Hey, friend.My wife and I made it to America ok. It was a nice little 95 hour trip.
Things I'll chat about now: The trip, visas, Google, Brontide, the unrelenting heat, a first.
The Trip.
Getting here was an experience. We were staying at my folks' place for a week before flying out which was nice. After packing up our house for a few weeks and getting everything sorted out there, it was nice to be able to relax a bit.
We set off on the journey back to America on Saturday morning. The 16th. We got to the train station for our 1055 train to London. I was already a little stressed by the car ride to the station - I obviously didn't know there was another 94 hours to go. When we were actually traveling, I was fine - it was in the down time between trains and the underground that I started to freak out about the traveling we had left.
We stayed the first night in a little hotel in London before going to the airport to meet my brother for a bit and then to check in for the flight. After a lovely aside that I'll talk about in a bit, we were finally on our way.
When we got to Iceland - our half way point - we were told that our flight on to New York was overbooked. So instead of going on to NY and spending the night there, they offered us a free dinner that night, a free hotel for that night, a free breakfast for the morning, a free trip to the Blue Lagoon and a free lunch at the Blue Lagoon. And a free ticket to travel anywhere with Iceland Express. Terrible, right? There were some people who complained, but they're everywhere. My wifey and I loved it! Iceland is amazing. We had a great little break on our way over and a nice time to relax.
Heading NY way the day after, our flight had to do figure of eights in the air a few times before we landed because of the bad weather on the runway. A great experience for nervous air passengers...
New York was a really good experience and we got to go to Times Square for a couple of hours before heading over to Milwaukee and then on to Kansas City, where we met up with some good friends and stayed with them for a few days.
The trip was incredible and I wouldn't have done anything different - aside from maybe stressing less!
Visas.
Visas are ridiculous. As I was checking in in London, my boarding pass to Iceland was granted and printed but the pass from there to New York was denied. This was because I hadn't filled in a form online. This form was the I-94W and it put me in a catch 22 situation. The most catchiest, twenty-twoiest situation I've ever found myself in. First of all, this is a new way of doing things - introduced in April. Now, instead of it being a free three month visa that I fill in on the plane on the way over, I have to pay to fill it in. With it, I can't extend my stay in America (I wasn't planning on it, but I'm staying with my wife and her family, so I wanted that option) and without it, I wouldn't be allowed into America. Good stuff.
So I filled it in and went back down to check in again, but it didn't clear and at the time, we were going to have to travel to Iceland and hope that it cleared before we got there so that I could get the Iceland - America boarding pass printed. Which is why the overbooked flight and subsequent night in Iceland was such a blessing.
And now I'm here waiting for my I-130 - the visa that we thought would be done and dusted before we flew out.
But we're here. An that's all that matters at the moment.
Google.
I can't access my other email account. I'm not sure why. I created it in America and I use this laptop to access it, but Google in their wisdom have decided to deny me access to the account because it's a 'different location'... I'll be talking to them this afternoon.
Brontide.
As I mentioned in the last post, my little brother and his band have an album out. You can hear their single 'Matador' here: http://soundcloud.com/brontide and you can get more information on them as a whole here: http://www.myspace.com/brontidetheband
Their twitter link is here: http://twitter.com/#!/FUCKINGBRONTIDE
Twitter name aside, they're a great, family friendly sound, so be sure to check them out and buy their things.
Pizza doe.
It's been a while since I've seen roadkill bigger than a dog.
The unrelenting heat.
The heat here is insane. I'm sure I wrote about it last time I was over here. It's been over 100ºF here for nearly three weeks solid. That's about 35ºC. Constantly. Well, it dips to around 25ºC through the night. I like staying up late to pretend I'm home and that it's a normal temperature. It helps sometimes. The pool is great, though. Nice and cool.
The one thing that gets me down is that it's too hot for me to go outside. I was just stood outside the other day and I was sweating as I do when I run back home. It's weird. I'm pretty lethargic because my energy is at a low and because of that I'm not working out as I normally do. And so now I'm down because I haven't worked out and it's hot. But I guess it'll all be better in a few weeks. Then I'll be fishing and running and lifting again. Feeling better.
It's not the worst thing to be complaining about, though. Not a bad problem.
A First.
And finally. I got a First in my Games Design course! I worked my fingers off - sewed until there was no thread left. I drew until my pens ran out and I typed until the keys split in half. It was an intense year - especially the last couple of months when it was all coming together. It was exciting, too. My wifey was my best cheerleader. She supported me through this year more than I could have asked and I am truly grateful. I'm in the process of applying for my Masters Degree, so hopefully there'll be more drawing and writing and creating in the years to come. There will be whether I do the MA or not.
I didn't really get how big a first is until a load of people started enthusiastically congratulating me. I worked as hard as I could and I was really happy with it, but it's what I aimed for. Who wouldn't want to do their best?! I worked hard and prayed hard. As much as I have my wifey to thank, I have so much more thanks for God. He's been our rock through this year - He's been my rock for years, but with my wifey this year, He's been our solid foundation and I can't wait to pursue Him even more with her in the years to come.
Thanks again for reading. I really do appreciate it.
Peace.
