THE FLIP FLOP LIFE

It is Sunday, and we have virtually nothing to do. It is quite a contrast between the past days and the coming days. The past few days were full of stuff to arrange and to do. Now that I am in the eye of the storm I find it hard to even remember what it all was.

Driving from Uvita to San José. The road felt very familiar. Parts of it we have done maybe ten times. We were to arrive in time to supply paperwork to a post office in order to be able to later collect our actual visa. Unfortunately, we found out too late that we were not going to get it there, as we earlier expected. So we had canceled that meeting. It took the pressure off to arrive in time in San José. That evening we had a farewell (for now) dinner with a dear friend and colleague.

Friday, we did some shopping, some blogging and visited two other dear friends for a goodbye visit. It was really not a lot to do, but I was super tired the entire day. In the evening, I got a slightly sore throat. It is a lot fresher in San José than at the coast. The nights are cold and there is a draft in the house. So, I was pretty sure it was a regular cold coming up. But you are not supposed to even have a dripping nose when you enter the airplane. I dashed to the supermarket for some ginger. It is amazing how well ginger tea works for a sore throat. That night, I slept with a hat and the next day, the pain had gone.

It was important also because Saturday, we had to do the first Covid test. Everything went well, and I can recommend to avoid it. They scrape some snot from deep inside your nose cavity. It doesn’t particularly hurt, but it is far from pleasant.

The next stop was back to our friends because we had forgotten the collect the mail that had arrived at their place during the past year, with some important stuff in it. On our way we passed by the laboratory that will do the quick Covid test on Monday. Just to make sure everything was set and our appointment confirmed. Good that we did it, because they don’t really work on appointment basis. Well, they do, but not to the minute. More to the hour. They suggested we arrive 45 minutes early. Early enough to get through the expected queue just in time. Nice little catch : you need to do the test 4 hours before boarding but KLM does not announce at what time the boarding starts. Check in about one hour before boarding. That leaves at most three hours to do the test, go back home to collect the suitcases, get a cab and go to the airport. It is doable, but there is no stretch for mistakes or traffic jams. Still, we are lucky we could find an Airbnb and a lab close to the airport.

Yesterday afternoon, I was super tired again. The siesta helped but at eight in the evening, I started yawning again. It’s probably not just the stuff that needs to be done, because in the end, we timed it well. It is also the stress about things that may go wrong. As you may have guessed, I have an unbelievable generator in my head for worst-case scenario’s. It is running at full speed these days. But so far so good. Literally nothing went wrong. For example, today we received the test results from yesterday’s test: all negative. Of course. It helps tuning down the worst-case scenario machine.

There is the stuff to do, the goodbye’s, the stress, and the little cold, but in the end what probably really drains my energy is the fact that everything is going exactly as planned. Which means that we will be leaving this wonderful country. Tomorrow. I am choking up and getting tears in my eyes writing it (and each time that I am re-reading it). I – and Cristina too, I am sure – am simply incredibly sad that we are leaving and that the sabbatical year is over.

…

So, coping strategy one. Think of the good stuff waiting in Europe : seeing family and friends again, teaming up with Kika, the Lego waiting at home and finally buying a new laptop.

Strategy two : get busy again to keep my mind off of the important stuff. Today, we need to get rid of stuff to not overload the suitcases. Tomorrow, closing the bank account, returning the rental car, get the second Covid test done, order an Ueber XL, boarding, flying, getting to the quarantine house … and get the worst-case scenario machine running.