Christmas in August!

Well... the day finally arrived. We were beginning to doubt it would ever happen... but it finally did... OUR STUFF FROM THE STATES ARRIVED!!! We shipped over from the States our winter clothes, a few electronics, and our books (no, not all of them... Joel limited himself to 6 boxes and I shipped 2). The shipment was to arrive July 2nd. But, it didn't. We tracked our shipment down in Hamburg where it was held hostage until we wired a German company "release" money (our American company takes no responsibility for this). Once they received their money and we harassed them repeatedly on the phone they trucked our stuff to our flat in Frederiksberg. It arrived last Friday.

As you can see from the pictures, they condensed our 17 small boxes into two large boxes -- and that is how they left them on our door step!

We had to empty the two larger boxes outside because they were WAY too heavy to move on their own.

The problem was that we did not have anything that would cut through the larger boxes and we could not lift the smaller boxes out of the larger boxes... So, I got the largest kitchen knife we own and Joel sawed away at the boxes.

After numerous trips our three flights of stairs, our stuff was in our apartment! Joel took a taxi to work with his 6 boxes and I am slowly taking my books into my office (a backpack full each day). And, the best news, everything arrived with no damage! Joel's computer works beautifully (we did forget to pack a keyboard) and all the parts are functional. Our clothes smell like they were packed on a hot ship all summer, but I am hoping that will fade now that they are out of the boxes and in our closets.

It was a HUGE hassle to get our stuff, but now that it is here, we are VERY happy!