Finalement

This morning at 4:44AM EDT I was awoken by the beeping and buzzing of my fax machine. After I wiped the sleep from my eyes I sat up in my bed, did the double fist pump motion and thought gleefully to myself "mon arrêté, mon arrêté" (this thought actually occurred in English but is typed in French solely for effect). Now and only now does it feel as though I will be moving to France is little over 1 week. Now and only now has some of the stress lifted off of my shoulders to make way for feelings of excitement. And yes my arrêté has confirmed my placement in Pantin and Aubervilliers which are still less than 5 miles (4.5 km) from the center of Paris.

In other news I should be wrapping up things with my lease reassignment this week which means even one less thing to stress about. Lastly, I have begun the tedious task of pack the clothes and accessories that I plan to bring with me to Paris. The good news is that I have donated plenty of items that I no longer wear nor have use for. I've had items that have gone untouched for years hanging in my closet and sitting in my dresser just taking up space. While the purging process itself is quite liberating, psychologically I'm finding it hard to adjust to having less tangible things. I'm sure things will be OK when I go on my first shopping spree in Paris. This girl needs a new pair of walking shoes.