Over the last two weeks, in a somewhat grim and saddening process, and with brutal intensity today, our home for almost five years has emptied. We have sent out ten big boxes, some to Shanghai, some to Singapore, all of them filled to the brim of their allowed weight of 30 kilos. They will travel by sea, and will take at least a month to arrive. We have sold (to friends, neighbours, foreigners on Craigslist, and poor Chinese students via some Chinese mailing list), given away, or trashed all of our furniture. Almost all of our books have been sold to the used book store, or donated to the local library. We have thrown away a lot of clothing, especially shoes.

Because the next tenants will move in Wednesday, we need to vacate the apartment on Tuesday. Our flight to Singapore is on Thursday, so we will stay for two nights in the building's guest room (which is not too bad, as it is, unlike our own rooms now, fully furnished). Cissy's new company has already arranged our apartment there, so we can directly move in after arriving Thursday night.