I don’t like goodbyes. Does anyone? This summer has been a summer of good-byes. My first good-byes were to the kids at the private school where I worked. I am going to miss them so much! I cried the night before my last day. Then I said good-bye to dozens of friends and acquaintances when I graduated. Half my class packed up and moved back home. My next good-bye was to my friend when I helped her move to Payson. I may or may not see her again before I move. I visited friends in Williams and family in Flagstaff in July and said good-bye. Three weeks ago, I said good-bye first to a friend moving home to Nevada and then to a couple who were very close to us and lived a few meters away. Last weekend, our friends threw us a goodbye party and we said good-bye to more friends. There are many more good-byes to come. As I’ve reflected on these good-byes, I’ve realized a few things. First, good-byes don’t have to be forever. In eternity, I’ll see many of these people again. In this life, there are many opportunities to reconnect. Thank goodness for modern transport and technology! We can Skype anyone at any time who is virtually anywhere in the world. I can text message some people and email everyone else. My friends can casually see what I’m up to on my blog or on our Facebook page. We can fly to see people and they can fly to see us. When I moved from Flagstaff as a child, I was sad to leave my best friend. But do you know what? We still talk, fifteen years later. So really, it’s not good-bye. It’s just “see you later.”
Category Archives: AUC
A New Home
We’re about a month from our move to St. Maarten! We already have an apartment ready for us to move into when we land. We’ll be living in Rising Sun Apartments, a two minute walk from Ben’s medical school and a five minute walk from the beach. It is a one-bedroom and is 490 square feet, bigger than our current apartment, which is nice! It’s also almost twice as expensive, which you have to expect from a touristy island where nearly all the area’s apartments are owned by one single company. I’m planning to fix it up like a beach cottage and get crafty with shells and rocks that I find on the beach. Our place is close to the airport and also conveniently near to two or three shopping centers. We don’t plan to have a car– shipping our Kia would not be worth it, so we’re selling it to my sister. Public transport on the island is supposed to be pretty good, anyway. We don’t use public transport in Phoenix– the city is so spread out that the bus system is not as effective as it is in other big cities. Getting used to using buses will be a new adventure! We liked using buses when we were in the Bahamas last summer. I wonder if it will be similar.
Here is a video that shows the sights of St. Maarten. You can get a feel for where we’ll be living if you watch this. We will NOT, however, be sandblasted by jets landing and taking off near Maho Beach! Not our idea of fun… we’ll be surfing.