Home!! (A teaser)

We are home! 

Well, mostly.  There is still a bit of unpacking and cleaning and organizing to do, so no pictures or video yet.  But our air and boat shipments have arrived and we are checked out of the Oakwood!!

And there was drama right until the end. 

On Monday, May 14 we received word that our boat shipment had arrived at the port in Chennai, was going to be loaded onto a truck or train, and would be arriving in Bangalore on May 17.  We had already planned and paid for our trip to Sri Lanka, so we would be out of town on the 17^th and unable to meet our shipment at the shipping yard to get it through customs.  Andi asked if we could do that the following week, and we were told, “Sure, no problem.  We can do customs on the 22^nd or 23^rd.”  They would just need Andi to bring her passport in to work on Monday the 21^st and fill out “a few” forms.  Well, the forms were anything but a few (although I wasn’t present to confirm this, I heard that the conversation went something like:  “I think our TV is about 5 years old, so we bought it in 2007.”  “Are you sure ma’am?”  “No, but I think that’s close.”  “No, ma’am, you cannot lie on this form.”  “OK, well I don’t remember when we bought it.  Should I leave it blank?”  “No, ma’am, you have to fill it in.  When did you buy it?”  “I don’t remember.  Let’s skip that one, and go on to the next one.  The model and make?  Um, I think it’s a Visio, but I don’t know what size it is or the model.”  “Well, what is the model name?”  “I don’t know.  Is Visio enough?”  “No, ma’am, you have to put the model name, too.” Now imagine that situation repeated for our entire boat shipment.), but Andi did the best she could, filled out the forms, and relinquished her passport.

By the end of the week, when we still hadn’t heard anything, we started to get a little nervous.  Andi reached out to our relo company to see if she could get any more information about our shipment's arrival date. The PG rated version of the “conversations” (I am combining multiple emails and phone calls from Friday to Monday morning for economy and poetic effect) went something like this:

"Since it is a five hour drive from Chennai to Bangalore, our shipment should be in Bangalore, right?"
"We are not sure."
"What do you mean?  Is it still on the road?  I thought it arrived in Chennai on the 15^th."
"We are not sure if it is still on the road."

"Is it on a train or on a truck?  Either way, it shouldn't take a week to get from Chennai to Bangalore."

"We are not sure if it's on a train or a truck."
"What do you mean?  Has it left the port at Chennai?"
"We are not sure."
"You don’t know if it left the port yet!?!?!?!?!?  Where is our shipment?  Do you know where it is?"
"We are trying to find out.  We think it is at the port in Chennai." 
"You think?  Do you know where our shipment is?"
"We are looking to see where it is."

This, of course, was not good news.  Not only was our shipment now almost a week late, it was late because it had disappeared.  (OK, technically, it wasn’t a week late.  We were told the boat shipment would take 8-12 weeks, and at this point we were at the very end of week 9/about to enter week 10.  It was only “late” from the DATE THAT THEY TOLD US IT HAD ALREADY ARRIVED IN CHENNAI!)  After escalating the conversation to include a few more people of authority, we received a not very convincing apology and an off-the-record confirmation that our shipment was still in Chennai.  But then on Monday afternoon, as if by magic, or shipment appeared.  And it appeared in Bangalore, no less!!  So we rearranged our schedules and made plans to be at the shipping yard on Tuesday to get our stuff through customs.

Now, officially, the trip to the shipping yard is to serve two purposes: first, it is verify in person that the shipment is ours and that we will take possession of it, and second, to verify the value of the electronics and/or new items in the shipment for tax purposes.  Unofficially, the trip seems to be to negotiate the “tip” that we will offer the customs official to, first, make sure all of our stuff arrives at our flat and, second, get our tax burden reduced.  Of course, this is all just unofficial speculation since we are properly corporatized US citizens who do not unofficially tip people to get things done, but we couldn’t figure out why there were so many awkward pauses in the conversation or why the customs official asked our relocation company rep to stand outside of ear shot during the process.  After playing “dumb American” for a while and chatting everyone up a bit, we finally got the “OK, OK” head bobble and all was good.  Although we did leave the shipping yard assuming that only about half our stuff would make it to our flat.  But either way, at least it was on the way!!

Well, almost…

I am not sure if the news made it to most of you, but there was a India-wide strike on Thursday, the day our stuff was to be moved from the shipping yard to our flat.  About a week ago the government raised the price of petrol Rs 8/liter, which is about $.16/liter.  Almost immediately, a strike was organized by and for anyone associated with transportation or anyone who uses petrol, including moving companies.  The strike was incredibly effective, basically shutting down India for the day and causing the government to reconsider the price increase.  But the success of the strike also meant that our stuff would sit for a few more days in the shipping yard.  Which was really a good thing.  Although the strike was mostly peaceful, a few busses were burned in Bangalore for trying to operate, and so we were doubly glad they didn’t hire scabs to deliver our shipment; no need to cross the picket line and get our stuff destroyed. 

And now the good news as our story nears its end: our shipment arrived on Saturday morning at 10:00am.  And by 2:30, after clogging the lobby and hording the elevators, the moving crew had our stuff unloaded, and the boxes emptied, with the furniture for the most part put together (if you think Ikea furniture is hard to put together, imagine trying to put an Ikea bed together when you have never seen a box spring/mattress style bed!!).  Our apartment was starting to look like ours, and more importantly, it was starting to smell like home.  It is so good to be home!  Well, again, not quite.  We still have a lot of cleaning and organizing to do, but now I’m just going to lie on our couch!!