Good day to you! So confusion has reigned supreme in my new household this week, it all started over a simple cup of tea.... Barry's tea which is imported from Ireland is by far and away the best cup of tea you can get in America and I am very grateful that it is available in my new home. However I did not touch the stuff for several days as I was under the impression that the tea in the box was 'Berry' tea. In the US Barry is pronounced exactly the same as Berry, so there is no Barry Bonds, he is in fact Berry Bonds, ask any American to say Barry and then Berry and the response you will get bar none is 'Berry, Berry'! So for all you lovely Americans out there... there is in fact a A in Barry :)
I apologise that after all my talk there has been no blog for a few weeks, I can only begin to tell you how busy I have been - In fact I do believe that trying to tell you how busy I have been is exactly what I shall do!
The visa which I have gained for the USA is a fiancee visa, this means that it gives me permission to enter the USA once to marry, and as soon as we marry I need to apply for a change of status to permanent residency and a green card. I am allowed to work as soon as I entered the USA, as well as allowed to apply for a social security card, a driving license, healthcare and whatever else I should chose to apply for. That is all well and good, however due to those Republicans and Obamacare the US government has gone into shutdown, this means that the office which would supply me with my social security card is currently closed until further notice - which basically means no security card for me, which means no anything else for me until the issues in Washington are sorted out! so Washington if you are listening... please sort out your problems soon as I am relying on you!!
So as I have been unable to do much official stuff yet I have been very busy instead preparing for the wedding but mainly fun! I have purchased a really smart blue suit, a nice simple silver wedding band, a new phone and a gorgeous new bike (pictures will follow in a future blog) I was also very very lucky to get a ticket to see the Cleveland Indians play in their first playoff game for six years. I got the ticket because Amanda purchased them by mistake - she meant to purchase the actual playoff tickets but got the tickets for the wildcard game by mistake and as the Indians lost the game and there was no playoff it worked out brilliantly for me (the wildcard game is a winner takes all game with the victorious team advancing to the playoffs proper).
The Cleveland Indians came into the season as your typical underdogs and I put a bet on them at the start of the year to win the world series for the first time in 59 years at 100/1, they started off the year well with the best record in the division and hopes started to rise before they collapsed in a August which saw them lose 20 games and had their best pitcher arrested after being caught sending drugs to his own house under his dogs name! However they rallied in September winning their last 10 games in a row to host a winner takes all playoff game against the Tampa Bay Rays on the day after I arrived. If you want to attend any baseball game it would be this one, where 152 games or blood sweat and tears all comedown to this, and I was there - it was a truly memorable sporting occasion and the crowd were fantastic... until the Indians started losing... then my jet lag kicked in and everyone was left gutted after a crushing 4-0 defeat :( Still! It was a great game to watch and I am very excited for next spring where they get to try all over again for that elusive world series that the city so desires.
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| Waving the rally hankies! |
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| And here is a picture of some more people waving white hankies! 20 thousand people Morris dancing at the Cropredy folk festival! good times! |
I also feel I should say a big thank you to my new family over here, Amanda, Sheila and Ken - Thank you so much for allowing me to stay in your lovely home and filling me up with steaks and introducing me to pierogies and stuffed cabbages! Jim and Cheryl and Mackenzie - I'm sorry I have not gotten to spend a huge amount of time with you yet but I had so much fun at the ice hockey and I hope we get to catch up with the mullet men again soon :D I'd also like to thank the weather for being so beautiful! I don't believe it has dropped below 80 degrees since I arrived although I would appreciate a drop in the humidity levels!!!
Travel Tip of the Week this week is how to book a Transatlantic flight: A neat little trick is that they always fill up the economy seats from the front backwards, so to get lots of space all you need to do is change your seat to the back row (unless you chose BA, who charge you £20 to change your seat more that 24 hours in advance!). This trick has worked really successfully for me and so sure enough when I boarded my plane in London there is everyone crammed in at the front and me stretching out in my own row at the back, unfortunately a rather old, smelly, hairy and large English lady was too busy knitting to get the memo, I have no idea where she came from but she just dumped herself right in my row about 3 hours into the flight, fell asleep, started snoring and did not move until the flight landed in Cleveland! Bah!
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| I know that this picture has nothing to do with my blog, but this is my friend Tim from back home eating a sandwich, I thought I'd include it as a little nudge for him to reply to my email :D |
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| And here is a lovely picture of my mum at Scotney Castle a couple of weeks before I left! I miss you mum! |
Thanks for reading :) I promise the next entry will be much more interesting and witty as more silly things start to happen to me :)
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