Au revoir, Seattle

We planned our arrival for the last week of August, about a week before school started so that we'd have enough time to settle in, fight jet-lag, get our bearings, get the kids' school supplies, and so on. So we were in a sort of hurry-up-and-wait situation and couldn’t wait till August. 

Summer arrived and the kids started their school vacation. We all went on about our lives pretty normally, enjoying the beautiful Seattle weather but wishing time would pass quickly. Once August arrived the craziness started. I was working on a freelance project for Microsoft that I needed to deliver before leaving, and at the same time we were organizing everything we needed to bring with us for the year and making arrangements for the things that would stay behind.

Deciding what to take and packing our luggage was a nightmare, especially for the kids, who wanted to bring way more things like toys and stuffed animals than we could handle, but we managed to fit into the ten suitcases plus five carry-on bags that were allowed back then. We were eager to go. There was excitement, anticipation, even some nervousness. Would the taxi van be waiting for us on arrival? Would the apartment turn out as nice as it looked in pictures? Would we like the neighborhood we picked? Would the kids have trouble adapting or studying in French? Would Dianny and I ever want to leave Paris?

We were flying on Icelandair via Reykjavik and would be arriving in Paris the following day. Au revoir, Seattle; our Parisian adventure was about to begin!

Except that at the airport the airline informed us that our trip was delayed and would leave Seattle at least three hours late, which meant we would lose our connection in Reykjavik. So the airline kindly rescheduled our connecting flight for a much later (almost 24 hours later) flight from Reykjavik to Paris. We were able to alert our landlady by email that we would be arriving much later than expected in Paris, but due to the time difference did not get a reply.