Getting settled: even deeper

In the early days of settling into (or back into) a new place, the jobs are many and urgent. For example, here are some of the things that were on our checklist three weeks ago:

Today's a bit grayer than many days we've
had. I rode the river today, about 8 km. I'm
longing for these cherry blossoms to launch
us into spring, our third spring in 14 months.

• get our official documentation sorted (so we're legal)
• fill up the larder (grocery shopping, and lots of it)
• school matters
• supplies
• subjects sorted
• sports medical so boys could join sports teams
• mobile phones (Japanese SIM cards)
• internet (we'd cut off our internet before we left six months previous)
• functioning bikes (eg. tyres pumped/repaired)
• make sure everything is where we want it to be, so we know where to find it (things had been shifted around due to house sitters)

That meant that those early days, though we were tired and a bit foggy, were also busy, practical days.

Now, we've got everyone at school and things are looking pretty much like normal around here, but there are still a few settling-type things going on.

For example:

• I haven't yet started back at the gym, though I tried this morning and found they were closed for construction for three days!
• This week I went back to the doctor for another prescription for my asthma. I didn't bother doing this in Australia because I took enough with me for six months and I'm pretty sure it's cheaper here.
• Saying hi to people we haven't seen for six months. We're still being welcomed back and that's okay.
• Finding those harder-to-source goods for the larder. Grocery shopping here is a bit different, especially because some of the things we use in the kitchen aren't garden-variety ingredients in Japanese food. Today I found Baking Soda.
• Getting settled enough that routine things, like homework and housework the boys are assigned, happen fairly smoothly.



Gym's shut for construction.

• As of Monday I will finish receiving back all the jobs I handed over to other people back in June. That means remembering how to do somethings that are a bit rusty, like uploading blog posts on Wordpress.

Major transition can be illustrated using a basic curve graph (see one in an article about reverse culture shock here). At this end of a transition there's a lot of unseen adjusting and recovery going on. This takes time, maybe up to several months. We're already planning our next getaway camping trip (end of March during the school's spring break), because we're tired and we've missed camping! Transition is exhausting and we've done two major transitions in six months, so it's not rocket science that we're feeling weary.

Jumping into school mid-year also feels like dropping into a rollercoaster as it's going down the main initial slope. It's freefall. Currently, on top of the usual 8.30 to 3.30 school, we've got wrestling training and tournaments, and also a spiritual life emphasis week.

We additionally have our eldest son visiting us for two weeks. That's a joy, but also another thing to mentally juggle. His visit is worthy of another post, I think, pondering what "home" looks like to an adult TCK one-year after moving out of home.