ChloroPhil

Thetreble,

I'm not sure if you need it anymore, but I took the GRE two and a half years ago and would *highly* recommend finding a copy of the practice test CD/DVD for your computer. Studying from the book is helpful for learning the vocabulary and re-familiarizing yourself with grammar etc but it can't come close to the practical experience of taking the practice tests. I've been taking standardized tests since 2nd grade (1984?) and have *always* done better on verbal than mathematics. The GRE was the first time I had a higher math score than verbal and I attribute that to doing those practice tests over and over and over again until I was so comfortable with the format that I could spend all my brainpower on analysis of the question.

Like the uni said, don't worry too much about the scores. The real purpose behind the GRE is to assess your analytical ability. As long as you show a basic level of analytical ability you're set. Your past academic performance and activities between then and now count for a lot more.

Best of luck with your studies! I hope you've found a niche that you're passionate about. Nothing's worse than doing graduate studies in a topic you're not interested in or only moderately motivated by. Speaking of, what are you looking at focusing on?

Regards,

Phil

Wait. You've actually been cleared? This is really going to happen?

I love you!

Thank you all for your support folks. There have been some pretty bleak times for us lately and y'all have been a source of relief for us both.

Regards,

Phil

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you Canadians, wherever you are!

Pasties? Aren't those appliques for certain body parts?

Hahha, and yes BermyCat, you just revealed your age. Here I was being kind and not mentioning it. You'd better be nice or I'll reveal other personal facts. Yeay for blackmailing!

What are the traditional Canadian fixings? My ex-wife's best friend is Canadian and we celebrated both thanksgivings with them but for the life if me I can't recall what we had other than turkey. It was my job to just show up, eat, and stay the hell out of the kitchen.

Thanks,

Phil

I'm sorry to hear about your worries Laura. Catherine and I just had a big scare too and I'm still worried about how solid my work's going to be.

Here are some big *HUGS* for you both! In the end it will all work out. You're still married, right?

A marriage is always made up of two people who are prepared to swear that only the other one snores.

~Terry Pratchett, The Fifth Elephant

~ Catherine

I DO NOT SNORE! You're the one who snores!

Marriage is...living your life striving to make someone elses' life happy for the rest of your life.

Kathryn41 is spot on about getting a license in GA. Do not delay on the SSN just to get it in her married name. She will just need that much longer to get her license.

We're currently waiting on the DMV to verify her via SAVE or SAFE or some other new government program designed to keep out the dirty terrorists of Canada... (extreme sarcasm there if it's not obvious). Apparently just having a green card is not proof enough that you are allowed to be here. Maybe the DMV just doesn't trust the DHS

Sadly, she is not going to be able to drive by the wedding, so my sister in law has volunteered to be her chaffeur. But I still have much hate for the DMV.

Smyrna huh? You are pretty close to us. We live in Sandy Springs. We were originally going to have a Canadian Thanksgiving this month, but the wedding is taking all of our energy. We will probably just have the American one this year and try to make up for it by pigging out in Vegas on our honeymoon

Canadian Thanksgiving's coming up pretty soon, is it not? I might be convinced to deal with the hassle of cooking of y'all would come and eat the food. What's the actual date of Tday?

I'll do that. She's really upset me with some of her insight into how the US sucks at times.

That's why I can't talk about it with my guy either. It upsets him too much. I was quite anti-US before I met him and you can imagine how much my opinion has 'improved' during the immigration process and then moving to Please That Gun Out Of Your Truck And Just Shoot Me Now, Texas. It's gotten to the point where I refuse to watch anything to do with the election and will go to another room when coverage of it is on.

I think aside from nailing things that he'd rather not think about in order to remain positive, it also makes him feel miserable for being the reason I endure being somewhere I don't want to be. I've told him that I'd rather be here with him than anywhere else without him, but he sees how much rage, resentment, disgust, and incredulity I have towards his country and remains guilty that I gave up everything to be in it for his sake.

You hit the nail right on the head.

I'll do that. She's really upset me with some of her insight into how the US sucks at times.

Hey all,

Catherine just emailed me and said that the technician wasn't able to get her fingerprints done electronically because her fingers "weren't good for it". They've submitted paper prints but she was told it would take up to five months for them to process.

