Sydney: The Sequel

Sydney, Australia (June 2007)- This trip was all work and no play. We had only one mission: to get Andreas' US permanent residency visa, otherwise known as: THE GREEN CARD! They shouldn't even call it a green card anymore though, because HELLO, it's not even green! Anyway, I'll cut to the chase, then give details. As you can see from Andreas' happy face in the photo, our mission was successful. Although, it wasn't an easy process. Loads of forms, many hours of filling out the forms and getting supporting documents, years of my life in stress, and lots of dollar-y-doos later, to be exact. Then, there was... THE INTERVIEW! We flew down to Sydney the day before our interview, the 12th of June at 8am. We spent an hour going through security at the US Consulate and then sat for 3 hours while the couples who cut in front of us on the queue (you queue cutters) got all of their paperwork sorted. When we got up, all of our documents were in order and we were sent to window 7 for our interview. We were asked a few questions and BAM, green card city. California here we come baby!

Diesmal war Sydney mehr Geschäftsreise als Erholungsurlaub, mit dem einzigen Ziel Andreas legalen Aufenthalt in den USA zu ermöglichen. Kurz und knapp: Andreas ist jetzt offiziel 'permanent resident', oder zu Neudeutsch - ständige Aufenthaltsgenehmigung. Pack die Badehose ein, nimm dit kleene Rachelein und nix wie ab nach Kalifornien!

Port Douglas

Port Douglas, Australia (June 2007)- We love Port Douglas. Despite the fact that it mostly storms every time we go up there, it remains our favorite spot. This time, we lucked out with the weather. We had planned a two day liveaboard diving trip on the Great Barrier Reef, but Andreas is getting over pneumonia, so we canceled and went straight up to PD. The first two days were especially beautiful- 29 degrees C and sunny. We decided to treat ourselves this time around and so we stayed at the five-star Sheraton Mirage Hotel. The resort had a fantastic layout (similar to Hayman, but it didn't have a Hayman feel), there were lagoons and palm trees everywhere. We had our own little sand beaches, but the hotel is also right on the real beach, 4-Mile Beach that is. So after rolling out of bed and going to our gratis buffet breakfast every morning (YUMMY!), we walked along the beach (and exercised). It was brilliant. We also swam in the lagoons, laid out on the sun benches, got full body wraps and massages from the Spa, had romantic dinners in town and did Sudoku puzzles by the pool! What more could you ask for?! We love you Oz.