It is a universal constant that every PCS (Permanent Change of Station, otherwise known as a move for those not fluent in Foreign-Service-speak) involves something going terribly wrong. I’ve heard wild stories—like stuff being hijacked by pirates or falling off a ship—though the more common issues are delays, broken items, or things that just vanish between points A and B (did you find my prescription glasses yet United?!). This time, however, we earned the gold medal for self-sabotage.
You see, we got allocated an extra-big air freight shipment this go-round (850 pounds versus the usual 600) because Nick had 250 unused pounds roll over from Baghdad thanks to his emergency departure. We were already planning to pack light because we were nervous about apartment storage space, so 850 pounds made up roughly half of everything we were bringing.
Air freight typically arrives in two weeks and, in all our moves, has never come later than the three-week mark. We were initially told our boxes were booked on a flight out of Canada and would arrive in Germany on August 21st. That never came to pass for reasons still unclear to us, and the next update didn’t arrive until August 31st.
That was when we learned that during a pre-flight scan, the airline identified batteries inside our boxes and rejected the shipment. A few hours later, we received photographic evidence of the offending contraband: a few AA and AAA batteries inside a label maker and Nia’s pocket flashlight, plus a small camera battery of mine. This was a first for us, so I was hoping they’d simply remove the batteries and send the boxes on their way.
No such luck. And it gets worse. It can’t be resealed in Canada; they require it to be sent all the way back to the origin point in Bend. There, the offending items will be removed and mailed to my in-laws, while everything else gets repacked and bound up again by our shipper. Then we start the whole process over.
I’m slightly terrified they’ll miss a stray battery, and just when the shipment is about to board the plane again, they’ll flag it once more. I’m starting to think we should just put it on a boat instead…
And get this–our shipment has not moved since that last communication 10 days ago, so it seems I’m going to really need to practice patience. We’ve been in country 4 weeks already, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s week 8 or 9 by the time it finally gets here. We’re making due with the welcome kit items, but there’s only so long you can tolerate scratchy sheets and knives that don’t cut well. I may just bite the bullet and start buying duplicates of things we have in the shipment just to minimize the frustration.
To be fair, this was definitely our fault. We’re a bit rusty on the rules since we haven’t moved in three years. I had it drilled into my head that liquids, lithium batteries, and aerosols were strict no-nos, but I didn’t remember standard alkaline batteries being such an issue. We definitely won’t make that mistake again.
In an amusing turn of events, it appears our car will be the first thing to arrive, despite being picked up almost a week later than everything else. A road trip could be a fun distraction—or at least keep me from checking the shipment’s air tag location every 10 minutes. And yes, I’m totally beating myself up over this—why didn’t I double-check the regulations?! Ugh. Nothing we can do about it now. Too bad I don’t have a single jacket or piece of cold-weather clothing. Think I can get away with sandals into late October?
I leave you with some random things I’ve seen around Berlin:
First, the mail delivery vehicle in my neighborhood!
Second, a super random statue with a real car in the middle of it.
Third, this lady shopping with her bird at TK MAXX (which is just like TJ MAXX in the States, btw). Animals are everywhere here (on buses, in grocery stores, in restaurants) but I did a double take when I saw this one!