Do any of you have experience with expediting this process or can you recommend somewhere she can go to give it another go? Five months for fingerprints is crazy and puts a serious snag in our plans.

<edit> She's in K-W this weekend and will be going back to Bermuda on Sunday. Any quick help is appreciated. I think she was going through Les Commisionaires (?) rather than the RCMP directly. </edit.

Thanks!

Phil

Well damn, I forgot the debate was last night. That would have been good to see.

On the topic of homosexual marriage I can understand the sentiment of the words both candidates spoke, if not the political BS that led them to say it. It gets my goat that the politicians are trying to say they really don't agree with it while attempting to appear in favor of it. Just say YES or NO. Seriously, the word marriage shouldn't even be used by government officials. Rather, they should discuss the issue in terms of civil unions or partnerships such as one gets when going to the Justice of the Peace.

I like to think I'm a decent representation of the average American man of my age. I feel strongly that all couples, regardless of sexual orientation, should be allowed the same legal and civil rights when it comes to those things traditionally under the umbrella of marriage. Things like joint healthcare, tax incentives, joint property, and other rights given to a spouse. Those are the things that a secular government has control over and are things unjustly denied to same sex couples.

Marriage? I'd say in this context they're talking more about the wedding cermony itself and that's something under the bailiwick of a religious institution. In that regard I fully agree with the statement about preserving the "sanctitude" of marriage. A religious ceremony should be under the complete control of the religious institution sanctioning the ceremony. It is not, nor should it ever, be the place of a secular government to dictate what a religious institution must do. Unless it condones behavior that is declared illegal, such as rape, theft, and murder. It's fully up to the institution to dictate what is and is not acceptable practice for itself, in this case, sanctioning a wedding ceremony for a couple that doctrine may say is not an acceptable couple to be wed.

Moral of the rant? Let every couple who desires to make a public profession of comittment to eachother have the same civil rights.

Krikit,

You made me fall out of my chair with that last comment about directions. Catherine has the *worst* sense of direction of anyone I've ever met!

Kathryn41,

I'm in Smyrna, just off 285 on the northwest side of town. I'm sure she'd LOVE to get together with other folks in the area. That would make her day. I forsee having two Thanksgiving celebrations again...what a wonderful thing!

Allow her to be a little bit smug when you complain about it being cold and she is trying to decide whether to wear a sweater or not outside:-).

HAHA, I'm the one who makes fun of her about being cold. I went to university and taught in the mountains of New Hampshire after I graduated. After moving here I've refused to let my blood thin too much. My poor love has been living with her family in Bermuda for the past two years and starts complaining about being cold when it gets around 60. It's a good thing I'm a heating blanket.

Even though she had to move back to Bermuda (I can't ever be sure which country's "home" for her; Canada or Bermuda, they both are to some degree) for some pretty unhappy reasons her time there was also a blessing in disguise. I'm sure the adjustment of moving here directly from Canada would have been much harder for her than it will be now that she's been away from all her friends and former life for a few years. Also, with both of us being avid online gamers she's had a familiar community of people to fall back on when she's needed some additional support and familiarity.

I think the hardest thing for her is going to be adjusting to the American, and specifically the Southern American, mindset. She's a fairly liberal girl and the way some things are done and general attitudes on other things run counter to her nature and thoughts about how things should be. I'm very happy to have found a link to other ex-pats here in the Atlanta area. When she gets here we'll definitely have to get together!

Introduce her to this forum if she isn't already a member. Sometimes just being able to chat with another Canadian in the same situation helps us to feel more comfortable.

She's the one who introduced me to VJ and got me reading this particular sub-forum. Her username's BermyCat.

Cheers,

Phil

I have been quite amazed that so many people here that I meet have been to Canada. And I haven't heard anyone say a bad thing about Canada.

Do those folks have Cajun ancestry? I had quite a few friends of French Canadian descent who had relatives in Louisiana via the whole Acadia to LA migration.

