Y listo! Ya están los que deben ser los últimos trámites que haga acá en Buenos Aires~! This time a relatively pain-free process, and much easier than the ones I am in the process of doing in the US (getting a federal background check, and getting it legalized with the Apostille of the Hague). I did this here in two short trips and one week. In the US this whole process takes some 2-3 months just for the background check, and another up to 4 weeks to get the Apostille. That's because I don't live in Washington, of course, which would make the second part of this process faster, although I'm afraid there is no remedio for the lengthy and complicated nature of the former. But I digress...

This is definitely something I will miss! Having everything so close, and not having to depend on shipping things off by postal mail and crossing your fingers for weeks or months that they will actually return to you. I won't, however, miss the waiting in lines for hours.

Now that I have all the paperwork I need from here ready to go, the move is finally starting to feel real. Now I just need to get started on packing. Packing 5 years of your life into 2 suitcases is not an easy task and will take some obligatory spring cleaning.

I'm very much looking forward to spending this summer in the US. The summer may be a long, boring time for most of the future auxiliares de conversación going to Spain this fall, but for me it'll be a very special time. Spend some time with old family and friends and relax down on the farm, and recover from this people-generated claustrophobia I have been feeling lately. Fresh air, no people. Sounds really lovely to me after a 2-hour walk through the microcentro doing trámites...

That said, a quote from a recent translation I did comes to mind. I translated an essay in which the author included a quote which I couldn't stop thinking about these past few days:  

"Nuestro apetito condena y desdeña lo que posee para ir en pos de aquello que no posee. - Montaigne" or basically "Our appetite condemns and scorns what it has in order to pursue what it does not".

I suppose this is a fancy way of saying "The grass is always greener on the other side" but it still made me stop to think. Maybe this is why change is so good. Because you get a bit of both sides, constantly gaining and losing things, and appreciate everything more in the process.