Dear Diary
Very odd to be completely isolated at Easter. My sons have not sent a word to wish me well, and although I forgive them immediately because they are busy, I do feel a bit negluct.
I like the idea of your small Easter, marycat, and I think Italian bread myself! It makes my Easter look very small indeed! Of course I can always go shopping. Shops never close in HK - except at Chinese New Year.
o.o You're in HK Clary?! How exciting! I used to live in Shanghai, but I've never been to HK. Very humid I believe.
I am debating whether I should initiate a life in China type interaction. Would you folks consider visiting it....and sharing your observations...?
Well yes, Mapleleaf, I would, since my life willynilly has been interactive with China! Exception, Las Vegas and Shanghai have similarities in my limited view! HK is humid but quite pleasant today, warm but not sweltering. However the amount of air pollution is huge - hence the dark part of my egg avatar. I'm only here for a month or 2 now, but lived here for 18 years before... in British times.
Clary, I was wondering why the Hong Kong egg... Now I understand...
Have a happy Bavarian egg today, Urs!
Haha! Hey, we are in Baden-Wuerttemberg - not Bavaria! But happy we will be :-)
Apologies, I had an image of Bavaria in my mind... place is immaterial to happiness, or at least, I'm trying to make it so.
All the same, enjoy Florida!
Oh, we definitely will! We will meet Misti, Rae, JoanneDorell, Roger, Panzade maybe.
Dear Diary,
The Easter weekend is over and we will be leaving for Florida tomorrow. Well, I could not completely avoid meeting my parents. They arrived in Germany on Sunday afternoon... I was at my sister's house for the big family meeting. Left at around eight in the evening to do the last of my laundry.
Then the evening improved very much because I went to La Pergola to meet Brian, Katja and Brian's parents. They are absolutely lovely. Then Stefan and I went to Suedbahnhof with Petra. Very good to see her before we are leaving...
Today my parents came to our house to pick up some stuff to take back to Hungary. I had told them to come between five and five thirty so Stefan did not have to put up with them. This situation is pretty sad but that's the way it is.
After they left Nicole called me. New problems in her relationship. I wonder what will happen in the next two weeks. I wish I could be there for her. But thanks to the internet we will still be in contact.
That's it for today.
Dear Diary,
I'm back in NYC. At the FCI, in the student library.
I just met with a member of the Career Services Department. It was good. I got some feedback on my resume and cover letters, and some contact info for alums in Boston.
I'm looking in NYC today and tomorrow, then at a place in Ridgefield, looking up a place in New Canaan mentioned by one of the chefs, and then up to Boston to contact those alums.
I want a good job. Now.
Also planning an a2k gathering while I'm in Boston. Very much looking forward to seeing folks again. I've missed the Gatherings!
Busy busy busy...
Marycat - I'm following your wanderings!
Here's hoping that magic job is just around the corner.
Take care.
Dear Diary,
Actually, there is a lot to write about...
Today is the last evening of our Florida vacation. But I will write about that when we are back home...
We had a wonderful time, did a lot of exciting things, enjoyed being together with Misti and Rae...
And more later :-)
We're not gonna talk about your leaving tomorrow, just yet! We don't want you to go, but if you HAVE to, come back soon again!
So get yo bootie movin' and fill out those immigration forms!!!
I did it! I survived the first day at work. AND my boss was there...
I felt terrible all day long. Now I'll load some stuff in the car and drive to my sister's house, drop it off and come straight back! I am sooooo tired.
The weather is nice here in Germany. Real spring.
All right - actually, I have no time at all to write... I'll have to go...
Back from a month long visit to the US and my wife's first entry with her visa. We just walked up to a "US Citizens" line that was empty at the moment and the agent said to come on through. After handing over her visa papers and our passports he asked us to wait beyond the desk for a moment then another guy came up and ushered us in to the offices located behind the counters. We were expecting an interview of some kind but after looking through her documents an agent there fingerprinted her, took her picture and stamped the welcome to America stuff in her passport all the while talking to me about the lousy fishing weather of late. At the same time a young lady went to the carocels and retrieved our bags. I thought we'd be occupied with the entry process for an hour or more from what I'd heard but we were on our way to our connecting flight fifteen minutes after passing through the passport booth. Something else that surprised me was that the agent told us she can enter and leave as she pleases and also enter most other countries without a visa as a US citizen can. I don't know what he was thinking as that turned out to be bogus. Later in the trip we walked in to the Mexican Customs office at the border at Lukeville, Arizona and the chief said she certainly could not enter Mexico with out their visa. Another process that went smoothly was getting her SS card. We went to an office in St. Louis, no waiting and were out of there in again, under fifteen minutes. The card came to my US address in the mail less than two weeks later. We did encounter a hitch when renting a car in Tucson. The Alamo rental agent wouldn't let me sign her on as a second driver because she didn't have an I-84 or I-94 form (can't remember). I'm assuming that is the "green card"? which I haven't seen yet.
We spent the first week of April in Missouri then flew to Arizona and rented a car for a meandering drive back to Missouri. The trip was fun except that she had to have the temperature at boiling level where ever we stayed. From Tucson we drove west and visited the Sonoran Desert at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument above Ajo. In Ajo I asked a Mexican-American waitress where she thought my wife was from her (Colombian) accent. She looked at her and replied "de pronto Hawaii? O
o
la India?". I forgot how isolated southwestern Arizona is.!!! From there we drove northeast up to the Four Corners area visiting Canyon De Chelly on the way where we dined on Navajo mutton and fry bread, a true taste of "America" for her. In Southwestern Colorado we drove over a pass and got out of the car and hiked for a couple of hours on top of three feet of snow through Ponderosa Pine. She was amazed the trees weren't plastic and had no idea that pine cones aren't just plastic Christmas tree decorations. Walking in snow was for her about like Neal Armstrong walking on the moon. She just started jumping up and down. We drove on up to Telluride and she saw the "sporting American Rich". She thought that our western states are HUGE. Couldn't believe we spent more than a day driving to cross just one. She also thought American restaurant proportions are HUGE. Those Denny's and other myriad roadside "Old Time Kitchen" theme restaurants didn't much like our sharing a single entrée (cuts the tip down) but we insisted. Then came Kansas. Kansas is Kansas but it was new for her so she stayed awake the whole length. A highlight was when the Kansas Highway Patrol pulled me over for speeding. He was gracious and just wrote up a warning and headed back to his car but then (well
the profile
old white me, dark young Spanish-speaking her) he had a second thought and turned and asked "you're not carrying any large sums of money or drugs are you?" I said no and he headed off again then repented once more and asked if I would mind if he looked through the rental car. I remembered then that there was some spilled hazelnut coffee creamer in my suitcase that looked like you know what but he didn't look that far and off we went. Then Missouri which I like driving through less than Kansas and home. She was stunned and delighted to see that in our short absence all the trees that were bare when we left had filled with green leaves.
To sum up she loved the trip filled with strange new things and beautiful places, was horrified at the scandalous "make believe" prices of everything and happy to return to familiar soil at last, the land of "sancocho"and rumba.
Pitter, that was a great journey. It must have been such an adventure for your wife. I especially love the snow story. Thanks - as always!
Thanks, Margo!
