Moved

Well, its done. I am all moved out of my apartment. My stuff is now in piles all over Brian's apartment. I need to take some things to work to give to people, ship a little bit home, and pack the rest for the flight. I leave La France en deux semaines.

Everyone told me horror stories of French landlords and how they try to wring every last cent out of one's deposit. When you move into an apartment, there is a lengthy list of every single thing in the place, and a box to check to indicate the quality: good, used, or bad. When you move out, you must go through the list again and re-examine each item. My officemate, for example, recently moved out of a place and her landlord refused to refund a cent; she and her husband have now hired a lawyer. So, I went into today's meeting with a bit of trepidation. And what happened? My landlord gave me the entire refund back. She took the long checklist, and without even looking at anything, just checked "good" for everything. Finally I said, "I broke a glass," and she replied, "In 2 years? Of course! That is to be expected." We then went through all the water bills and she ended up giving me a 70 euro check because I had overpaid. So, it was unexpectedly painless.

Only 2 weeks left in France. I can hardly believe it after all this time.