The movers have come and gone and not without some consternation. It turns out I had a lot of stuff.
Lizzy came over this afternoon, after the movers had left and she was startled by how much stuff is still here. It is true, my place isn't very empty, but most of what is left is the school's furniture and some things that I am selling to the next resident of my apartment. Also, there is what I am taking with me and what the school has loaned me to get by with before I leave. Oh, and all the stuff I still haven't managed to give away, which will end up being thrown away.
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| Three suitcases and some other clothes. |
Stuff wise leaving is awkward. More than a month ago the school sent two companies to come and look at how much stuff I had and give an estimate of how much it would cost to ship home. One company thought I had 3 cubic meters of stuff, the other thought I had so little it could go by air (~120kg). I was amazed that these two companies could come and look and in ~10 minutes decide how much stuff I had, but with the cursory job they did, I am not all that surprised that they came up with such wildly disparate estimates. I came here with about 1 m3 and 105kg. I knew I had more stuff than that to go back, probably more than 120kg but not as much as 3 m3. I told HR this immediately and continued to express my concern that the estimates were too different to be accurate. The school chose to go with the air shipper as their quote was less and I was in the room when Aylin was on the phone with the company assuring her that it would be ok, there was no way I had more than 150kg. I got Aylin's cell phone number then, so when the day came and it wasn't so easy, I could call her.
Today was the day and two guys showed up at noon with boxes and tape and packing paper. I had packed my clothes and bedding into three suitcases and had already packed 1.5 boxes weeks ago. I also put all of the stuff to be packed on the table and shelves in the living room so it would be easy to tell what should be packed and what shouldn't be. The first box they filled was probably a meter by 60cm by 60cm, a big box, and they filled it with the rest of my clothes, shoes and the beginning of the book shelf, a few games. This box alone was 80kg. The next box they packed, which was for books and papers was 20kg, and my three suitcases together were 40kg. I was already at 140kg, and half of my stuff (by volume) hadn't been packed yet. I understoond that my limit is 150kg, but I didn't understand what the consequences of going over it was. They wanted to stop, but I didn't think that was an option. They called someone with more English, who told me what I already knew and wasn't very helpful. I called Aylin, who was very reassuring and she talked to the packer, who then called his boss, who gave him the 'tamam' and we were back to work. I still don't know what this means. Will I be charged for the extra weight? Can it go by sea instead of by air since it is more than expected? Who is responsible for the fact that the quote was so far off? The two guys were very nice, easy to (not) communicate with, very efficient and friendly. They got it done by 2pm, 3 suitcases, 10 boxes and my picture frames, cleverly put into an un-assembled box and taped up. I don't know what the total weight was, but my guess is 230kg and I dont know what the total volume was, but I guess 2m3. I signed a paper that said 14 boxes.
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| My kitchen, ready to be packed up. |
Other parts of wrapping up have been less stressful. There were all the good byes, but I am starting to think that should be its own blog, there was the final exams, which didn't happen, so that was an anticlimax (see the protest blog). I cleaned out my desk, which was fine, took down all of my postcards, which was a little sad, but since those are the people I will get to see soon, not too sad. I passed out postcards to the folks here to send to me, and that was cool. I can't find my school keys, and I hoped they would show up in the packing, but they have not. Either they are packed and on their way to a warehouse, or they really are lost. oops.
Other parts of wrapping up the school that don't have to do with good byes or stuff:
Graduation was very nice. The student speeches were good and the faculty speech was coherent and reasonable. We wore gowns with hoods which provided their own sort of distraction, even though it was very hot dressed in an extra layer of black.
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| Faculty lined up to march in after the students in our hoods. |
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| Last Istiklal Marşı with outgoing student body president holding the flag and incoming standing near by. |
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| Traditional cap throwing at the end of the ceremony. |
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| Reception snacks. I can recommend the brownie cubes and the chocolate cookies. |
Tuesday was the parade of dresses. It is a bit incongruous to get out of a servis bus at the palace, but uncouth or not, servis bus is still my favorite way to travel. The color of the year seemed to be red, but all of the dresses were really quite stunning. We found out that the graduates (families) have to pay 400TL to attend this event with dinner and dancing afterwards and that guests are 500TL. It is astounding to me that some people brought their whole family, mom, dad, little sister, grandma... The cocktail is free for teachers and a good time was had by all.
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| Many of the lady teachers who attended the cocktail. |
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| The first bridge from the patio |
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| More teachers chatting |
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| Lots of pictures taken. |
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| The left half of the parade of dresses. |
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| And the right half. |
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| Waiting for our limo to take us home after the ball at the palace. |
On Wednesday was the faculty dinner, but that goes in the category of good byes, so I will write about that one later.
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| Erin and Ethan and the faculty dinner. |
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| The larger scene at Konak Terrace for the faculty dinner. |
I guess that is it, this adventure is pretty much wrapped up and it is on to the next one.
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| Good night Istanbul. |
Today was the day and two guys showed up at noon with boxes and tape and packing paper. I had packed my clothes and bedding into three suitcases and had already packed 1.5 boxes weeks ago. I also put all of the stuff to be packed on the table and shelves in the living room so it would be easy to tell what should be packed and what shouldn't be. The first box they filled was probably a meter by 60cm by 60cm, a big box, and they filled it with the rest of my clothes, shoes and the beginning of the book shelf, a few games. This box alone was 80kg. The next box they packed, which was for books and papers was 20kg, and my three suitcases together were 40kg. I was already at 140kg, and half of my stuff (by volume) hadn't been packed yet. I understoond that my limit is 150kg, but I didn't understand what the consequences of going over it was. They wanted to stop, but I didn't think that was an option. They called someone with more English, who told me what I already knew and wasn't very helpful. I called Aylin, who was very reassuring and she talked to the packer, who then called his boss, who gave him the 'tamam' and we were back to work. I still don't know what this means. Will I be charged for the extra weight? Can it go by sea instead of by air since it is more than expected? Who is responsible for the fact that the quote was so far off? The two guys were very nice, easy to (not) communicate with, very efficient and friendly. They got it done by 2pm, 3 suitcases, 10 boxes and my picture frames, cleverly put into an un-assembled box and taped up. I don't know what the total weight was, but my guess is 230kg and I dont know what the total volume was, but I guess 2m3. I signed a paper that said 14 boxes.
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