Life With The AmeryKanz Peoples

[TehBorken]

Freeze To Death!
It was 14 degrees here this morning, and my poor wife is kind of scared by this weather.

This is the coldest she's ever been, and not by a little bit, either. It rarely drops below 75 or 80 in Cambodia so this is crazy to her.

Seriously, we walk down the frozen food aisle at Safeway and she hugs herself and says, "Oh, oh, honey, I'm freeze to death!", so you can imagine what she thought  when I explained that it was colder outside on the deck than in our freezer.

I put a bowl of water out on the deck....it froze solid in ~30 minutes. She was almost in disbelief, lol. In her experience that's just not what water does when you put it outside. It's supposed to evaporate, not turn into an icecube. It was so wrong, lol.

Also, it snowed here yesterday (just a little bit) and she was sooooooo taken by how beautiful the snow is. She's never seen that before, either.
Shopping At Viet Wah For Cockroaches

Let's see....we also went shopping the other day at a place called Viet Wah, a foreign food store. I'll post a pic of this as soon as I can, but they had cockroaches packed in plastic wrap and frozen. I kid you not. I read the label, and you'll be pleased to know that cockroaches are "not a significant source of fat or cholesterol". Yay. We did not buy any.

The Homeland Security "Residency Application" and Interview

Sakha and I went to her PRSI, Permanent Residency Status Interview back on Dec 4th. This is an interview they do with me, her, and our attorney to decide if they'll change her residency from "probationary" (temporary) to "permanent". If they don't, Sakha goes back to Cambodia and does not get to stay in the US. It's one of those things that usually goes okay, but if not, it's big big trouble.

Homeland Security instructed us to bring "proof of our relationship" to help make our case and convince the INS official to grant Sakha her permanent status. Mwuhahahahaha! We brought in about 3,000 pictures, two and a half feet of paperwork, and loads of other stuff in two large wheeled-suitcases. Our attorney met us there and when he saw what we'd brought, he just started laughing. I said, "Hey, they told us to bring proof, and we did." He said most people bring "a dozen photos and some cellphone bills".

The interview seemed like it went fine. We buried the INS official in paperwork, photos, receipts, etc etc etc showing that we had a real relationship and that this wasn't a fraudulent marriage.  It would have been harder to fake all the stuff we had rather than just fly to Cambodia 10 times and get engaged. Seriously. When we came into the interview room the INS official looked at us, looked all the stuff we brought, and sort of rolled her eyes. We nuked her from orbit, lol.

Anyway, the interview went smoothly, and we went home to wait and see if they would approve our PRSI or kick it back.

Today, December 15th, Sakha got a very thick piece of paper in the mail from Homeland Security. It started off, "Welcome To The United States Of America....". It says her residency status application was "Approved" so she's now a permanent resident of the USA, entitled to pay taxes and everything.


     

[Russ]

Congrats TB! Im glad its worked out for the both of you!
Keep up with the stories! Im enjoying them.


 

[P.C.]

omg.....how exciting TB.  I'm always a little bit envious (or something of the like) of people who see snow for the first time as an adult.  It has to be one of the most strange and magical things.

 

Congratulations Sakha, on your 'approval'....and of course you too TB.  Such a long journey the two of you have made to get to this point.  There must have been times when you thought the trial would never end.

 

HUGS to you both.

[purelife]

Oh my goodness!  I'm jumping for joy for you and Sakha.  Congratulations!  A journey with a happy ending.   

[Gopher]

Congratulations to both of you - and long may Sakha's appreciation of the snow continue. She sounds  wonderful. 

[van_guy]

TehBorken wrote:
Freeze To Death!
It was 14 degrees here this morning, and my poor wife is kind of scared by this weather.


Congratulations on the residency!!

Fabulous news - I guess this is the first week of "happily ever after"

I went to University at the U of Alberta (Edmonton) located near the North Pole in Canada. In October I would see students from Asia and Africa in huge parkas in October when the weather would get down to near freezing - and I began to feel pity for them.  In January when the temps would dip to -40 degrees (same in celcius and farenhehiet) these poor people would be beside themselves.  Once it got down to -50 degrees.  This was lunacy for the locals - for the poor SE asians and Africans  well you can imagine ....

