Dear ECS,
Hey honey, hope you are doing well today. Well, I know you are doing well, but you know what I mean. It has been a bit longer than I had hoped since I wrote about our respective langue learning, which continues to move forward with progress for you, and me.
Some of why I have been a bit longer is due to travel to the US for you, mom and me. We had the pleasure of being part of two separate weddings, you and mom in Utah for a family wedding and me in Maine for friends’ wedding. It is never fun to be apart from you and mom for as long as we were, but separation happens in our life and lifestyle and I have found it is best to just roll with it as opposed to fighting it. Not worth fighting what you can’t change, after all.
In addition to the big trips back home to the US, I also got to sneak down to the Red Sea for a weekend with some friends and their kids. It is amazing that this epic, grand nature combo of beach/water is so close to our new city- less than 90 minutes from our apartment to the hotel. Yes, we will be going back as a family soon and yes, we will be making that drive quite a few times in the coming years.
So close and enjoyable that we all snuck down there for a few days this last weekend with friends visiting from Ethiopia. Going with you and mom was just as good as my first time down there, with the bonus of playing with you in delight in the Sea and in the sand. The juxtaposition of the ocean with snorkeling and open water swimming and the big cliffs was just as good the second time. And then the day after we came back home, we went to the pyramids together for your first trip to those wonders of the ancient world, and any world on this earth. Revered and famous for a reason.
So close and enjoyable that we all snuck down there for a few days this last weekend with friends visiting from Ethiopia. Going with you and mom was just as good as my first time down there, with the bonus of playing with you in delight in the Sea and in the sand. The juxtaposition of the ocean with snorkeling and open water swimming and the big cliffs was just as good the second time. And then the day after we came back home, we went to the pyramids together for your first trip to those wonders of the ancient world, and any world on this earth. Revered and famous for a reason.
What I thought I would tell you about in this letter is the ongoing, but close to the finish line, process of moving in to our space. This is your fourth country, fourth home in your life. By the time I had lived in four homes, I was 14 years old. So this kind fog churn is something that you are used to and have had to get used to. And I think you are probably better at it than your mom and I, it is your native environment whereas we have had to learn it as adults. Similar to learning languages, now that I connect those two.
We got our biggest shipment of stuff, the things we had in Ethiopia, about 10 days ago. So we are just waiting on one last set of stuff from Maine. But really, our keystone things are here and in our place. We even have our art up on the walls as of a few days ago, which for me is the final step of the settling in process. That said, living overseas means that you are never fully settled in, so it is more accurate to say it is the final stage of the initial settling.
It has been about a six or seven month process from our Addis departure to our present in Cairo. Which feels simultaneously fast and slow. Fast for the massive changes in our life, for all the things and places and people that we have done and seen in this time. It also seems slow because we have been here in this new city for long enough to have routine, to have built community and to have it feel like home. This paradox gets to the challenge your parents have felt, living that duality can be tiring. At least it is for me.
Which gets to a related truth I have learned via our life of movement, that the mental work and challenges can easily be harder on me than the physical work. Putting stuff away is easy, creating durable, sustainable systems from scratch is hard. Hanging art on our walls is easy, especially when the embassy makes it happen, is easy, figuring out what goes where, that is hard part.
So what is next for the Cairo Korol’s? More of the same, with more living and working and less moving and settling. Life here continues to be exciting and fun and engaging. You are super happy with your school, friends, activities and our house. Mom and I feel the same about our lives here. Being in the living part of the move, at the end of the many months of moving and movement, honestly can feel a little unsettling. Like, what do we do now?
What we do is live and love. Onward!
love,
dad