Hey folks,

I hear a lot of familar things in what you're all saying about your situations. Thankfully I think the hardest part is behind us. The next time she'll coming here will be from Kitchener with all her stuff and her caR. I'm SOOOOO glad she'll be having her car. It was pretty tough on both of us for the three months of her last visit when she depended on me for nearly all of her transportation. It turns out the buses here aren't as good as we once thought. Now she'll be able to get out on her own to explore our little corner of the world and do all the things she wants to do without feeling guilty about keeping me out and about after work.

Online gaming. Yes this may sound weird to you, but you'd be surprised how quickly time flies and how many "friends" you make online for certain games. It's kind of a scary suggestion though as it may make her happy but it might also make you less happy depending on how serious she gets into it. My wife and I used to play WoW too much, and it put a wedge between us and our relationship, because we'd socialize with our online friends more than we would with eachother, and it took away from our quality time and we both stopped working out, going for dates etc. But if you can control your online time, it's not a bad activity to burn time while she's waiting for you to come home from work.

You mentioned her being a dual-citizen of Canada and Bermuda? Is she going to become an American too or just a resident? I heard that you can keep dual citizenship but you can't have triple-citizenship. Which is she planning on keeping?

That's how we met. I wonder how many families Blizzard's going to claim responsibility for when all's said and done?

Citizenship is up to her. I can't imagine she'd want to live in a place where she couldn't express her political views via a vote so I would guess she'll get citizenship. When she looked into poly-citizenship she found out that there's no real way to renounce Bermudian citizenship and I can't imagine she'd do it for Canada. Nor would I want her to, her time in Canada shaped her into the woman she is today. Hell, our kids are probably going to have dual citizenship.

Krikit,

Thank you very much for that link. As long as she doesn't read this thread there'll be a nice surprise waiting for her when we get home.

heh heh heh.

If it makes y'all (second person plural again!) feel any better I got a lot of similar reactions when I moved from New Hampshire to North Carolina. It wasn't always the and at least my country of birth/citizenship was the same but come on(!) we dont' all LOVE the cold just because we lived where it got cold.

"Ooooo! Ooooo! Ooooo! Say caR!"

Thank you all for your input and suggestions, I'll take it all to heart. We've lived through the depression of being stuck in my apartment all the time and all the attendant worries of not knowing when paperwork will go through. Even though it will likely get worse when she comes back for good, at least we're somewhat aware of what to expect. Yes, it was HARD not to get upset when I came home and she hadn't upheld her end of our bargain; I work all day and she keeps house. Thankfully a little empathy, understanding, and communication went a long way in helping with that.

I've lived just a few hours south of Canada for most of my life and have visited quite a few times but I'm still ignorant of a lot when it comes to my Northern friends. What I could really use help with is gathering a list of Canada-specific goods that I can have around for her. Specific suggestions of things like HP Sauce (I love that stuff!!) and brands of familiar foods that I can have available for her when she gets here will be most helpful.

Oh, and don't be fooled by the Bermudian flag in my info. She's a dual citizen and just happens to be living with her family in Bermuda right now while we go through the immigration process.

Thank you!

Phil

When my fiancee first met one of my former roommate's #$&^#$@#*&^@# friends and found out she was visiting from Canada the first words out of his mouth were "Say house!" and "So are you going to try to get pregnant so you can stay here?". What a di%k

Hey folks,

The time is quickly coming that my fiancee will be joining me in the States for good. She's been here for quite a few visits, the latest being three months long. Still, I know she's going to have a lot of adjusting to do and I could really use your help in doing little things that would make her Canadian self feel more comfortable here in the US Southeast. Any suggestions of special foods or other things that a non-Canadian wouldn't know about would be appreciated. She's from the Kitchener-Waterloo area.

Thanks in advance,

Phil

For the record, Bermycat's my fiancee and I was just giving her a hard time. Don't listen to what I had to say.

Has anyone had to get a Canadian police certificate while living in another country? Did you have to fly to Canada to get one?

We just got an email saying our petition was approved yesterday. If I've got to head to Canada I need to start making arrangements.

Thanks,

Catherine

You're going to have to fly to Ottawa and get the RCMP to do it. Apparantly visiting one of their provicinial offices isn't good enough. If you go through your local consulate/embassy or a provincial office it may take months to process. Good luck!

Regards,

Phil