We made it! After 34 hours on planes and in air ports, we made it to the beautiful city of White Bear Lake, MN. We left our accommodation in Brisbane at 5 AM on Friday to catch the flight to Dallas via Sydney, which was scheduled to leave at 7:45 AM. Micah thought it was fantastic that we got up so early. Sadly our flight was delayed and didn't leave until 9:20 AM. Micah was quite content on the flight to Sydney and fell asleep just as we landed. He stayed asleep as we walked through the airport and slept for a good 1.5 hours while we waited for a connecting flight to Dallas. We went to grab some lunch in a Chinese restaurant. Then Micah vomited. I felt bad because he made quite a mess, but then the waitress was not very polite to me, so I stopped feeling bad. We tried to convince ourselves that it was just belated travel sickness, but we couldn't help feeling slightly queasy ourselves and we began to dread the flight ahead of us. 15 hours of tears, spew and no sleep. We got Micah cleaned up and got on the plane. Then Micah vomited again. On Amy. Twice. But then, thank God, he fell asleep on Amy's lap. After a while, we lifted him into the sky cot in front of us, and there he stayed asleep for the next 12 hours.
We landed in Dallas and went to the customs hall, where there were large TV screens playing a 'Welcome to America' video, complete with music that sounded like it belonged at Disneyland. But none of this helped the fact that the seemingly unnecessary forms, lack of adequate staff and extremely long queue made us feel very unwelcome.
When arriving in the US all baggage must be picked up at the point of entry, even if you have a connecting flight to Minnesota, which we did. We went to collect our baggage, which was already loaded onto a trolley for us; a trolley which we took to another conveyor belt to be rechecked. Then we had to catch a train to our gate. As a result of all this hyper-security-induced faffing, we missed our connecting flight, but we were all too tired to care and American Airlines transferred us to another flight free of charge.
Our arrival in Minnesota was much more pleasant. My boss (Jerry) and his wife (Sue) met us at the baggage carousel and took us out into the crisp Minnesota evening. After Micah was in bed at their house, Jerry cooked us steak for dinner, after which we collapsed into bed and slept the sleep of the dead.
Sunday 24 February 2013
Sunday 10 February 2013
My Very First Post and Visa Nightmares
The aim of this blog is document our move from Tasmania, Australia to Minnesota, USA and record our integration into American life and culture. God willing, my family (wife: Amy, son: Micah (17 mo)) will be travelling to the US later this month, provided we can get our temporary exchange visas sorted in time.
Let me explain. The university of Minnesota sent DS2019 documents for me, my wife and my son. The DS2019s arrived in mid-January 2013 and I mistakenly thought these were our actual visas; Amy wasn't so sure and asked me to re-read them to be certain. I didn't. Instead I booked our (very expensive) flights to America for the 22nd of Feb. Thankfully I went back to look at DS2019 documents again on the 2nd of February; panic seized me as I realised my error and I applied online in a feverish rush. By the time I had finished our three applications, it was nearly midnight and I needed sleep. I went to bed, slept for two hours then got up again because I was so anxious. So at 2 AM on Sunday, I booked our visa interview. Miraculously we were able to get an interview appointment for Friday the 8th of Feb...in Melbourne. There is no US consulate in Tasmania. So I booked our flights at 3 AM on Sunday. After gathering all the documents, we flew over on Thursday night. We made it to the interview and, apart from the hour in the waiting room, it was a relatively pain-free exercise and our visas were approved!
Amy said we should head off quite early to the air port because we were going by bus and train. I didn't think that was necessary. On the train, Micah fell asleep in the back pack for 30 min before entering overtired mode, in which he remained for the rest of the day.
Then we missed our flight home. I misjudged how long it takes to get from the city to Tullamarine. Three tiring hours and $150 later we were on another flight home.
I've learnt three things from this ordeal:
1. Read important documents very carefully.
2. Listen to your wife.
3. Toddlers can go extraordinary amounts of time without sleep.
Let me explain. The university of Minnesota sent DS2019 documents for me, my wife and my son. The DS2019s arrived in mid-January 2013 and I mistakenly thought these were our actual visas; Amy wasn't so sure and asked me to re-read them to be certain. I didn't. Instead I booked our (very expensive) flights to America for the 22nd of Feb. Thankfully I went back to look at DS2019 documents again on the 2nd of February; panic seized me as I realised my error and I applied online in a feverish rush. By the time I had finished our three applications, it was nearly midnight and I needed sleep. I went to bed, slept for two hours then got up again because I was so anxious. So at 2 AM on Sunday, I booked our visa interview. Miraculously we were able to get an interview appointment for Friday the 8th of Feb...in Melbourne. There is no US consulate in Tasmania. So I booked our flights at 3 AM on Sunday. After gathering all the documents, we flew over on Thursday night. We made it to the interview and, apart from the hour in the waiting room, it was a relatively pain-free exercise and our visas were approved!
Amy said we should head off quite early to the air port because we were going by bus and train. I didn't think that was necessary. On the train, Micah fell asleep in the back pack for 30 min before entering overtired mode, in which he remained for the rest of the day.
Then we missed our flight home. I misjudged how long it takes to get from the city to Tullamarine. Three tiring hours and $150 later we were on another flight home.
I've learnt three things from this ordeal:
1. Read important documents very carefully.
2. Listen to your wife.
3. Toddlers can go extraordinary amounts of time without sleep.
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