrapbooks
of photos, published newspaper and magazine articles, travel slides and many
books, so I saved them together with my bulky TV that had both DVD and video
capability.
Then there
was my car. While it was going to a good cause (my friends were giving the car
to their 25-year-old niece who is trying to recover from her drug addiction and
start her life again) and I was getting my hoped-for price for it, it meant a
loss of freedom of movement and maybe a bit of my identity since it was a
distinctive boxy car that looked like a toaster. Since my car was one of the
last things I did in this whole down-sizing process, perhaps it made me face the
reality that I was leaving everything familiar and about to steep myself in a new
culture, a new language, a new continent and a new experience. Once I step on that plane, however, I’ll be
ready for a new adventure, a new identity and a new way of life, so I’m up for
the task!
