We started to arrange some things before the interview, independent of the visa. However, the moving company has already contacted us to estimate what we want to take with us.
Also, we had to take care of our apartment's fate. We knew we wanted to rent it but could not do any concrete steps until the outcome of the visa interview. Initially, one of our friends wanted to rent it. He absolutely wanted it, but he changed his mind at the last minute, so we did not have time to find a suitable tenant. Therefore, we had to quickly find a property manager.
And then, when we got the visa, suddenly everything accelerated.
First, we started to clear the apartment. We have repeatedly found how many unnecessary things collect a human. We finally knocked out a lot of "that will be good for something" shit. We have sold a lot, but there was not much time left to manage all of them. So we gave away most of our belongings because of lack of time. That took practically to the last day.
There was a lot of administration before us: re-new the identity card, the driver's license, updating personal information at several places (e.g., banks), cancellations of services, although we could not do much here in some cases due to the minimum contract period. We managed it remotely with the help of friends. We had to go to the family doctor to prescribe medication. In fact, we had to make a bonus visit the day before traveling because we both became ill. We were a bit tired at that point. We were also at the dentist's. The doctor had to take out my wisdom tooth before my departure. The excitement was great!
At the same time, Csibi tried to do things in Charlotte. Apartment, telephone, internet, etc.
The relocation company has picked up our prepared stuff on the 20th of March 2019. They packed everything. We just had to show what we wanted to take away. Since we did not intend to transport the furniture, the boxes were finally shipped by airfreight. However, that also meant several restrictions: we could not ship medicines, spices, liquids, batteries, magnetic things by air. As a result, it was also a bit harder to pack the suitcase later. 😄
It was a strange feeling to see how empty the apartment was.
I have been working as an entrepreneur for years. Fortunately, I have a job I can do from anywhere. Still, I contacted my PCP about what I should do differently (if any) to continue working abroad without problems.
In the meantime, we also started to say goodbye to our family and friends. It was not always easy. Basically, except for my mother, all the messages have taken so well that we go away. But saying goodbye is never easy, so there were some difficult, heartbreaking moments after such a final discussion.
We were pretty bad with cleaning and packing on the last day, so we managed to go to bed very late, and we got around 2 hours of sleep because of the early departure. In addition, we had to throw much away. I lived there very much, so I joined tears in the eyes and mixed feelings out of the door. That was perhaps the hardest for me because I only realized at that point that we really go away now.