Random Tuesdays 04/30/2013

Hyvää Vappua from Random Tuesdays! 

Here's the blogger herself many, many, many years ago celebrating 1st of May :)

Becoming an Alien Spouse, IR1, step #1

This month we've been getting ready to start the long and arduous immigrant visa process. I've already had four student visas to the U.S, so you'd think this would be a piece of cake. Well, it's not. It's annoying, costly and takes forever. If everything goes well, I might get my visa sometime next spring. I keep wondering though, if I really should be doing this in the first place, since as an immigrant I'm clearly not that welcome in that country, this based on my previous experiences there. I do hope that whichever state we end up moving to will convince me otherwise :) I'm also trying to focus on the good sides, like that husband will be happier and the fact that I might actually get to work in my own field (U.S History). Thoughts like that make this process seem a lot less repelling :) 

Equality before the law. Yup, but only the for the citizens

First step in our immigration process is for husband to send the petition, called I-130.

The  I-130 Packet consists of:

   1. Completed and signed form I-130 

   2. I-130 filing fee ($420)

   3. Completed and signed form G-325A and photograph (petitioner, husband)

   4. Completed and signed form G-325A and photograph (beneficiary, Sugar) 

   5. Proof of petitioner's U.S citizenship: Copy of U.S Passport and birth certificate

   6. Proof of Relationship

      -Primary evidence - Copy of marriage certificate

      -Secondary evidence - "our story"-letter with 7 pages of photographs, clip from husband's hometown's paper's social section with our engagement story, thank you cards from both of our weddings, copy of our lease here in Finland (in both of our names), copy of some of our flight stubs...

   7. Completed form G-1145 for email/phone notification

Seems pretty straightforward, I guess this is the easiest part of applying :) Has anyone of my readers done the CR/IR1 before? Any advice? 

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Random Tuesdays 04/23/2013

Near Teec Nos Pos, AZ in 2009.

The blogger herself welcoming you to Arizona :)

Random Tuesdays 04/16/2013

Pamukkale, Turkey in 2001. Rather impressive place!

Blogi tunnustus - Blog award with photos!

I was fortunate enough to receive a blog award back in January from Jenni of the then From Georgia with Love, now Suurherttuan vieraana, thank you Jenni!

The award is in Finnish, but I'll write the photo descriptions in English so everyone will understand. Here it goes:

Tunnustuksen säännöt ovat:

1. Kiitä tunnustuksen antajaa.

2. Jaa tunnustus kahdeksalle bloggaajalle.

3. Ilmoita näille kahdeksalle bloggaajalle tunnustuksesta.

4. Näytä kahdeksan satunnaista kuvaa kuvateksteineen.

Valitsin kuvat Eurooppa-teeman mukaan, koska useinmiten kuvani ovat rapakon takaa. Kävin kotona porukoiden luona kaivelemassa yhdestä kuva-albumista kuvia ja skannailin ne, joten nyt on luvassa hieman vanhempia kuvia (ja yksi uudempi). Ja koska harvemmin postailen kuvia itsestäni, niin tässä niitä tulee niihin littyvien tai liittymättömien tekstien kera :)

Touristing in Rhodes, Greece. Temple of Apollo in 1998

1. Rakastan Star Trekiä (the original series ja TNG). Olen katsonut sarjoja ala-asteelta saakka ja edelleen jaksan katsella niitä. Tykkäsin myös uudesta Star Trek-elokuvasta.

Touristing in Larnaca, Cyprus in 1999

2. Tykkäsin myös alkuperäisestä Battlestar Galacticasta. Uudempaa sarjaakin olen katsonut muutaman kauden, täytyisikin katsoa loput tässä joku päivä

Student in Thessaloniki, Greece in 2000

3. Starfleet olisi unelma-työpaikkani :) Saisin työskennellä arkeologina avaruudessa, en keksi mitään parempaa ammattia!

Researching at Knossos palace, Greece in 2000

4. Kuten kuvista näkyy, muinainen Kreikka on kiinnostanut minua kovasti. Kreikka on ollut kuin toinen kotini  ja opiskellessani siellä tapasin ihania ihmisiä, joista muutama on jäänyt oikein hyviksi ystävikseni.

Visiting the Zoo while living in Munchen, Germany in 2001

5. Olen asunut myös Saksassa, vaikken siellä niin kovasti viihtynytkään silloin aikoinaan.

Somewhere in Turkey in 2001

6. Jos nyt muuttaisimme Saksaan, saattaisivat asiat olla toisin, koska minulla on omia saksalaisia ystäviä. Voisin hyvinkin kuvitella asuvani lähellä heitä!

 Visiting Mallia ruins, Greece in 2003

7. Saksan sijaan olemme todennäköisesti muuttamassa takaisin Yhdysvaltoihin ensi vuonna.

And then one slightly newer photo, visiting Hannover in 2009 :)

8. Minulla on muutosta edelleen hieman ristiriitaiset tunteet, mutta uskon, että lopulta kaikki kuitenkin järjestyy :)

Olin aluksi ajatellut, etten laita tätä tunnustusta eteenpäin, koska sain tämän tunnustuksen jo tammikuussa, joten se on varmaan jo kiertänyt kaikilla. Mutta oikeasti olen kovin utelias ja haluaisin nähdä kuvia bloggaajien elämästä, joten tunnustus lähtee kuin lähteekin jakoon :

Sofian At Home with Sofia

Paben Palmun Alta

Jersey_girlin Toinen Koti

Pilvin How to become an emigrant

Mian Miikulinne Maailmalla

Essin From the Gardens

Annin Happiness is...