I try to explain what -50 degrees is to my workers in Vietnam.  +40 is the hotest it really gets there - 0 Celcius is as cold as it gets in the coldest part of the country - I try to explain that it gets that difference colder again.  They don't understand....

[Orik]

  tehborken has ur wife ever seen the Aurora Borealis. ?  try explaining the fires in the sky at night to her  :) she would probably love  it




make sure you view the pics to see the full sized image.
this one is just for those trying to explain what 40 below 0 is like temperature wise

 

[Michel]

             

[Orik]

thanks michel. i borrowed them from various sources on the internet

[TehBorken]

<copied from another post, but relevant here>

We had a traditional Christmas dinner: Cambodian Curried Chicken and Stuffed Mushrooms. We also had my friend Jack over and two of our Cambodian friends, Run and Puala. It was great, we guys all sipped wine and the ladies chatted away in Khmer. Desert was cherry pie and we were totally satiated. Sakha showed Puala some Khmer websites she found that have streaming TV shows and movies, all in Khmer.

We met another American/Cambodian couple named Ed and Navy through Sakha's English class but they couldn't come, unfortunately. Maybe next year....

Right now we're just waiting for Jack's fiancee to get here and also for Sakha's sister "Smey" to tie the knot with another buddy of mine, "Tim", that we introduced to her. Tim will be going over to Cambodia in a few months but we don't know if he'll be getting engaged on that trip or not. But he seems totally deep in the throes of loooooooooooooooooove   so it's just a matter of time. lol

It'll be way cool when everyone is finally here- Sakha and I, Jack and Pheara, Ed and Navy, Run and Puala, and Tim and Smey. What a crew that will be.   Someone suggested we call our little group "C.L.A.S.S." - the Cambodian Ladies Appreciation Society of Seattle. lol

[P.C.]

Update ?    

[TehBorken]

P.C. wrote:

Update ?    

Lol....well, lets see....Sakha is learning to drive and will soon be taking her Driver's Test. She's actually a very good driver.

Sakha  will also be taking her practical exam for a manicurist license in a few days and then the written test sometime after that. She plans to work at some local nail shops while she goes to school for accounting or pharmacy tech or something like that. We're not sure exactly what yet.

She's going to school and taking ESL courses 4 days a week. Some days are short but one of them is a series of classes that run from 1:30 to 9:30. Makes for a loooooooong day.

We've been enjoying the hot tub a lot, almost every day. She's learned to bake banana bread and we both eat 20 to 30 pounds of it a week. Or so it seems...

I had a business deal fall through and lost a shitload of money. Woof. Live and learn.

Sakha's friend Puala is learning English and is doing pretty well so far. She just turned 19. We get together with her and and her husband, "Run", every so often. The ladies gab away and laugh a lot.

Sakha met another Cambodian lady at ESL class and we've been hanging out with her and her husband from time to time. They're nice people.

My friend Jack- his fiance got her Packet 3 and returned it to the embassy, so we should hear in a few days when her interview is. She may be here within a month or two if all goes well. (Possibly a little longer, but we're hoping sooner rather than later.) When Jack's fiance gets here we'll have our own little crew of Khmer couples to 8, with two more coming in the next year (Sakha's sister who I introduced to a good friend of mine.   )

That's what's happening here at the moment...I'll try and fill in some more later.

[P.C.]

How long did it take for Sakha's fascination with the snow to wear thin.

 

Did you build snowmen and make snow angels ?  

[TehBorken]

P.C. wrote:
How long did it take for Sakha's fascination with the snow to wear thin.

Not long...about 3 days. Then it was like, "ugh, snow."

Did you build snowmen and make snow angels ? 

A little, but it was more fun to sit inside with a cup of hot chocolate and watch the snow come down.

[Michel]