The almost 2 week mark

Ok, so I’m well and truly overdue in the way of updating life so far in the US! I have lots to say, so this is just kind of a brain dump of everything that’s going on.

As of tomorrow I will have been here for 2 weeks. I have discovered that my work permit will take 3 months to get processed (they’re currently processing permits submitted in September). That means that I can’t get a social security number until I get my work permit. This has caused all sorts of problems as the entire country runs on their social security numbers. To get a California drivers license, you need a social security number (SSN). Because I can’t get an SSN, I just need proof that I’m not eligible for one. I thought that’d be pretty easy. I rang the social security office, and they said they can’t just do something saying I’m not eligible yet, I have to actually apply for one and wait for it to be knocked back, then show the rejection letter to the DMV. Sheesh! And given that Andrew’s been waiting for his SSN for 4 weeks now, it’ll probably take at least that for mine to be rejected once I put it in, so I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it. Apparently you’re supposed to get a CA drivers license within 10 days of entering the country if you’re going to be a permanent resident – ha!

So anyway, I’ve just spent my time so far just pottering around the shops, getting stuff sorted out. I’ve been to various bike shops trying to decide which mountain bike to get – I decided on the Specialized Hardrock Pro Disc.



Andrew got a nice Iron Horse mtb, and we get them properly fitted on Sunday and will also get all the accessories then as well (clipless pedals, shoes etc), so we can both go out riding together, and Andrew can cycle commute to work, so that’ll be good.

I’ve also been to a few car dealers just to see what’s around, and what sort of price things are. We’ve still got an ’06 Prius on order, but I wanted to see what we could get new and second hand and for what price.

A couple of days after I got here I also had a rental tour with a guy that’s organised through Andrew’s work to help us settle in. I was still incredibly jetlagged at the time, and this guy was very full on and quite excitable, so that was quite a full on day – especially as we were looking at places from 10am – 4pm! The good news though was that we found a place we liked, and we signed a lease for a 2 bedroom townhouse which we move into this Sunday. The townhouse is very nice, similar in setup to our place in Watson, Canberra. You can get an idea of what the townhouse is like at the Central Park apartments website So last weekend Andrew and I went out looking for housey things we’d need. Namely lamps. For some reason, this crazy country has an aversion to lightbulbs in ceilings. They have lights in hallways, kitchens, bathrooms, and that’s about it! Everything else is lit by lamps. So we now have lamps so hopefully we won’t crash about too much in the dark when we first move in!

On the weekend we went to check out the bike path that’s near our new home so we could figure out the best route for Andrew to cycle or roller blade to work, and discovered that the cycle path is beautiful! It runs by a little creek, goes right near our house, and takes you most of the way to Andrew’s work, which is great! There was heaps of squirrels running around, people out walking, cycling, rollerblading and taking pets for walks. We realised we were very lucky to choose a place so close to the bike path, and love the entire Mountain View area. We went walking around downtown Mountain View on the weekend and were very pleased with what we saw. I think we will really enjoy living here.

Driving on the “wrong” side of the road has been fine. I still find that if I’m walking towards the car and I’m on the right hand side, I head towards the right hand side of the car to drive, then realise I have to go to the other side and probably look quite silly!

I’m still not sleeping well. Probably a few reasons for that – I don’t have a schedule for my days, so can sleep in until whenever, and I’m going to bed late, so sleeping in until fairly late (for me), then going to bed later because I’m getting up later and so on. I’ve probably also got a fair bit running through my mind, and I’m also not really doing any exercise, so not wearing myself out at all. So I’m going to try to get up earlier, and go to the gym in the morning for a bit (there’s a gym in the complex we’re in right now, and there’s also one in our new complex), then do whatever I need to do after that. Hopefully that’ll help!

