theinbetweenismine

just a girl living the expat life

Archives for November 2006

NaBloPoMo Finale

filed under: marriage, NaBloPoMo

So this is it. Day 30 of NaBloPoMo and I made it, although this month has been so busy for me and full of life changing events.
I’ve been here in Southern Cali with my hubby for exactly 8 days now and surely but slowly the apartment is transforming from a ‘bachelor’s den’ into a cozy place. I like it. I feel I belong here. As soon as I win the lottery, which I have to start playing for this to happen!, I want to buy new furniture, new sheets, new curtains, new accessories, but for now, I think I am going to be ok with what we have, and for which I am very grateful :)

I brought a few things from home, which make the place feel a lot more “homey” to me. The new sheets that I bought at Ikea [in Germany] fit our bed really well and I can’t wait until all the rest of my stuff has been unpacked and stowed away. You still have to wait a little longer for some pictures, but I am getting there!
J also had gotten this really cute desk for me at Pier 1 Imports [when he was still working there last summer] and he had been luring me with it all summer, as if this had any influence on my return to the US whatsoever ;) I really love! it though. It’s beautiful and it’s just the right size for my notebook and me!

Here’s to all the great people who persevered and stuck to blogging every single day for the month of November. It has truly been a blast and I had some much fun using the NaBloPoMo randomizer and checking out your blogs.

I can’t wait for next year’s challenge!

Coffee and its mate

filed under: fun!, NaBloPoMo

Something I have missed when I was in Germany was “Coffeemate” Coffee Creamer- the liquid kind, in all its wonderful flavors.

I think I am addicted :)

I remember seeing the Coffee Cream Powder in Germany and I was all excited and bought it and tried it out, just to be disappointed and left with an even greater craving for the ‘real’ kind. In my opinion, the liquid Coffeemate is much better than the powder. We also didn’t have different flavors in Germany, so now I am so looking forward to trying the Christmas flavors :)

This, in addition to some freshly ground coffee from our coffeemaker, makes for a real great start into the day!

More cell phone talk

filed under: my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

J was kind of disappointed that I showed off my new cell phone, but didn’t mention that he got himself a new cell phone as well ;) So, to balance things out, here is his:

It’s a really nice phone and I was tempted to get it as well, but actually, it’s too big for me and I don’t really need an internal screen and keyboard. I have my notebook! and I am happy with it :) Apparently, this phone also has a 2.0 megapixel camera & camcorder with autofocus and lens cover, and dual stereo speakers that make it really attractive, because it can also be used as an mp3 player. Yeah, no wonder the new generation of cell phones is called smartphones ;)

By the way, I really get confused by the US cell phone plans. Seriously, half of the information needed to decide for a plan has to be dug out on the website or somewhere. Really annoying. I am not quite sure if we decided on the right plan, but we’ll probably figure that out in the next couple of weeks ;)

LA Essentials

filed under: my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

november 28, 2006 - day 59

J and I went to get me a cell phone today. You can’t live in LA and not have a cell phone. It’s one of the things J definitely wanted me to have as soon as possible, so we would be able to reach each other at all times like when he’s at the studio or when I am out. Isn’t it cute, my new red phone? :)

We got a family shared plan with J’s parents which will work pretty well, because most calls will be between us. Cell phone plans in the US work totally different from the ones in Germany and I’ll have to get used to that. You pay for incoming call and text messages and there is no such thing as plans with no monthly access fee or minimum balance. You usually have to get a plan with monthly anytime minutes which usually starts at $39.99 and up and then you get unlimited night and weekend minutes to other Verizon customers. Oh yeah, we switched from T-Mobile to Verizon, by the way. If any of you guys are with Verizon – send me your cell phone numbers :) We can talk for free on the weekends :)

The weekend was nice and quiet and we just enjoyed spending time together. We went to see friends for dinner last night and J and his friend have been back at the studio as of today. I am definitely going to start to create our “home” this week. The whole apartment is a mess right now, I haven’t even really unpacked my suitcases. We want to clean out and rearrange the whole apartment and it’s going to be my job to set it all up. I am looking forward to creating our home… I just have to start doing it :)

Getting around

filed under: my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

How do you get adjusted to a new place? Do you just start walking and explore the area? Do you ask others how to get from A to B?

I like to look at maps, excuse me, study! maps when I get to a new place. I usually orientate myself by looking at direction and names of the main streets. Then I like to make little notes of places of interest and look at directions on how to get there. This is how I build a mental image of any new place. It works pretty well for me.

I’ve been here for four days now and I think I have a pretty good general idea of the area that I call my new home. I went to two stores and found the way by just memorizing the directions that I had. I am pretty sure I could go there again tomorrow and find the way without a problem. That feels pretty good.

The travel day

filed under: my so-called life

My parents and my sister took me to the airport on Wednesday morning. We got there around 4 a.m. and I had to check in three bags. You used to be able to have two pieces of luggage á 32 kg, but they have recently changed that to two pieces of luggage á 23 kg. Remember when I bought this HUGE suitcase, because I thought it would be great to be able to fit as much as possible in one single bag and not have to worry about excess baggage. Apparently, my plan didn’t quite work out. I had fitted everything nicely in the big suitcase and when I tried to lift it up, I was instantly sobered. There was no way I could take this suitcase as it was, since it was twice as heavy as it was allowed to – so I had to re-pack everything and there was no way around it, I grudgingly had to pay the excess baggage fee.

