Hi gang. Long time no talk. Sorry. Been soooo busy. Too busy, in fact. Anh has had plenty of free time, but hates talking about her personal life on forums, so she never visits here. Anyway...

An update on our situation is OVER HERE. Basically, biometrics happened a month ago and now we wait. Anh cannot legally work and it is driving her mad. It's also pissing me off that our government has such messed up rules.

Out marriage is good. It was rocky for a while, yes, but we are growing as a couple. The single most troublesome aspect of life that causes us any problems is Anh's inability to work, which makes her unbelievably angry. She just doesn't understand what the hold-up is and frankly, neither do I. We cannt afford to send her to school right now because of only one income coming in, so styudying is not yet an option.

We HATE North Carolina. This state sucks serious ****. We may only stay to get cheaper tuition rates for Anh when she hopefully goes to school this September. We still have not solved the problem of how to get her credits transferred here and how she can go for a Masters. Every school has different rules and many times the schools don't really know how to handle Anh's situation. I wish there was a way to talk to an expert who could look at her situation and say THIS IS WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN! Oh well.

So, anyway, go see CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWERS. That is a great film.

Matt

Being cooped up in the house without a job and without a drivers license drove my wife stark raving mad.


Why?

Why do we hate NC? Because the food is crap. The cities and towns are spread out over zillions of acres. There is a lack of culture. No asian markets (well, there is one a full town away, but it is small). No movie theater worth anything within an hour drive time, etc. etc. etc. It's just crap here. I made a mistake trying to come down here. Oh well. We will leave as soon as we can.

Hi Matt & Anh,

Sorry to hear of your AOS and EAD delays, but great to see your post and update.

My wife can sympathize with Anh regarding the frustration of inability to work, drive, etc. We too just moved (from STL to Bentonville, Arkansas for my new job), but have waited to file for AOS until now (didn't want to create address change confusion in the middle of the process).

However, on a positive note, it is good to see you found employment and your marriage is strengthening.

Best of luck to you both and we look forward to your AOS progress.

STL_HCMC

Hey Matt I glad things are going better for you both in your relationship.

Here in Portland, you will find a asian market about 1-2 miles apart from each other. Near my work I have 2 Vietnamese restaurants and 3 markets.

If you want Asian markets galore...come to the Left coast...it is crazy Asian market here.

Oh let me tell you, it is not the greatest thing in the world to live 15 minutes from Little Saigon with a Vietnamese wife. It's not like you're going to get away with just an occasional trip

I know my wife wishes this was the case here in Bentonville, AR. No Asian markets that we've found yet.

STL_HCMC

Northern Virginia, much closer to your location, has over 20,000 Vietnamese folks.

My wife doesn't want to live anywhere else, she dreads going into the Midwest America

Check out this link: www.edencenter.com plus there's two www.hmart.com (awesome Korean markets) and if that's not enough, there's always
www.greatwallsupermarket.com, a chinese/american style market

Check out: www.city-data.com to assess different cities.

OBVIOUSLY A CONCERN FOR ANYONE BRINGING OUR LOVED ONE/S HERE BECAUSE OF THE CULTURE SHOCK. TO KEEP THEM BUSY ENOUGH TO HOPEFULLY ELEVIATE THE FEELINGS OF BEING HOMESICK. I KNOW IVE BEEN THINKING OF MANY THINGS TO GIVE RELYN THE SAME CONTACT WITH PEOPLE SHE HAS IN THE PHILIPPINES.

SHE IS NOT HERE YET BUT WE HAVE ASIAN STORES/MARKETS AS CLOSE AS THE SAFEWAY AND IF I WANT TO GO TO SEATTLE ITS EVEN MORESO. BUT FOR GETTING HER NATIVE MANGOS & TILAPIA IS NOT A PROBLEM. IM THANKFUL FOR THAT.

