I am moving again… and to warmer shores.

Moving for me is like yoga for some… a physical and mental exercise. It is the (therapeutic) time to assess my collection of things, what I need and what I don’t, donate the superfluous, organize content, run around the city to get (recycle) cardboard boxes, tape and bubble wrap… For some time now, I have been interested in visualizing (in a very analogous manner) how much space does home take – find the post “all what I own” post – and the logic of consumption in relation to mobility – find the “coffee cups” post.  If these are personal experiments, they are an entryway to further investigation (a kind of homeopathic ethnography) that I subject my friends and strangers to. They have a slightly different purpose than the “365 days of trash” visualization because, besides the personal production of volume, I am researching how objects and ultimately spaces embody emotions. I have also been challenging the idea – put forth by technology industries – that you can travel “light” (well, moving is not only traveling, but any displacement is a… displacement), with a laptop and a mobile phone only. Neo-nomads have many storage spaces, scattered in the many places they anchored in. I went really far, to the brink of (in?)sanity, to reduce the load to a maximum – and that is nothing; think about the disaster it is to be forced to move and having to leave your belongings behind. Even though I conceptually could let go of my animal skin. I just couldn’t. Not that heirloom… offered by my father to my grandfather. I took possession of it one day. None really wanted what looked like a moth-eaten beast outer layer. At the same time, I have left 3 boxes unopened (maybe a sign that I just did not want to settle in KBH) for 2 years, my time here. So I could go leaner especially that I could transfer my music and digital data – now on different types of formats, old video tape, Hi8, CD, and DVD – onto my external hard drive. I didn’t have time. Maybe some kind of service exists that could do it for me; though who wants to let a stranger look into your precious things?

I was chatting the other day with Thomas

, telling him that, as I embarked in what seems to be the next big chapter in my life, I trashed (donated) a lot of things that were associated with past events in my life. Some memories are truly cumbersome (physically speaking as well).

me: J’ai jeté la moitié de mes affaires ! Trop de souvenirs…
Thomas: Dans mes valises je les habite de telle sorte qu’elles soient toujours pleines de trucs plus ou moins utiles… mais vraiment indispensable en même temps. L’indispensable n’est pas forcement utile… genre vieux chiffon mémoire.
me: :-) Je sais. Genre mon hamac!

I have noticed that I lose interest of some objects I couldn’t let go of last time I moved… probably because they weren’t part of a continued ritual (rituals also morph according to the place they move) or because I finally managed to let go of some memory.  I have since acquired other things, a hammock, that I couldn’t sell. Not right now. This hammock was quite useful for my reading sessions, but also seemed to symbolize the way I felt for the past 2 years, in transit, rolling (drifting), like in a boat. I have invented another ritual, and this one weights heavily! This isn’t very practical when you need to move swiftly to another country. Home is then the prolongation, invention, and reinvention of rituals.

Anyway, my papers (I really wish administrations could go paperless!), rituals and memories together take a little more than half a cubic meter, 0.561613 m3 to be precise. I had to describe the content and provide the dimensions to the company that helps ship my things.

So for box #9, I report:

Box 9  (dimensions)  0.27    0.34    0.48    0.044064m3
Sketch book    11
Booklet    4
Thesis book    2
Slides folder    1
Vinyl 33 tour    1
Plastic folder w/ administration papers    3
Paper folder w/ papers    10
Bag    1
Shoes    1

When living in Cambridge, MA, I knew (from words of students’ mouth) that the post office offered prices to send books and papers (because it is a city inhabited by so many students and scholars). So moving out from there was easy. I could then also carry on the transatlantic flight two suitcases weighting about 30Kg maximum and a carry-on luggage. So it was then. Now the weight is limited to 20Kg per person, I am guessing it is linked to fuel consumption, and making profit from over-charge fines. I have to add a suitcase to my shipment.

Anyway, here in Scandinavia, it is another matter. Sending my stuff through the post office is nearly suicidal economically speaking. I inquired help from various services to be told that:

This load is too small for our usual intercontinental service.
I suggest that you enquire through DHL (or UPS) etc where the rate you will receive will probably be lower than the rates we could find for you.

Later DHL wrote:

I’ve looked roughly at the numbers and put them into my system. The only possibility we have to send something to the United Arab Emirates is by air. The price that I find is DKK 59.822,00 [about €8027 or $10319!?!?!?!?!]. As you see it is very expensive. I would suggest that you try to ask a moving company what they would suggest when moving to a foreign country.

I’d gladly make a booking for you, but I think that it would be cheaper to buy everything new in Abu Dhabi :(

Dispossessed? No way I can accept that. I really felt what a refugee could feel like (minus the danger and the fear for his/her life). So I found my dream service: I am shipping my load through boat. Will update you about how it arrives, in 24-30 days.

That is a long post. Must say something about the psychology of moving!