To keep boredom at bay on a more longer term basis, I’ve put my name down to do some volunteer work at a couple of places. Today I had my first day working at the local animal shelter with the pussy cats. I’ll be with the kitties a couple of hours a day, a couple of days a week, and also doing reception for them on Monday and Wednesdays for about 4 hours each day, then just on Wednesdays when one of the other volunteers comes back from holidays. It’s good fun, with the cats I pretty much take them out of their cages, and put them in big play pens and play with them, socialise with them, brush them and cuddle them to keep them happy and to also be able to get an idea of their personalities for potential new owners! I also clean out their litter trays when needed, and basically just make sure they’re doing ok. There’s a few kittens there who are incredibly cute, and the older cats are just adorable as well. Their website is very outdated, so I think one of the first things I’ll do is take fresh pictures of all the kitties and update their website!!! Once I manage that, I’ll post the link so you can all see my favourite pussy cats. :-)

The other volunteer work I’ll be doing is through the local Adult Education college and called “Literacy in the Classroom” – I think it’s just part of the Adult Education college as a way to advertise for volunteers. I meet with the lady on Thursday so I’lll know more then, but basically I think they give us a crash course in working with kids, and then we go to the local school and work with kids in grade 2 for a few hours one day a week doing reading and writing with them. Should be interesting!! Hopefully it won’t clash with the animal shelter shifts….

Not too much else happening at the moment. I’ve had a couple of days where I’ve just gotten frustrated with the system and the whole not being able to do anything without a social security number. Moving country isn’t the easiest thing in the world!! Luckily Andrew is wonderful, and now that I have some volunteer work to do, I feel a little more useful and can plan my weeks activities around that, so that’s great! We’re loving chasing around after squirrels – we’ve seen heaps and they’re very cute. They won’t stay still for photos though which is a shame!

The people we’ve met around here are really nice. You can’t talk to anyone on the phone though as they have no idea what you’re saying! I also had my first clueless American moment the other day. A car salesman asked where I was from , and I said Australia, and he thought about that, and said to me “that’s near the Czech Republic isn’t it?”. Just how do you respond to that???????

It’s amusing here in the “land of the fat” where everyone seems to be on one sort of diet that really isn’t any low fat options at the supermarket. We try to get low fat in everything we get if the option is there – milk, yoghurt, cheese, meat etc. Over here there really doesn’t seem to be any options for low fat, if there is they are quite difficult to find. For example, my “specialty” dish is a spinach and ricotta stuffed chicken breast on cous cous thingy. It took me forever to find chicken breasts for a start. There were massive turkeys, various bits of turkeys, chicken wings, chicken drumsticks and so forh, and finally a small section of chicken breast fillets. They were packaged a little differently, but I got them and moved on. Frozen spinach was very hard to find as well. There was plenty of creamed frozen spinach (I didn’t even want to see what was in it...) and I eventually found a wee box of plain chopped spinach. The ricotta is available in skimmed ricotta, but doesn’t quite taste the same as Australia ricotta, but that’s ok. Anyway, so I get home and start preparing the dish, and open the breast fillets to slice them open so I can stuff them with the spinach and ricotta mixture and there’s nothing to slice!!!! They’re chicken pancakes! Flat as flat can be. Very bizarre. There’s also a fair bit of fat on them which I need to trim off. What’s wrong with nice juicy bits of chicken?? I’m going to see if I can find a butcher so I can chicken which hasn’t been flattened to resemble a pancake.

The other meats are also very fatty. Everything you get you need to trim the fat off. I managed to get lean mince so that was one bonus! All the cereals are very sugary, you can buy big tubs of lard (ewwww) and everything in general is just sold in extra large portions. It’s very hard to buy a small pack of mince, or just a couple of steaks. No wonder everyone over here is so overweight!

One thing I do love though is the Starbucks in the Safeway supermarket. The supermarket trolleys even come with cupholders so you can get your drink and put in the little cupholder for while you do your shopping. Very cute :-) I have found it interesting that pretty much all the wine has corks here. In Australia many wines now have twist tops rather than corks, and personally I much prefer twist tops. I was looking for a Riesling and could not find one, in a fairly large selection, that had a twist top! A Sauvignon Blanc that had a twist top had a big tag around the lid explaining why they used twist tops and absolutely assuring that it did not affect the quality at all, as though they had to defend themselves for doing it! So there you go...

Anyway, that’ll probably do for now. I daresay most people have fallen asleep by now.... I’ll try to update more regularly so I don’t end up with massively long posts!

Ciao for now!