WE WILL TRY TO FIND A FILIPINO ORGANIZATION FOR SOCIALIZING PURPOSES. IM ALSO TRYING TO CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIPS WITH FILIPINOS IN THE COMMUNITY AND AT WORK PRIOR TO RELYN COMING HERE. IM EXCITED TOO BECAUSE I HAVE A FRIEND AT THE HOTEL I WORK WHO JUST WENT TO MANILA AND MET RELYN. I GAVE MY FRIEND SOME THINGS TO GIVE TO RELYN. IT WAS AWESOME AND VERY GOOD FOR RELYN.

GOOD LUCK MATT...........PATRICK & RELYN

Matt, have you ever think about letting your wife does some volunteer work? I am sure she does not need a work permit for that. She can volunteer at your church, your community, library, community centers, ect. If she volunteers, not only she will kill time but in the same time, learn new skills and build networking. Good luck

Alright Matt, so we took your advice and went to see the movie. Wish you would have said it was subtitled! It was good though. All I can say is that is one CLOSE family.

Matt - Has ANh had her transcript evaluated by one of the transcription companies yet? STewart also wanted to go to school and no one would even LOOK at his transcript until it was "americanized." ALmost all colleges and Universities have a site for International Students. I think she would just need to have her transcript evaluated...I can give you links if you need - and then she'd have to take a TOEFL test or something similar...

I think transcript eval is the FRIST step...then at least she would have her transcript in american terms...which sadly they all want.

Sorry to hear that you hate NC. Which part of NC are you at?

I'm curious what you would define as "culture" and why you'd say NC doesn't have any. As to Asian markets, again it all depends on where you are located. I'm in an area where Asian markets abound. We even have a couple of Vietnamese restaurants not far from where I work. Perhaps you just picked the "wrong" town to live in.

come west!!!
Portland and Seattle is a good place to live. despite the hippies and democrats, it is still a beautiful place to be
nothing beats summers in the Northwest. all the warmth NONE of the humidity

Sounds like my area of Michigan.

David is filling his waiting time with church activites, playing soccer (that would be 'football' to the Brits), and playing his saxophone. We've got a few home improvement project underway, so he has some errands to run during the week... so far, so good.

Good to see things going well for you & Anh (apart from hating NC) !

Things will continue on the upswing once the red tape is unfurled.

Best Wishes to you both !

Come to SoCal..............hehehhe. You will get a second Vietnam country. YOu will get all the vietnamese food and the vietnamese people plus additional troubles too.........

Awesome T-shirt

Here is another update for you all... Today Anh received her employee worker's card. Finally! Progress!! We both hope this means the wheels are also turning in regards to her green card.

I don't want to go into details about North Carolina. Just trust us that this town is far more suitable for others. It's not for us. Charlotte is nice. We both like what we see there, though it is a little too spread out for Anh's taste. Frankly, I think she will not feel complete until she is in a city like New York or Boston.

Sorry for not being here more than once or twice per month, but I am so swamped with work and other issues that I rarely have the chance to even relax. But I will keep you all updated on our life together.

It ain't perfect, but we are happy in each other's arms.

Awesome news! Congratulations!

STL_HCMC

I saw that your wife received her EAD. Hopefully she got a job soon.

I understand where your wife come from re: living in big city, but in our experience, the smaller city living will be easier once she will be able to get a job and have her "own life" back.

Right now she has no driver's license, so that's a problem in regards to a job. We are working on that. This week she seems to have crossed that hurdle that was keeping her from mastering the ins and outs of driving. I'll now send her to driving school and get a learner's permit and hopefully by Summer she can have a license.

However, then there is the case of a car. We don't have the money for it. Medical bills wiped out my savings over the last six months.

I - the non USC - had to go to ER within 2 weeks I moved here (in North Indiana) - even with insurance, we still have to pay the co-payment.

With the work & the driving license, I started to feel I am having my "own life" back. Not necessarily the same, because I had to "start over" with my career, but I think it will work out at the end.

Hopefully things will be easier for you and your wife !