Language Barrier

As the date of our move into our new house comes closer, I have started to think about furniture placement in the rooms, what will fit where, etc. One of the things that I remembered as I have been going through this mental process is a little mishap that happened with our dining room table.

As some of you know, Rebekah and I left Geneva very suddenly a week earlier than planned. We had all been scheduled to leave together on April 28th when my Aunt passed away. I received word on Friday morning, the 20th, and Rebekah and I left Geneva for the very last time on Sunday, April 22nd.

I am sure you can all imagine what that last day was like! I had to pack for Rebekah and I, as well as make sure that everything was organized for the movers. We had an air shipment and a sea shipment, and everything had to be sorted accordingly.

Kevin and Noah stayed in Geneva to deal with the packers, movers, cleaners and everything else while Rebekah and I were in Canada. Rebekah and I then met Kevin and Noah in Boston on the 29th of April.

So...many of you know that while in Geneva I took French lessons. Lots of them. I still, however, am far from fluent. I can get by, but it isn't always pretty. Having said that, Kevin's French is even worse then mine. He will openly admit this...it is no secret. He only took a handful of lessons before packing it in.

It seems that when the movers arrived at the house to begin the packing process, Kevin quickly realized that they were not fluent in English...and as I said before, he is not fluent in French! I have to give Kevin credit though, he is not shy about using whatever means needed to make himself understood. He doesn't care what others think of him...he tries his best and somehow always manages! Sometimes it is sign language, gestures, sounds, or a combination of English and French mixed together, but it always seems to work out.

So...back to when the movers arrived....

Kevin explained what was to go in the air shipment and what was to go in the sea shipment. We had stacked all of the air shipment items on top of, and under, the dining room table. Kevin explained that all of these items were to go in the air shipment, with the exception of the dining room table. The table was to go in the sea shipment with the other furniture.

Fast forward to the next evening when Kevin went back to check on things at the apartment. The movers had been there and everything had been loaded onto the trucks and shipped out. The apartment should have been empty....

...however, when Kevin walked in, guess what he saw?

He saw a totally empty apartment....with the exception of our dining room table! It was sitting all by itself in the middle of the floor!!

Obviously, there had been a bit of a misunderstanding!

Kevin called his contacts who said that our sea shipment was gone. The table could not be added to this potion of the shipment. The ended up having to send a truck back to get the table, and they added it to our air shipment. When our air shipment arrived to our FURNISHED temporary apartment here in Boston, we obviously didn't need a dining room table with it!

So...our dining room table is sitting in storage somewhere in Boston all by itself, until we move into our new house.