I can go where I want to go

As I wrote in my last post: I am back to England and finally was able to drive my new car. It is not that I was asking for a car, it was more that Dave didn't feel very comfortable with me not being able to go somewhere. And I have to admit that it feels so much better now. I can do the shopping, can go to the base whenever I want, in case of an emergency I could even go to the vet with Amber and best of all: I can go on nice day trips with the doggy. There are so many nice places for walking her and I am really tired of just doing the same loop around the neighborhood every single day.

When we were thinking about which car to buy we were mainly thinking of a not to big car, suitable for going on vacation, suitable for going with Amber and a good gas milage ratio(the Mustang doesn't match any of the last three requirements). Clean diesel cars are very popular in Germany and the rest of Europe, but unfortunately not very many car manufacturers build them for the US. It is crucial for these cars that they are filled up with low sulphur diesel. While talking to different car dealers we found out that the only company making these cars for the US is Volkswagen. Well, I think a German car is perfectly right for me ;o) Now we are the proud owner of a Volkswagen Jette TDI sport wagon car. I love it! Here is a photo:



And today I took Amber on a first ride. We went to the Mildenhall Warren for a long walk. Amber isn't really used to drive in the trunk. On the way to the warren she was crying the whole time... but on the way back she was tired enough to sit down and be quiet. Here is Amber at the old warrener's lodge and in the car. For a bigger picture click on it.




And tomorrow we are going to celebrate the visa and the car with a nice dinner at our favorite fine dining restaurant, the Toddenham Mill.

My Visa arrived!

That was really fast! I have no idea how they did it. What I am talking about? Well, look at the subject line for today's post: My visa arrived! Usually it takes 4 to 10 days. So on Friday, when my doorbell rang, I didn't really expect the postman. But it was him and he had this big envelope in his hand. I couldn't believe it. As told in Frankfurt I opened it very carefully to avoid any damage to the included second envelope. Everything was there: my passport with the visa sticker and the sealed envelope I have to give to the immigration officer the next time I enter the US. Now I have until July 20 to travel to the US and activate the visa. And I am already making plans for that.

Since everything went so smooth there was no reason for me to stay in Germany for much longer. I flew home yesterday. I really wanted to celebrate this with Dave... and I wanted to see my car which was waiting in our garage since Wednesday. But this is another story...

Visainterview in Frankfurt

"Welcome to the United States"... This is the name of a book for new immigrants to the USA. Why do I know that? Because I got such a book today!
Yes, I am in Germany right now. The reason is the visa interview in Frankfurt. During the last half year Dave filed my visa petition, I collected all kind of documents and went to a medical exam. In mid December I received the invitation letter from the US embassy in Frankfurt for an interview today. I decided to fly into Germany (Duesseldorf) a day early and drive to Frankfurt. It is a 2.5 hours drive and I got a rental car for that. I stayed in a hotel just around the corner from the embassy. My appointment was at 9:00 but from what I read in different internet forums I decided to be there a little bit early. Actually it is first come first server.
Outside the embassy there is a window where everybody has to show his/her invitation letter and get a number. Then I had to wait outside for the security check (like at an airport). From there I walked into another big room with 23 windows. My first station was one window where I got a envelop and instructions on how to sort the documents I brought with me. From there they sent me to the next window where I had to pay the visa fee of 400$. After that I had some minutes to sort the documents and write my German address onto the envelop I got. After been called forward to the next window I had to show the originals of all the documents and a nice yound lady looked at all of them and told me that everything is okay. This is where I got the above mentioned book ;o) After all of this was done I sat down again and waited for the real interview with one of the officers there. And that was easy, too. A little bit small talk about how and where Dave and I met and when we got married. After leaving my fingerprints everything was done. All in all it took maybe 90 minutes and I was on my way home. Now I am sitting here and wait for my passport and another sealed envelop to arrive at my German address. Shouldn't take too long.

Washing Machine Story

I know, it is not really a big thing to write about a washing machine. But since nothing else really exciting happened here in England I want to share with you our current "problem".

Our washing machine died! Actually it died almost 2 weeks ago on a Saturday. I heard a big bang and saw smoke coming out of the washer and that was it. Since this thing came with the house we are renting we called the Landlord on Monday. He said "No problem, I have an empty house with exact the same machine so I can easily exchange the two of them tomorrow, on Tuesday". Great! Unfortunately Dave forgot to tell him that Amber (our Golden Retriever) might bark when he approaches the door but is more than friendly and will probably lick him to death before even thinking of biting him. Well, on that Tuesday I wasn't home. Couldn't help it, I had an appointment on base. And sure enough Amber barked and our Landlord didn't dare to come in. Bummer.
Anyhow, we called him again on Friday and he came over on Saturday (one week without the washer, one week after our vacation in Germany!) He installed the other machine and I was happy.... for a short time. I was happy until I opened the "new" washer and saw the thick, smelly, black mud in the sealing of this front loader. No way to clean this. I ran the machine for 4 times before putting Daves dark underwear and socks into it. The smell was a little bit better, but still not okay for something that is supposed to make things nice and clean and fresh. But at least we were able to wash. Yes, I wrote WERE able. On Sunday night we noticed some water on the floor. On Monday morning we noticed water on the floor. And on Tuesday morning we heard some water dripping even without the machine running. So we decide to turn off the water supply. We didn't want to risk another flooding, the last one in June was more than enough. Dave called the landlord again and he called back today and said the earliest appointment with the mechanics is on January 27th !!!! Can you believe this. This is another 12 days without being able to wash cloths.


Anyhow. As I mentioned, nothing really exciting happened here. The winter is unusually cold in England, but we didn't have much snow. Especially if you compare it with Germany this winter. I don't really mind. I really love snow, but Daves Mustang with sports tires is not really made for driving on icy and snowy roads.

Let me share one more thing with you. Back in October we bought ourselves a very nice Sushi knife. And on our last trip to Cambridge (where we usually go for Sushi maybe once a months) we found a Sushi book and so we tried to make it ourselves. It is not easy to get the right ingredients here in Thetford. For example we were not able to get some already prepared ginger. But otherwise it was delicious. Have a look:

Our Trips in 2008 - And a Happy New Year

Back to Blogging

I am so sorry,

and I am back to blogging!

I know you haven't read from me in a long time. Actually, since March. Ups. How could that happen? Well, this is not easy to answer. For the first half of 2008 I have the excuse that everything was just too busy.... my job, which expired, discussions about a new job or gap year, the legal wedding in Alaska and then in June the church ceremony with Dave's family and friends visiting from America. After that I thought I'd have more time. But...

Two days before the wedding our house in England got flooded. A pipe broke while nobody was there to react on it. That means the water had more than enough time to fill the ceiling between second and first floor until in came out of the front door and our neighbors noticed it. We couldn't live in the house for more than 6 weeks or so.

End of June was my last working day at Nokia. From then I spent a lot of time in England. First in a hotel (see above flooding) and then at our home here. Juergen and Ingrid, two of my best friends in Germany, came visiting us in August and we had a really great time exploring the local area and London.

The highlights between August and now were the trips you can look at the scrapblog page. We went to Berlin, Florence, the river Mosel in Germany and the Lake District in North England. Our actual plan was a 2 weeks diving vacation in late November, but for some reasons it wasn't possible for Dave to get that much leave at that time. So we enjoyed our short trips.

And that's almost it from 2008. I hope you are all ok and will start follwing this blog again. 2009 is going to be an exciting year for me!

Anke