Yeah Sorry Susie that you had to find out at this stage

this is absolutely ridiculous!! i read over the AOS guide several times, but I guess since it doesn't clearly state the fee amount (only provides a link to the schedule of fees), I always assumed that it would be similar to the $170 that we paid for the I-129F...wow oh wow is all that I can say...what would I do if Adriano wasn't working??? There is honestly no way that I could have afforded that right now...They are crooks...and they wonder why people fall out of status or come here illegally...how are you supposed to afford a $1,000 fee for a green card if you were struggling to survive in your home country, and that is one of the reasons why you came here in the first place!!!! Oh it makes me soooooo mad

Perhaps this isn´t a good time for me to mention, but the IceHockey World Championship starts in 3 days in Canada Yay

What are your wedding plans looking like?

as of now, getting married asap so as to avoid more confusion (driver's license, aos, etc.)

we are going to city hall one of these days, but with his work schedule it is sorta tricky picking a day...hopefully next week or the week after...well, it has to be within the next 3.5 weeks, so we don't have much of a choice!! lol

Cool Why does it have to be in 3,5 weeks?

oh wait, i just confused myself!!! i was thinking that his i-94 expires may 25th, but its really june 25th!!! we have more time than i thought...phew

Phewww

haha yea but i am still feeling EXTREMELY overwhelmed with all of the things i have to do before we move!!!!!!

right now i have a list of about 10 things, and they are all very large, serious matters (ie: find an apartment, get married, etc)

why do i have to be the organized one???

I am not sure that you are the organized one But you are certainly trying (joking) Well you better start looking for a place to live if you are serious about the move Have you started looking yet?

Because you are the female, silly!

Sorry, to the 2 men out there, who are actually organized. Didn't mean to generalize so.

yea, i basically know where we will live, i just have to finish and mail in the application...perhaps i will do so tomorrow

Perhaps you will do it and perhaps you won´t That´s how organized you are

hello peeps; here I am *waving*

Hi StP!

*waves back*

How was the flight?

Hello Peep

*Waving back at ya*

So you didn´t forget us

no, of course I didn't forget you; I came running in here as soon as I could to say hi

flight was - better than many, whilst still being a hellish day-long flight

I had been SO worried about them rejecting one or both of my bags - I'm normally so conscientious about keeping within all limits, but this time my hold luggage was 7 kilos over the limit (27kg instead of 20kg), and my hand luggage, egad! 16kg instead of 7 (that was because it had my laptop, and external hard drive, and digital camera - SLR with two lenses - as well as visa paperwork (including the MBE!) and important docs like birth certificates and financial information etc from the UK... all stuff I couldn't ship or post or put in the hold

and when I showed up to check in - NO line whatsoever - the first thing the girl did was ask to weigh my hand luggage! no one has ever done that before
and she warned me it was far too heavy and I got all freaked out but I didn't have any trouble after that... no one at security even glanced at me, and I tried to lift it in to the overhead locker like it wasn't heavy (THAT was a challenge ), and then I locked it up and just left it up there at Bangkok (normally I bring my hand luggage with me but we didn't have to this time)

went and had a 45 min massage in Bangkok airport; I'd found the place last time I was there, but too late to have one, so this time I went straight there
45 min for 9 quid! and it was EXCELLENT

and then at the other end everything was super speedy! we must have been one of the first planes to land, and I went through immigration in about ten seconds (no line there either), and there was a bit of a wait for my big bag, but no more than maybe ten or fifteen minutes - they were already coming off the belt when I got there, I just had to wait my turn - and then customs was a breeze; I didn't have any prohibited items, so I told them that, and they told me to just go straight out

so then I beat my parents there and was standing about waiting for ten or fifteen more minutes and when my mum arrived she felt really cheated that she hadn't seen me come out from behind the glass doors

had some breakfast with the fam, and gave out some gifts, and went up to see my Grandma with my dad, and my parents and I had some lunch at a local marina, and then I had a little sleep, and now here I am again

(sorry for the long post... the internet went down in the meantime, so while it's been re-connecting I've just been typing away )

Sound like a pretty good journey! A 45 minute massage would be an amazing treat!! We've been peeling wallpaper for days now, so a good rubdown sounds a real treat!

It must be so great to see your family again! I hope you are enjoying yourself!

Never apologize for long posts. I always love to read what you have to say!!