Marian Don't feed the bears

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

 

I managed to eat toast today!

(Warning: I'll do a bit of random rambling in this blog post)

Yes, I did it, ate toast today. Now, it might not seem much to blog about, but for me it was a major breakthrough since I haven't eaten almost anything since Sunday. Lil man brought some nasty stomach virus from playschool and it hit me with full force. I've now discovered a reoccurring pattern; lil man gets some sort of kiddie virus from daycare/playschool, gets sick, gets better and then I get really really sick. Husband isn't affected. I don't know why this happens, because I haven't been a "sickly" person before, but I'm assuming its because I never went to daycare and don't have any immunity against these viruses.

Either way the constant throwing up got me thinking of the time when I was pregnant and of one specific incident in particular, as before last Sunday that was the last time I felt like this (and no, I'm not pregnant now, this time it's a stomach bug :). As some of my readers might have read from earlier entries I had a bit of complicated pregnancy.  Basically I threw up most of my time being pregnant, spend several days at the hospital on IV and ended up having to take anti-nausea medication meant for cancer patients since I became so thin and the IV wasn't enough. My host-mom was battling breast cancer at the same time and we had the same medication - we both thought it was pretty weird. 

This incident I mentioned happened during one of my hospital stays, pre-medication. One of the nurses was really concerned about me (since I was "in a foreign country without Mom"...) and thought that the reason I was so skinny was because I couldn't afford food. How she came to this conclusion, I've never understood, maybe I looked homeless or something, should probably pay more attention to how I dress, eh? :)  I tried to tell her that I have enough money for food, so she asked me how much I earned. Well, I earned minimum wage and she said that was not enough. I said I had savings and started getting a bit angry, because clearly she thought I was not telling the truth. She said she'd contact social services and get me some help, which I absolutely forbade her from doing. I tried to calm myself down and explain that this really wasn't about money, I had enough of it. For example, I was at the hospital with my laptop, if I couldn't afford food, I probably would not have a laptop right? In the end she got all teary-eyed and said she was just concerned about me, since I was such a sweet child (I was 30). I was still at the hospital when her shift ended and she came to personally say goodbye to me and as I mentioned in my previous entry, kissed me on the cheek and said if she could, she would adopt me :D

Needless to say this was one of the most bizarre experiences I've had in the U.S, and I've often wondered why she thought that my emaciated state was due to lack of access to food. Maybe this was a "common" problem among expectant mothers, which is a really disturbing thought. In the county where we lived, 13,8% of the population lives below poverty level, so I guess there was a chance I was so poor that I couldn't afford food. And I was unmarried at the time, and foreign, so chances of me being among the poorest of poor were probably higher. In the end I came to the conclusion that she was just a very caring person, who thought I was much younger than I was, and my skeletal state alarmed her quite a bit. Maybe she was just not accustomed to seeing people this thin, since obesity is a problem in Nebraska. Either way, it was a really strange incident, one that I'm not likely to forget.

To end this rambling blog post (I've been feverish as you can probably tell) on a happier note, I might add that we did indeed find a new playschool for our little man and despite bringing home the annoying stomach bug, he really likes it there :)

Wishing everyone a wonderful, and healthy, week!

Random Tuesdays 04/09/2013

Forest bridge in Luxembourg, 2008

Blogi tunnustus - blog acknowledgement!

I was happy to notice that I received a blog award from Pabe of Palmun Alta, thank you Pabe! It's in Finnish so here it goes:

"Kiitä antajaa ja linkitä bloggaaja, joka tunnustuksen sinulle antoi. Valitse viisi ihanaa bloggaajaa (joilla on alle 200 lukijaa) ja kerro se heille jättämällä kommentti heidän blogiinsa. Näin autamme siis uusia bloggaajia eteenpäin, ja ehkä juuri sinä löydät uuden ihanan blogituttavuuden."

Useat ihanat blogit olivatkin jo tämän tunnustuksen saaneet, ja saattaa olla, että saavat nämäkin sen uudestaan, mutta tässä viisi ihanuutta lisää:

Eveliinan Friolandia

Pilvin How to become an emigrant

Essin From the Gardens

Jennin Somewhere Forward

Heidin MidwestStateGirl

Jos ette ole näihin vielä tutustuneet, niin käykääpäs lukaisemassa :) 

Sain myös jo vähän aikaa sitten haasteen Suurherttuan Vieraalta eli Jennilta, joka on myöskin muuten ihana ;), kiitoksia Jenni! Vastailen haasteeseen piakkoin :)

Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend!

Random Tuesdays 04/02/2013

The blogger herself near Mancos, Colorado in 2009. I don't really post photos of myself that often, but here I am 5 months pregnant sitting on a cliff trying to drink away my nausea (it's water I might add ;))