- 40 to Berlin: Grasshoppers in South Pasadena

Twenty-seven years ago I visited my father in Zinder, Niger, for a couple of weeks. Aside from the beauty of the panorama, the kindness and the dignity of the locals and the breath-taking sunsets I witnessed, I vividly remember the devastating effects of the grasshoppers on the landscape. Nothing was left after their stormy and ferocious passage. Just void, solitude and a giant sense of emptiness.

Yesterday, those images came back to my memory, when I looked around at our empty house...

Our small crew of movers had just finished raiding our house, packing and loading all our belongings. I had just completed labeling all the boxes and making sure that nothing was left behind. Their truck,  filled with our 146 boxes of books, clothes, sport equipment, frames, pots, pans, and TV had just left the driveway.

At the same time, my husband, who had been busy with emptying his office at USC and his daily conference call, had to make a brief (but very complicated) trip to the postal office in order to fill the application for our son’s US passport.

He just came back in time to observe, with much anxiety, the piano movers disassemble, pack and load his grand piano (924 lbs.) in 45 minutes!

Then, at 5 pm, it was all over. We were left with an empty space. Nothing else.

I called my husband and was startled by the echo of my own voice in the house! I though of how much our piano tuner specialist would have loved the home as it is now, so perfect for a resounding piano, with no furniture to stop the music from propagating all around!

I should have been prepared for this, after all this is the 8^th relocation in the past 14 years (not counting Paris), but I was not. I loved this home: this has been the home where we finally lived together as a family, after commuting between Biot and Turin for 7 years. This is the home where our son grew up, made friends…

This is the only home I ever lived for more than 8 years in my entire life!!!! I could finally see the faded color of the wall paint around the furniture, something I have never experienced in my whole life and I looked for as my final ambition.

I realized that the humid drops on my cheeks were not sweat, but tears. It already started a couple of days ago.
I was walking back home with my son from his Hapkido class and we decided to stop for an ice cream at his favorite place, the Soda Fountain. They make delicious ice-cream cones (sugar, not corn syrup, as my son likes to point out)! He sat on one of the high-stools and ordered his favorite cone (chocolate, coffee, fudge, chocolate chips, whipped cream and a cherry) and all of a sudden he stared at me and said: “I’m going to miss this place!”

True, we will miss it a lot. I was getting ready to immortalize this moment on my camera when, BAM! I started crying. I wasn’t able to stop the tears…. My son was so embarrassed but he understood, he approached me, he leaned over me and whispered in my ears: “Don’t worry, mom! I’m sure we’ll find excellent ice-cream in Berlin!”. So sweet…

We decided to celebrate this moment with a dinner: that’s when we realized that the movers had taken ALL our shoes. Seriously? Yes, we only have some sneakers left! I do hope that this is the only slip in our relocation.

The real big drama occurred this morning when I realized that they took my Espresso maker!!!!

AHHHHH!!! I can leave without shoes but how am I going to survive without coffee? Impossible. Fortunately my American-Italian friend Etta rescued me and handed me one of hers…Bless you, Etta!

Now I know I’m going to make it through!

- 55 to Berlin

Things are moving so fast lately that I barely keep up with everything! 

Lucky for me, I'm more of the hyperactive person, or else I don't know how I could have handled all this...In chronological order, here is a brief summary. 

First, hurray, we sold the little apartment we owned in Culver City. Not exactly the best time for a real-estate sale but it would be hard to handle two apartments from so far away. The only tricky part is that, being Giuseppe already in Europe, I had to take care of EVERY ASPECT of the transaction. So many papers, telephone calls, etc. I’m so happy it’s all over!

Second: my beloved car has been shipped…. 

Will I ever see it again? According to my son, I’ll have more chance to find it at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean than in Berlin. Really? Of course, the same day it was picked-up from the moving company, we watched the movie “Captain Phillips”…. I was not really in the mood for a story about a cargo boat kidnapped by pirates! Anyway, it should arrive in Berlin in about 8-10 weeks, just in time for us to retrieve it from the custom clearance. 

Third: we started our home renovation project…. 

before

after

I know, it sounds a bit ridiculous to renovate our home 6 weeks before you leave but I want to have it ready and new for our tenants. Imagine, you are 9,000 km away and you get an enraged phone call because the cabinet broke down or the water heater is not running properly! No way! Better to fix things before hand. So I had a crew of contractors come in and take care of a few things and I hope everything will be done by the time we leave. It has to be!

Forth: my awesome husband was officially awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship Award 2014. Huge ceremony with the other winners, a band, a video…

 

An here is the full length interview: Alexander von Humboldt - Professur 2014

Congratulations, I’m so proud of him!

Last but not least. The biggest and most unexpected good new: our son has been accepted to the JFK School in Berlin, a bilingual public school located 3.5 km from our future home. 

I am overwhelmed with happiness! They initially rejected our application because apparently there is a very long waiting list. Somehow due to a free spot they are now able to offer admission to him! Such a wonderful surprise! 

I haven’t personally visited the school (it was close for Summer vacation last year, during my 5 days in Berlin) but I know it has an excellent reputation. It’s a K-12 school, the curriculum is extraordinary and, on top of everything, the campus is huge, extremely well equipped for sports and so many other extra-curricular activities. 

Of course, it’s a bit far from our house so Josh will have to take a bus (or ride his bike…) to school and back home but we have options: public transportation (direct bus), private school-shuttle, bike… I’m sure we’ll figure out a way.

So far, so good!