the clueless american

We're in the second day of the move and remarkably almost finished already! The happiness of the moment has been temporarily overshadowed by the fact that someone has apparently stolen our sun. It's a large, ceramic sun that the last Americans left behind and we brought to our house. It made it over 2 years, and then some time in the last few weeks someone took it off the wall. e's very disappointed because she was really looking forward to bringing that particular piece of Spain back with her. It's not a great final impression of the area, especially when our time here started with someone stealing e's new bell from our front door.

Petty theft notwithstanding, the move is going particularly well. The movers started out a little grumbly because apparently the emails, phone calls, and faxes I've sent were not enough to tell them that we had a lot of stuff, some of it oversized. They quickly got past that and started packing like nobody's business. By 7pm when they left, the house was about 90% packed. Although the movers don't believe us, we're moving about the same amount of things back to the States as we brought. It took the packers 2 full days to pack everything and another full day to load last time. This time we're expecting the truck to be loaded before lunchtime on the second day!

Our friend Mike explained that there's a big difference in the quality of work because here being a mover is a regular profession; people start out when they're young and work until they retire. On the other hand, the moving companies in the States usually have a small complement of professionals supported by a large group of part-time, often transient, workers who care a lot less about doing a good job than getting their pay and moving on to the next job. In any case, e and I keep telling them how impressed we are with their work while they seem to think it's no big deal.

Yesterday I left e alone while I went to do my last flight in the Tamiz. Yesterday was the entrega de despachos, which we translate as graduation, and we did our usual flyby for Los Príncipes. The Academy was locked down tighter than usual because a lot of people wanted to come out and see the new Princess of Spain, Doña Letizia. I saw her from the air, and all I can say is she looked like a pretty tiny princess to me.

After the flight I said my last goodbyes and then came back to watch the last few hours of the move. We're staying with our great friends Fran and Teresa until Friday morning, and then we have the long but exciting journey back home.