January Filers at the CSC - How are you doing?

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

Aww lucky you, Pam! You better make sure that you see as many people as you can and you eat as much good food as you can!

[Pam&Josh 0]

Ohhhh! Yes we will!!

My husband and I are actually on a diet before the trip so we won't feel guilty eating anything we want!!!

My husband is a sous-chef, so he enjoys as much as I do coming in France, and try all the goodies from there!

[Pam&Josh 0]

Ehh! I received my GC today, with also my NOA showing I've been approved.

I guess I won't neet my AP when I will go through immigration on my way back to the US!!

[JeroenAndMichelle 28]

and you eat as much good food as you can!

lol I guess this means I am not the only one who kind of misses the food from back home xD

I mean, lol, I got even my mom sending me croissants and baguettes (well, the kind you can keep a bit longer).. they taste sooooo good lol. And not only that of course, she sends stuff the whole time lol

How do you guys feel about the US bread for example? Personally I don't like it much lol, I don't know what it is missing but it made us to buy a breadmaker soon so we can make our own breads lol.

Ehh! I received my GC today, with also my NOA showing I've been approved.

wow that is so cool I can't wait to the day that we will receive the GC also

[Pam&Josh 0]

lol I guess this means I am not the only one who kind of misses the food from back home xD

I mean, lol, I got even my mom sending me croissants and baguettes (well, the kind you can keep a bit longer).. they taste sooooo good lol. And not only that of course, she sends stuff the whole time lol

How do you guys feel about the US bread for example? Personally I don't like it much lol, I don't know what it is missing but it made us to buy a breadmaker soon so we can make our own breads lol.

It is so funny you mention this because I am making my very 1rst bread today!!

I don't own a machine bread, but I am doing an easy receipe the girls were talking about on the French forum of VJ.

Like I said before, my husband is an awesome chef, so I usually eat quite good meals; but it is true that now, I kind of want to do my own, fresh bread! I am usually not impressed at all by the breads I can find in groceries stores. I take the "take and bake", but usually they still don't taste as yummy as in France!!

In the future, I want to try to bake croissants, breads or doing more desserts too!! It makes me something to do, because with the economy, I am not working much now!

[Pam&Josh 0]

Ehh! I received my GC today, with also my NOA showing I've been approved.

wow that is so cool I can't wait to the day that we will receive the GC also

I know!! I still cannot realise how lucky I am!! The AOS has been sooo smooth, easy and super fast on me!!! It is just crazy!!!

I had it in my hands yesterday night, and couldn't realise I am done with USCIS for a little bet!!

I wish a smooth interview to you too, and to everybody else!!

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

lol I guess this means I am not the only one who kind of misses the food from back home xD

I mean, lol, I got even my mom sending me croissants and baguettes (well, the kind you can keep a bit longer).. they taste sooooo good lol. And not only that of course, she sends stuff the whole time lol

How do you guys feel about the US bread for example? Personally I don't like it much lol, I don't know what it is missing but it made us to buy a breadmaker soon so we can make our own breads lol.

I make my own bread. No breadmaker either. I follow that recipe, maybe it is the one Pam was talking about: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=2 It is very easy to make! Bryan says that before he came to France, he didn't know that bread could be tasty; that shows how bad the US bread is

I miss food a lot. Especially candies and junk food. Well, I know there is a lot of junk food here but I have a few specific items that I love in France that don't exist here. I miss having fish and seafood. My parents live 15 km away from the Atlantic ocean, I grew up with seafood.

And I have to say I'm kind of tired of having to make/bake everything that I have a craving for, I wish I could just go to the bakery and buy the stuff! Unfortunately that can't happen.

[CourtAndGrey 0]

AOS interview scheduled for March 12!!!! No change showed up on USCIS website, but we got a letter in the mail the same day as the EAD! Exciting mail day for us! WAHOO! I honestly haven't even thought about the AOS interview. I feel like the hard part is over and this interview will be a breeze... maybe I should be a little more nervous

No leads on any job searching in our house. How's the hunt going with everyone else?

