The Final Countdown

Above: Quoth the Raven, “When’s our power coming back?” Some kind of box for natural gas on Calle Edgar Allan Poe in Mexico City. It’s just down the street from Calles Tennyson, Sócrates, and Alejandro Dumas.

Friends,

People often say that fixing up your house for sale makes you wish you had always lived like this. The cleanliness, the fresh paint, the organized closets and new linens. I am here to tell you that such sentiments are foolish. I have seen the amount of work that has gone into creating a PRIME SELLABLE HOME and there is no way I ever want a life that regularly involves said work.

Probably should’ve done a better job with our occasional spring cleanings/declutterings, though. Pretty sure some wires have been reproducing in our drawers. Wait. That sounded less dirty in my head. Also I am not sure how we accumulated eight full rolls of packing tape, but we managed it somehow.

Carolina and I have been doing that last lap of goodbyes; we head out Monday. The conversations are very repetitive and now when there’s a quiet moment I’ll lean over and ask her if she’s excited about moving because it’s a big change! and last time I did so she gave a half-sob and said she can’t tell if I’m serious or not anymore. A few people suggested we should’ve printed up an FAQ to hand out, which would’ve been good. I’ve got my little pack of key points to touch on in response to the average questions: how excited I am to not own a car, a silly little joke about small apartments, a consideration about where we’ll travel first in the region. Which is not to say that I begrudge people their questions. I would ask the same questions if I were in their shoes and I would have a wider variety of responses if I weren’t mentally exhausted.

The questions are a little repetitive, but telling people we’re moving to Taiwan has been awesome. It serves as a wonderful little Rorschach test: you instantly learn the anxieties of the person you’re talking to based on what their first question is. Lots of people focus on what we’re leaving behind, some on the food, some on our careers. But the outliers are the best. One of Carolina’s coworkers immediately asked about handling the toilet situation (which, for what it’s worth, the only bathroom I visited that only had squatting toilets as an option was in a public park). Another person immediately asked about whether we’d gotten vaccinations.

Three people have immediately asked me if we could take them with us.

Packing has been interesting and strategic. Paying for extra suitcases on the flights is by far cheaper than shipping anything: air shipping is $4–5/lb-ish, whereas two 50 lb suitcases are free (shipping a container by sea is an option if you want to send a whole bunch of stuff, but it takes forever, can get held up in customs, and the pricing on it is so confusing I couldn’t even give you a ballpark). Overweight suitcases are only moderately expensive until you hit 70lbs, then they become horrendously expensive. We’re looking at two carry-on rollers, two backpacks, two 50lbs suitcases, and four 50–70lbs suitcases. Please think of us as we make our way to the airport, through customs, and on a shuttle ride to the hotel when we arrive with that gigantic train of luggage behind us.

So much to do! We need a real estate agent to help us find apartments (everyone recommends using Google Translate on 591 but it is a lot!). I have a job interview three days after we get there including a teaching demonstration over an author I had never heard of before. We’re both getting over illnesses. But, hey, we’re ready. I’ll keep you in the loop.

Further reading:

• Happy Pride Month! Trans rights are human rights! Read Emma Hunsinger (holy crap this was good), Bryan Washington (I’m going to get to Lot soon!), Kristen Arnett (I’m going to get to Mostly Dead Things soon!), E. Alex Jung (who got the dream job of driving around with Randall Park), and Gabrielle Bellot (always always). Check out William Yang’s coverage of the first day of legalized gay marriage in Taiwan!
• Keanu Reeves is too good for this world .
• Jamelle Bouie has been video reviewing cereals and it’s great. Here’s its inauspicious beginnings , but you have to peruse his account for more.
• There’s a street by our house named Lenz St., and it always makes me think of Lyz Lenz, a great editor and a great writer. Read her most recent article , this time on “Mommy Blogs.”
• I wrote flash fiction and for once it got published. Check out my eighty-word rumination on loss, grief, our relationship to our pets, the panopticon of modern digital existence, and comfort food.

Today on the radio the voice said, “It feels like summer so we’re going to listen to ‘ Feels Like Summer ’ by Childish Gambino” and you know what, I appreciate that kind of no nonsense logic.

See you on the other side.

-g