Moving day!

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Today was moving day!!!  I can barely think straight enough to write this post because I'm still so excited to be sitting on a couch instead of a beach chair.   It honestly is like my Christmas/birthday/New Years/Halloween/4th of July all wrapped up in one. 

We knew that it would take a while for our stuff to be shipped from the US to Turkey and they estimated 60 days, so we planned accordingly.  Luckily, we had the Hogan Farewell Tour Parts One and Two as well as a couple of weeks of house hunting to pass the time.  So, we shipped our furniture and moved out of our apartment May 6th and let the waiting game begin.  

We got word that our furniture would be in Izmir no later than July 15th, which meant that it could be delivered July 16th.  Cue excitement and visions of lounging on a couch!  Not so fast, though, because that was Bayram and apparently our street would be closed for the holiday so we couldn't get our stuff.  Plus, they had a move scheduled for Monday, so they couldn't deliver our stuff until today. Like we predicted, our street wasn't actually closed and they very well could have delivered our stuff, but that's all water under the bridge and all that jazz.

Moving forward to today.   We were told that the movers would show up at 7:30am and be done by 1:00 pm.  It took them almost 12 hours to pack up all the stuff, so I wasn't sure how they would be able to unpack it all in about 6 hours, but they did!!! They showed up at 7:30 and got right to work. 

The view from our balcony.  I probably looked like a little kid at Christmas because I just kept running from our balcony inside and vice versa to see everything.

After about an hour of watching the movers bring stuff up, I had to leave for Turkish school.  Although I was sad to leave my beach chair (note the sarcasm), I knew it would probably be close to being done when I got home.  

Oh beach chair. I never thought we'd be spending so much time together. I wish  I could say I'm sad to see you go, but this couch is awfully comfortable and my back and neck are thanking me, so SEE YAAAAAA!!!

Sure enough, when I returned home at 1:00, they were pretty much done unpacking. I ran from room to room looking at all of our stuff and shouting things like "This is the best day ever!" and hugging inanimate objects, such as our bed and mattress (again: picture little kid on Christmas).  

After I hugged the couch multiple times and got over the fact that we now have luxuries such as a can opener and a trash can, reality set in.  The movers are great because they come, bring your furniture and boxes and even take all of your stuff out of boxes and unwrap it. What they don't  do is put everything away. Really, this isn't a huge deal because everyone has a certain way they like to organize their house, but the excitement of having your belongings is quickly overtaken by the daunting task of having to put everything away. 

So, after one last hug to my coffee table, I started to survey.  This is what I found. 

All of these clothes are supposed to fit in our dressers.  We shall see....

Unpacking the kitchen....

Which looked like this once they were done.

We also realized that a few pieces of furniture had been damaged or broken in the move. While it's frustrating, we're pretty lucky because it was nothing of sentimental value, basically just furniture that can be eventually replaced.

Scratches on a chair

Goodbye cheap bookshelf.  You didn't really match, so I can't say I'm sad to see you go.

Goodbye dining room table chair.  Be glad there are only two Hogans because otherwise you and fellow chair that also broke would be missed. 

Overall, we have discovered:

• two broken chairs
• a scratched and broken kitchen table (but still usable)
• the broken bookshelf
• the foot board of our bed was cracked and is temporarily rigged to work, but we'll see how long that lasts...

Like I said, it's not that big of a deal because most of the furniture (minus the bed) were pretty cheap and definitely replaceable, but you better believe we'll be filling out that reimbursement form!   

Anyways, Mike left for school around 1:45, right after the movers left, so I began to tackle Mt. Everest formerly known as our bed.  After two hours of folding clothes and telling myself I really need to downsize (we'll see how that works out), I attempted to bring some order to the chaos that was the kitchen.  While I knew there was no way dinner was being cooked in there tonight, eventually, I'd like to put some of those kitchen appliances to good use.  

This kitchen has infinitely more storage than the last one.  After only having a drawer and half, and three cabinets in my last apartment (shoutout to Ballston where the cost of living is absolutely ridiculous), my one requirement was lots of kitchen storage.  I spent the next two and half hours trying to make a functional kitchen.  Mike came home about halfway through and stated that it didn't look like I had done anything.  Just imagine my look. He quickly jumped in, though, and was a huge help.  

After we finished the kitchen, we headed out for a quick dinner and some tea.  There is still a ton to be done, but we're hoping that by the end of the weekend, we'll be all unpacked and settled in to our humble abode. I'll post pictures once we're done.  A little before and after for ya. 

Hasta luego mi amigos. 

Whoops. Wrong language.  Gule Gule or something Turkish like that!