Also a random side note: When you guys log into VJ and want to check on a thread and see the newest posts, is there a way you can do that starting with the last post you made? That way you know which pages you've already read? This is probably a silly question, but man, I can't figure it out!

Also in other news, we finally get to do a little honeymoon! Our wedding was very casual and we didn't even think of a honeymoon at the time, but we've been saving our pennies and are going to take advantage of some time off before we get jobs to take a little vaca. Yay!

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

AOS interview scheduled for March 12!!!! No change showed up on USCIS website, but we got a letter in the mail the same day as the EAD! Exciting mail day for us! WAHOO! I honestly haven't even thought about the AOS interview. I feel like the hard part is over and this interview will be a breeze... maybe I should be a little more nervous

No leads on any job searching in our house. How's the hunt going with everyone else?

Also a random side note: When you guys log into VJ and want to check on a thread and see the newest posts, is there a way you can do that starting with the last post you made? That way you know which pages you've already read? This is probably a silly question, but man, I can't figure it out!

Also in other news, we finally get to do a little honeymoon! Our wedding was very casual and we didn't even think of a honeymoon at the time, but we've been saving our pennies and are going to take advantage of some time off before we get jobs to take a little vaca. Yay!

Congrats on the interview date!

If you look at the new posts by the "View New Posts" page, you can click on the little square just on the left of the name of the topic you want to see and it will send you to the posts you haven't read yet in the topic. However if you look at the post through "View topics" in "My controls", I don't think you can. I have been wondering the same thing for a few months now! It would be better to have that fiture on the "view topics" page too.

Not too much luck with the job searching so far... I've had three interviews with recruiting/consulting agencies in IT, but they don't really have any job for 'entry-level' position and I only have a little less than two years of experience, in my home country.

We are going to New Orleans, Louisiana for Valentine's day! We're going to leave Friday morning (13th) and will be back Saturday of the following week (21st). I consider it as our honeymoon We figured that it would be better to take a vacation before I start working, otherwise we would have to wait until I get vacation time and that won't happen anytime soon!

[Alex & Rachel 78]

Ehh! I received my GC today, with also my NOA showing I've been approved.

I guess I won't neet my AP when I will go through immigration on my way back to the US!!

Woah, awesome! I can only hope it goes as smoothly for the rest of us!

And have fun visiting your new nephew.

Alex and I are doing fine. We won't lose our apartment and have even managed to save a bit of money still. So today Alex had his first trip to IKEA; all of my books and DVDs arrive tomorrow and we desperately need more storage! Our apartment is going to be full of nothing but shelves.

His mother's friend is also going to be helping me with employment once my EAD arrives. She's fairly confident she can get me a job with a company who'd pay for me to go to school at the same time; I'm hoping that I'll maybe get a second BA here and qualify as an accountant.

[CourtAndGrey 0]

Great news all the way around Rachel!

Good to hear Alex survived IKEA. Greivin went once and has since pledged to avoid that place at all costs. Although, he doesn't even like Costco... can't take this boy anywhere!

Alex and I are doing fine. We won't lose our apartment and have even managed to save a bit of money still. So today Alex had his first trip to IKEA; all of my books and DVDs arrive tomorrow and we desperately need more storage! Our apartment is going to be full of nothing but shelves.

His mother's friend is also going to be helping me with employment once my EAD arrives. She's fairly confident she can get me a job with a company who'd pay for me to go to school at the same time; I'm hoping that I'll maybe get a second BA here and qualify as an accountant.

[JeroenAndMichelle 28]

I make my own bread. No breadmaker either. I follow that recipe, maybe it is the one Pam was talking about: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=2 It is very easy to make! Bryan says that before he came to France, he didn't know that bread could be tasty; that shows how bad the US bread is

I miss food a lot. Especially candies and junk food. Well, I know there is a lot of junk food here but I have a few specific items that I love in France that don't exist here. I miss having fish and seafood. My parents live 15 km away from the Atlantic ocean, I grew up with seafood.