Ugh, I did that once, and I don't ever want to do it again in my life!
Glad the airports were a breeze StP. That massage sounds fabulous. Actually, just being in Bangkok airport sounds really cool to me (I've never travelled to that part of the world; the furthest I've ever been is Brasil).

Yeah - although I thought it was $1050 so I got a pleasant surprise I should really start going through the AOS stuff so I can make a list of all the things I need to do



YAY!!!!!!!!!! STP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU MADE IT!!!! Miss you already

It was particularly exciting when we discovered in the front hall under the layer of paper, there was paint under it with 3 more layers of wallpaper under that! Good times.

I am glad your flight went so well STP You must be all excited now Hope you are having lotsa fun and don´t forget to pick up Dave at the airport soon

Julez that must be painful I bet at the end of the day you are too tired to give each other a massage, right? How many rooms do you have to strip down? I hope it´s almost finished and that you can go for a nice massage or spa somewhere nice

Being in Bangkok sounds pretty exotic but also a bit scary Wouldn´t like to become some drug smuggler´s target and be falsly accused of smuggling drugs over there where they are able to put you in jail for life or something like that

Aly the AOS isn´t too bad Don´t worry

you've watched far too much 'Broke Down Palace' with Claire Danes

one of my best friends is teaching english in thailand for this entire year...not bangkok, but outside the city...he loves it there, and i hope to visit too!!

I don´t know what that is I´ve never heard of it

Muffin is on vacation in NYC Are you secretly meeting her and not telling us?

well that is the exact scenario from the movie!

i just caught wind of this over in the off topic forum, thought it was DEFINITELY worth a mention:

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Promotion/31cent.aspx

ICE CREAMMMMM


haha yes and we're going to go get a 31 cent scoop together!!!

Yummyyy Will you lick one scoop together?

Now Julez needs help cuz of what you wanna do

i think we can handle spending 62 cents and getting a scoop each

Marta, you are a very sick woman!

oh by the way, i finished the rental application today for our prospective apartment in south bend, indiana...now adriano just has to sign the forms and i'll send them out tomorrow!!

yay for progress!!

Yay!! Good luck! I hope it all works out!!!

Not very sick, I just have that cough


Oh ok then, I am glad it will work out like that

Nicely organized Susie Good luck with it

I mean the apartment

thanks guys, i hope we get it because i dont want to have to fill out more annoying applications

you funny


man, that wallpaper sounds like hard work, Julez... I've done that a few times, in a few different houses, and it's NEVER all that easy

your story reminds me of when I was helping my cousins do up their place in London, and it came time to get the stair carpet up - FIVE layers, the bottom one Axminster, from what we could tell, almost completely turned to dust... but still there in its pattern, just when you tried to pick it up it fell through your fingers like sand

(I ended up cleaning the (probably lead-based) paint off those same stairs with a heat gun and a scraper... about one hour per tread and riser Gad, they better appreciate me )

i think we need to rename this forum 'Welcome to America, Have Fun Figuring Out How the F*ck To Get a Driver's License'...then we have 50 threads, one for each state

i'm guilty of this as well, just an observation

Have I mentioned lately just how much I hate peeling and scraping wallpaper?

Susie you don´t have a driver´s license?

So yesterday we went to Santa Barbara and Scott got 4 and I got 3 scoops of ice cream at BR Yummyyy 7x0.31=coool

Trying to pick up sand STP So did you end up just hoovering it?

Poor sore Julez We know you don´t like doing it ...hopefully the hard work is gonna be finished soon so you can relax some

AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! I HATE STUPID WORK COMPUTERS!!!!

Well, I hate yours since it means I don't have you here with me in the morning! Its been awfully lonely here as of late.

i do, silly, but lord knows what a pain in the arse it is going to be getting one for adriano

i posted a topic about this if you are interested...I just think its hillarious that almost every thread in the 'Moving Here and Your New Life in America' forum is about getting a driver's license

Yeah - it keeps switching off on me and screwing up though which is annoying... ahh well, just two months to go and I will be on here alllll the time

Wow just two months....it wasn´t too long ago when it was four months...time really flies so fast

Lotsa troubles with Adriano´s driver´s license If he gets a New York DL, will he have to go through the whole thing again in Indiana or will they just issue him a new one without any more tests?

Julez feels lonely with just us here

But yeah there isn´t much of us left here ...where are all the July and July honorary filers?

Aly time to tell the firefighters to get you a new computer