Forgive me readers for I have not written. It's been four weeks since my last blog post.
I could tell you that it's because I have been busy. And that would be true. But not too busy to write. (Yes I am using sentence fragments. I am taking poetic license. It's my blog after all.)
The truth is things have been happening so fast, both in my brain and in my life that I felt that even if I could settle down to write blog posts, that I wouldn't be able to properly encapsulate what was happening in my adventure-filled life. I will now attempt to fill you in on what has been happening, and this may end up being a rather long post, so please do bear with me.
The biggest and most important thing is that hopefully, any day now, I will have the date for my visa interview with the immigration people. In fact, four weeks ago today they told us "within 30 days" and they have two days left. It's a funny thing, you know, that every time they tell us what the "next" thing that is supposed to happen is, they forget to mention the three little things that need to happen first. Case in point: when the approval letter came, they told us that the next thing that would happen is that the package would come with my visa appointment date. A week later, a letter came informing me that I really should appoint a proxy with a US address to act as my agent and hurry up and sign this form here. So I did that the minute it came, letting them know that yes it is perfectly fine for them to send the stuff to Dan because he needs to know all this anyway. Good grief. Then they said "thank you, we have received this form" etc. The next day we both received an email saying "at some point in the future, probably in three to five days but we're not promising anything because we have a hard time sticking to dates" (I'm paraphrasing), "we'll send you an invoice for the visa processing that you will have to pay before we tell you when the visa appointment is". So that happened yesterday, invoice paid.
Now here is where it gets juicy. Dan did a bunch of phoning to the US Immigration people in Vancouver (where I was certain my interview would be), Montreal (where Dan was certain my interview would be) and New Hampshire (the main visa processing centre in the US). He wanted to find out where my interview would be, etc. Guess what? Turns out, Dan was right. Well no problem, right? We have to drive across the continent anyway, we just drive together to Quebec from here, get my visa, and cross the border there, right? WRONG. O no, says the US government and Department of Homeland Security. I must enter the US from British Columbia, where I currently reside. Wtf? Sooooo, this means that at some point soon (at this point there is no telling when) they will inform me of the date of my appointment, upon which I will do my best to book a flight to Montreal, a popular tourist destination and home to mass student riots in the height of summer. This sounds like an awesome good time, doesn't it? I'm hoping it will be some time in July, at least.
At first when Dan told me all this, I was fuming. I even cursed on the Internet! (I know!) Why do they have to make it so difficult? I'm nice! Why are they trying to prevent me from entering? There has been much consternation and expletive-launching on my behalf about the inefficiency and cruelty of this immigration process, many apologies made to me from my beloved American friends and family for the idiocy of their government processes.
Then I sat with the idea for a little while.
Montreal.
I have always wanted to go to Montreal.
It won't be winter!
I bet they have yarn shops...
FOOD! They will have excellent ethic cuisine!
And then it turned into "I get to take a trip to Montreal!"
So somehow, the Universe will see fit to find a way for me to finance this trip and I will, in fact, make the best of it. I have already asked the Internet if anyone knows anyone who lives in Montreal who would be willing to put up a nice west-coaster for two nights, sometime soon, probably in July. If worse comes to worst, I will hopefully find a hostel but given that it is summer and it is Montreal (student riots notwithstanding), that might be challenging.
They had better let me knit on the plane.
(I am, in fact, going to break this up into different parts, to save my readers. To be continued...)
I could tell you that it's because I have been busy. And that would be true. But not too busy to write. (Yes I am using sentence fragments. I am taking poetic license. It's my blog after all.)
The truth is things have been happening so fast, both in my brain and in my life that I felt that even if I could settle down to write blog posts, that I wouldn't be able to properly encapsulate what was happening in my adventure-filled life. I will now attempt to fill you in on what has been happening, and this may end up being a rather long post, so please do bear with me.
The biggest and most important thing is that hopefully, any day now, I will have the date for my visa interview with the immigration people. In fact, four weeks ago today they told us "within 30 days" and they have two days left. It's a funny thing, you know, that every time they tell us what the "next" thing that is supposed to happen is, they forget to mention the three little things that need to happen first. Case in point: when the approval letter came, they told us that the next thing that would happen is that the package would come with my visa appointment date. A week later, a letter came informing me that I really should appoint a proxy with a US address to act as my agent and hurry up and sign this form here. So I did that the minute it came, letting them know that yes it is perfectly fine for them to send the stuff to Dan because he needs to know all this anyway. Good grief. Then they said "thank you, we have received this form" etc. The next day we both received an email saying "at some point in the future, probably in three to five days but we're not promising anything because we have a hard time sticking to dates" (I'm paraphrasing), "we'll send you an invoice for the visa processing that you will have to pay before we tell you when the visa appointment is". So that happened yesterday, invoice paid.
Now here is where it gets juicy. Dan did a bunch of phoning to the US Immigration people in Vancouver (where I was certain my interview would be), Montreal (where Dan was certain my interview would be) and New Hampshire (the main visa processing centre in the US). He wanted to find out where my interview would be, etc. Guess what? Turns out, Dan was right. Well no problem, right? We have to drive across the continent anyway, we just drive together to Quebec from here, get my visa, and cross the border there, right? WRONG. O no, says the US government and Department of Homeland Security. I must enter the US from British Columbia, where I currently reside. Wtf? Sooooo, this means that at some point soon (at this point there is no telling when) they will inform me of the date of my appointment, upon which I will do my best to book a flight to Montreal, a popular tourist destination and home to mass student riots in the height of summer. This sounds like an awesome good time, doesn't it? I'm hoping it will be some time in July, at least.
At first when Dan told me all this, I was fuming. I even cursed on the Internet! (I know!) Why do they have to make it so difficult? I'm nice! Why are they trying to prevent me from entering? There has been much consternation and expletive-launching on my behalf about the inefficiency and cruelty of this immigration process, many apologies made to me from my beloved American friends and family for the idiocy of their government processes.
Then I sat with the idea for a little while.
Montreal.
I have always wanted to go to Montreal.
It won't be winter!
I bet they have yarn shops...
FOOD! They will have excellent ethic cuisine!
And then it turned into "I get to take a trip to Montreal!"
So somehow, the Universe will see fit to find a way for me to finance this trip and I will, in fact, make the best of it. I have already asked the Internet if anyone knows anyone who lives in Montreal who would be willing to put up a nice west-coaster for two nights, sometime soon, probably in July. If worse comes to worst, I will hopefully find a hostel but given that it is summer and it is Montreal (student riots notwithstanding), that might be challenging.
They had better let me knit on the plane.
(I am, in fact, going to break this up into different parts, to save my readers. To be continued...)
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