It was really hard to say goodbye to my family. I had promised myself not to cry, but when we went to the gate and I hugged them for the last time, I couldn’t help it. It really was a very emotional situation.
After I went through the security check, I felt better.

When I arrived in Amsterdam, I had 5 hours of time to kill and I decided to make use of the wireless connection at the airport. I wrote some emails and chatted with Sanna, who serendipitously was online while I was waiting for my connecting flight :) Thanks for keeping me company, hun!
When I walked over to the gate, I sat down next to a girl who was also flying to LA. Shortly before boarding, we started talking. It appeared that Inga is from Berlin and when I asked her what seat number she had, it turned out that she had the aisle seat across from my seat. What a funny coincidence!
We really had a good talk and it was great to have some nice company on this long flight. We were both kind of nervous, she, because she was going to spend 5 days with a guy that she had previously met in Germany and I, because I was a little anxious about what was going to happen at Immigration, and we were able to distract each other from the approaching situations.

The flight went smoothly and we were both able to sleep a little bit. I love KLM for it’s great seats with really cool head rests!

When we finally arrived, we had to wait in line at Immigration for about 40 minutes which wasn’t bad at all. As I was walking up to the officer behind the counter, I had a funny feeling in my stomach, but it was totally baseless. The officer was really nice and he walked me over to a small waiting area where another officer took my passport and sealed envelope, the one that I had received from the embassy. I waited for a short while until I was called upon to give some fingerprints and the officer was joking about my last name, which in this case was totally fine and made me feel much better in this tense situation.

I was asked to collect my luggage and then take a seat again. After about 20 minutes and officer called upon me again, handed me my passport with the CR1 ((Conditional Resident Visa)) stamp! in it, and told me I was all set :) They didn’t even check my luggage, which was a fortunate circumstance, as they weren’t going to take away the “Teewurst ((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teewurst))”, my favorite German spreadable sausage, that I had in my suitcase.

I can’t believe that Immigration was such a breeze this time. It only took about 1,5 hours for me to get out. I am a [conditional] resident now. Nobody can send me away anymore! :) J had been patiently waiting for me outside and it was so wonderful to hug and kiss him again after such a long time of separation. It just wasn’t right, but we put this time behind us and everything is going to be perfect from now on :)

The ticket

filed under: my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

We live in a residential area of Los Angeles, about two blocks from UCLA ((University of California, Los Angeles)). Unfortunately, in case you remember, our great! apartment came with NO parking. BIG MISTAKE. Parking gets crazy in LA. J has managed to deal with it and was lucky to find parking on side streets, but we decided that we really have to get a permanent parking spot somewhere. There might be the option that we might get a parking space in this apartment building at some point, but for now, we have to figure something out. I’ll tell you exactly why.

Our street has two-hour parking from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. It’s ridiculous, but that’s just the way it is. They do this, because we live so close to the UC Campus and because students try to park everywhere around here. For us as residents, it means that we have to find parking a block or two away from our apartment where there is no time limit on the parking, and this is mostly a challenge.

After J picked me up from the airport on Wednesday night [the day before Thanksgiving], the street was virtually empty. J said that he had never seen it that empty before. Yesterday, we decided to make use of the rare occasion and park the car in front of our apartment. Nobody would give out tickets on Thanksgiving, right?! After we got up this morning, I accidentally looked out of the window around 10:20 a.m., [20 minutes after the first two-hour parking period was over!] and I really couldn’t believe my eyes. There was a lady standing next to our car writing out a ticket! I was speechless. I mean, you gotta be kidding me… the whole street is empty and they write out parking tickets to residents on Friday morning after Thanksgiving? That must have been totally intentional!

What a f**cked up system!

Happy Thanksgiving

filed under: my so-called life, NaBloPoMo

Today has been a wonderful day. When I woke up, J was right next to me :) Oh how long we had been waiting for that! The whole situation still feels very surreal though. I think it will take me a few days to really understand that I will live here now and that nobody can send me away again!

We went to see J’s family today for a traditional Thanksgiving lunch. It was good to see his parents, and his Grandad and Great-aunt and -uncle who are living in a nursing home. They were all so happy to see me and we just had a wonderful time with them.

I know you’re probably all dying to hear about my flight and how everything went at Immigration, but I’ll have to put this off until tomorrow. I’ll have a hubby to take care of now :) Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!

I am off

filed under: LDR, NaBloPoMo

I’ll get on the plane in less than 8 hours. I am too busy to really update you today, but I wanted to give you my flight info, just in case someone likes to track flights ;)

My parents and my sister will take me to the airport at 4 a.m. [yeah, making it even harder to say goodbye!] and I’ll be leaving Cologne on KLM flight #1804 at 6.55 a.m. I’ll get into Amsterdam Schiphol at 8.15 a.m. Then I’ll have about 5 hours to wait for my connecting flight. I’ll get on KLM flight #601 at 1:20 p.m. and hopefully arrive safely and on time in LA at 3:20 p.m. local time. Please keep your fingers crossed that everything will go smoothly with Immigration. I have a big envelope of papers to present to them. It should all be sufficient though ;)

Then I am off to kiss that guy that has missed me so badly in the last few months! :)

I’ll be in touch.

OMG… it’s happening!