Crazy Moving Weekend!

The calm before the storm.

Thursday Night:

Stephen, Suzie, and Max have just gotten in on the evening train from London and we all sit down for a nice relaxing sphagetti dinner. Wonderful food, good conversation, and discussion about moving logistics. Plans of how the five of us are going to accomplish moving everything from the large apartment in Brussels to our new little apartment in Tervuren (25 minutes outside the city). It sounded simple enough.

Friday:

Early start as we organize years of possessions into four piles:

1) Garbage

2) Charity

3) New apartment

4) Going back to London

We have an enourmous rented truck for hauling. Sheer chaos ensues as we confront tendencies of reminiscing, hoarding, and fatigue. We push on into the afternoon and Stephen and Max take the first gigantic load of clothes, furniture, and books to Le Petit Rien- literal translation = The Little Nothing (the local second-hand store). It is now late afternoon and we take a much-needed lunch break at the little pasta restaurant downstairs. We then begin filling the truck for the second time full of items going to the new apartment that Gennie and I are moving into.

Our new place is cute, charming, and just the perfect size for the two of us... but the steep, narrow, stereotypical European staircase up to the fourth floor is not the ideal setting for making dozens of trips with heavy furniture up and down on moving day.

Before long we are all sweating as we squeeze by one another in the miniscule stairwell. Hours later the five of us sit, exhausted at the local Italian restaurant in Tervuren. We are already preparing for the chaos that is awaiting us on Saturday morning.

Saturday:

A bit of a slower start, but before long we are cleaning the attic in the old apartment in Brussels that is crammed full with years of odds and ends. Long story short- and extremely physically-demanding experience. Lunch. Tea with landlords (a delightful couple who live below us and run their Osteopathic Practice on the bottom floor). We finish the day with organizing and unpacking the new apartment before we grab dinner and fall into bed.

Sunday:

Stephen, Suzie, and Max go back to London and moving weekend has officially come to an end. All in all our time was filled with laughter, sweat, several breakdowns, and many unforgettably memorable stories.