After a few more longues layovers I’ve settled into mon nouvel appartement (my new apartment). The whole process of moving was stressful, but not nearly as much as ma soutenance (my thesis defense).

“Piling Boxes Again” by Joel Bez on Flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0.

After the holiday cheer died down and the sounds of Bonjour Noël were drowned out by the cries of “Bon Nouvel An !”, I had to start thinking about le déménagement (moving) during the cold months of winter.

Déménager (moving) always takes a long time and involves a lot of preparation. The process unfortunately doesn’t end once everything is moved. Settling in and unpacking can often take just as long as packing in the first place.

Préparer ses affaires

La première étape (the first step) is to préparer ses affaires (pack up your things). I wanted to make sure I got back mon dépôt de garantie (my security deposit) so I had to check chaque recoin (every nook and cranny) of mon ancien appartement (my old apartment) before leaving.

Looking over all mes affaires while cleaning up l’appartement, I had to either mettre dans un carton (put in a box) or jeter dans la poubelle (throw into the trashcan) everything I had!

Luckily I’m un pro de Tetris (a pro at Tetris) so fitting everything I wanted into les cartons (the boxes) was relatively easy.

Le Déménagement

La prochaine étape (the next step) was a bit more difficult. Once les cartons were ready, I had to figure out la logistique du déménagement (the logistics of moving).

I carried some of les cartons by myself, but the rest I had to send with la poste. Figuring out if I had the right assurance (insurance) for what I was sending was as hard as getting all of les cartons au bureau de poste (the boxes to the post office).

What followed was a stressful day of moving. I took all les cartons that I could and hoped the rest of mes affaires would arrive within a day or two.

S’installer

La dernière étape du déménagement (the last step of moving) is always the hardest and starts with having to déballer les cartons (unpack the boxes). Walking into un nouvel appartement filled with des cartons when all you want to do is dormir (sleep) can be un vrai casse tête (a real headache).

Cependant (however), this last step helps you really s’installer dans un nouveau logement (settle into a new place).

There is still a lot that needs to get done, but now that the hard part is done I just need to figure out where everything should go!