january came and went, and we searched for houses while enjoying the sun and the coffee.
and then we got a house and the long wait began. almost a month later, we’re still waiting for the landlord to figure out how to get the place connected to the electrical grid… sigh. as a result, we’re currently experiencing a big case of reverse culture shock — but perhaps that’s something for another post.
small update just to say that we found a place! to be honest, it’s not at all what i had imagined it would be… but i think it’s growing on me slowly.
the backyard (!) is wild with overgrowth and the house eerily quiet and empty, our voices echoing on the walls and the tiled floor as we pace it, anxiously waiting for all the paperwork to come through.
there’s a terrace on the roof (!!), from where you can savor the expanse of blue sky all around and even catch a glimpse of the sea, glimmering in the distance… it’s perfect to bask in the sun and the knowledge that this is it, this white canvas of a house this will soon be our home for the foreseeable future. we’re almost done.
the sun warms our skin and it feels luxuriously novel… like a silent blessing. i hope to always remember this.
so… december! it was truly a bipolar month — the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new adventure.
(sorry for the video’s low quality… not sure what happened there)
we spent the first half of the month frantically selling and giving away every last piece of furniture. we packed our boxes and suitcases, we fretted, we soaked up all the bits of germany… and then we jumped on a plane and got to see all our friends and family for 2 whole weeks before driving south to the promised land! :)
“But do you know this idea of the imaginary homeland? Once you set out from shore on your little boat, once you embark, you’ll never truly be at home again. What you’ve left behind exists only in your memory, and your ideal place becomes some strange imaginary concoction of all you’ve left behind at every stop.”
― Claire Messud, The Woman Upstairs
i’ll take off the band-aid quickly: we’re moving again — and this time, back to portugal.
i’ve had plenty of time to get used to the idea, and yet, i’m still not sure how i feel about it. it’s an easy move, back to a familiar territory — but it’s also the scariest of moves, the one in which instead of jumping to somewhere new and unknown, one turns around to go back to the place where we started from.
i’d like to try to put my feelings about the whole thing into words, there’s still so much to say… but there’s no time for it at the moment, as our days are filled with craigslist ads and minor reparations, while we scramble to hug all our friends and visit all our favorite places. rationally, i know this isn’t the last time we’re here, but still, i want to hold all these things fresh in my heart.
i guess it’s time to say tschüß berlin then… and we’ll see you all on the other side! :)
ps – our berlin address won’t stop working, but we don’t recommend that you use it for mail. we’ll have a new one sometime after christmas, just ask us for it! :)
when i was a kid, we had a plastic christmas tree. it was cheap and a bit unstable, but it did the job, year after year. and then one year, my father decided to buy a real tree, just this once!
it was a beautiful tiny fir, smelled really nice and was loved by everyone… so much so that after christmas, nobody wanted to get rid of it! so my father decided to replant it on the backyard instead. lo and behold, there it is, years later, a tall and proud tree! :D