kicking in

It’s been two weeks now in this ‘new’ city;
I’ve had my share of ups and downs...near-breakdown moments as well...I must admit it’s not the easiest part of life—moving in and setting up; I’m just really hoping its worth it this time. Yes...it’s not really my first episode, needless to say I’m kind of hoping its my last...at least for a rather long time.
The team I’m working in is really great…the organization is also really swell. People seem friendly here...yet again, they all assume you know certain things, which most likely...you don’t.
One big soothing element in my life here are friends. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by really awesome-true hearted friends...a bit unlikely to have actually for someone new in the city. But, yes...I already have some groups of friends that I really enjoy and cherish. Not to mention a really cool young family who've really been very generous in leeting me crash in their place (I wasn't really planning to stay so long there, but under some circumstances, it was really inevitable).
Interesting enough, it was even a bit difficult for me to arrange my birthday dinner arrangement.

My birthday...yes, that happened last weekend in fact. Interesting enough...I spent it in a most unlikely manner. Mind you, this is the 4th time (3rd in a row) that I’ve had to spend my birthday far away from home. On my birthday this year, I went shopping for furniture (like in...a whole apartment worth of furniture, since the apartment was totally empty) and had to assemble the furniture and plan the whole thing while arranging for meetings and not-to-mention other crazy things people at work do. Frantic? Sort of...but remember, I have friends :) They made it all possible.
So as the story goes, on the 9th of September, I started off in the morning getting a lift from an office friend, who had no idea (neither did I) that his morning would be spent helping me lift heavy furniture knocked-down boxes. Having a planned list of things (including measurement, model, price, etc) really helped…esp. with IKEA’s cool online information.
Then I hired a truck with two handymen—rented by the hour, nearly put a hole in my wallet, but really worth it—(thanks to my friend’s information) to help carry the things to the apartment. Then a group of friends were ready to help assemble the furniture...we finished everything by 9pm then headed to a cool Italian restaurant where we had dinner and then the surprise birthday cake showed up ;) that was really nice :))
There were other plans with some people in the office...but I guess that needs to be re-arranged since the coming weeks seem to be pretty filled up.

Life has been quite interesting so far.
What more can a girl ask for? ;)

A tout à l'heure!
-moenlite-

*Picture