if i thought it was hard getting here

getting home will be...what's the word.....tricky.

in order to close my swiss account from the US requires heroic acts on my part.

what i guess by 'certified' they mean 'notarized'.

i will need a 'leaving permit' issued by the BIS or the swiss mission saying i am in fact leaving. then i will need to provide a bill/lease from the US that is also certified stating that i do indeed reside back in america (bills? i won't even have a place to live when i get back nor a cell phone or really anything like this so 'fake' lease here we come). i will also need to provide a certified copy of my passport...presumably with a stamp that shows i re-entered the US on such and such a date. then and only then will my bank consider releasing funds. also. i cannot use the account i have now. i will have to have them open some other account in order to have them transfer these funds to the US. i will also not be allowed to keep my account open so i have to figure all this out....waiting for the information from joachim as to my retirement funds.

it is my hope that the retirement folks and my landlord can simply transfer to bank of america.

if not i think i might have to ask louis or even T and J to do it for me. T&J have a US account so they can easily just take my francs and convert and send me a US check for deposit in the US.

this all seems complicated.

oh then i got a two page checklist for what i have to clean/do to hand over the flat. i am slowly translating it....i just have so many questions and really want someone to answer them for me at the rental office.

i should really eat dinner before having more beer.
(dinner in oven!)

if you are sending me letters (which i love and haven't gotten many of because of the internets) send them before the middle of september. (shouts to mac, lydia, nisey and corey, the hennshins/angie, steph and chris for pretzels and black beans, nabha for the beans and emergency as well as brian for sending my things....williams for sending an advanced copy of his book...oleg from israel for sending a book and the homer simpson beer opener...and jeff b for sending art/letters/things)

oh and as to the things i have here that have to get back to the states. i am just a bit perplexed about it all.

one thinks time goes slowly but it creeps along on a day to day basis. saturday it will be august. then three weeks i will be in poland and berlin. then back home to work for four more weeks then i am done on the 30th. it will go quickly. things will be different and the same. i have rather enjoyed the past six months to myself in this flat thinking and wondering...making art and crying....feeling what i feel and learning more about myself.