And I have to say I'm kind of tired of having to make/bake everything that I have a craving for, I wish I could just go to the bakery and buy the stuff! Unfortunately that can't happen.

Thanks for the recipe, I'll try it as soon as my stock of imported breads run out

And lol, I know what you mean... even though I am surrounded by the Pacific and even though we have lots of seafood, I do miss certain kind of fishes that we used to have back home in the Netherlands from the North Sea. And more other foods also by the way.. it is amazing to see that the US has a huge lack of assorted foods compared to Europe. I mean, I haven't found one decent cheese either lol (ok, they have Boursin but I mean more something like the Dutch cheese besides Gouda lol (Gouda here, btw, doesn't look anything like the real thing in Holland imho haha)).

I read that there is a german pastry bakery at the other side of the island who also sells normal breads, I think I should try him out soon also to see how his breads are.. if it is anything like the german Kaiser breads, then I will love it for sure

AOS interview scheduled for March 12!!!! No change showed up on USCIS website, but we got a letter in the mail the same day as the EAD! Exciting mail day for us! WAHOO! I honestly haven't even thought about the AOS interview. I feel like the hard part is over and this interview will be a breeze... maybe I should be a little more nervous

Congratulations on your interview date It's a day before my interview, it gotta be good

Alex and I are doing fine. We won't lose our apartment and have even managed to save a bit of money still. So today Alex had his first trip to IKEA; all of my books and DVDs arrive tomorrow and we desperately need more storage! Our apartment is going to be full of nothing but shelves.

His mother's friend is also going to be helping me with employment once my EAD arrives. She's fairly confident she can get me a job with a company who'd pay for me to go to school at the same time; I'm hoping that I'll maybe get a second BA here and qualify as an accountant.

Good to hear good news Rachel, I am happy for you

And about IKEA, thats one thing I do not like about this island.. we do not have IKEA and they do not ship to either Hawaii or Alaska Nope, we have to buy very expensive furniture instead (resulting in us shifting it away from us while we really do need a new sofa)

Good to hear Alex survived IKEA. Greivin went once and has since pledged to avoid that place at all costs. Although, he doesn't even like Costco... can't take this boy anywhere!

How can he not like Costco??? I LOVE IT! I mean, we had similar stores in the Netherlands (and I know you got them in France also.. dk bout the UK tho but probably also) but the thing I like about Costco is the foods and drinks you can taste while shopping.. sometimes we just go there for the foods haha

[Cecile and Bryan 0]

The thing that bugs me about food, other than the fact that there is way too much processed food and that they are way too bad for you, is that when you go to a restaurant (let's say a restaurant with entrees around 10-15 dollars, so somewhat nice but not super upper scale either), the only 'vegetables' choice is either broccoli, mashed potatoes or fries. I'm a little tired of having only that choice every time we go to a restaurant. Especially since I don't care for meat, so I choose depending on the vegetables.

Edited February 10, 2009 by Cecile and Bryan

[Alex & Rachel 78]

I love Costco too! It'd be fantastic for a large family and it's great for buying food for parties/weddings.

I also bought all the flowers for the wedding there; all were rainforest-protection certified, were cheap, lasted a good while (the flowers were still fresh a week and a half later) and looked very pretty.

Actually I think that's a problem - sometimes it's hard buying food for only two people as everything is sold in such large quantities! We've thrown a few things away lately that have gone bad before we've had a chance to eat them all.

I am really lucky to be living here in San Jose - it's just so diverse, and that's reflected in the restaurants and supermarkets around. I've not had much difficulty acquiring most foods. I think I've mentioned before that Alex's family is about the only family I've met here who aren't immigrants themselves.

The table we bought at IKEA is so nice - solid wood and extremely sturdy. But I have a blister on my thumb from assembling it!

[CourtAndGrey 0]

Not many posts lately... is our little thread drying up?

Hope you guys are all doing well!