England Trip

[KimberlyandMark 1]

Glad you had a good time in England Victoria. I loved my 2 1/2 weeks there in August. We got our NOA2 last week and are getting ready for the NVC/consulate phase. We are planning a March 6 wedding. Mark is planning on spending Christmas in England this year before heading across the pond for his new life in America. It will be hard for us to get to spend anytime actually at Christmas in England since I am a nurse and getting any significant time off around that time of year is almost impossible. So, he is planning to stay in England until after the New Year. I so did not want to come home when it was time to come back. England is a lovely country. I agree about the bacon and the curry. I am going to have to learn to make a decent curry so he won't get too homesick here in Alabama. Mark HATES marmite so no worries there...LOL!

[pdcvcc 0]

Glad you had a good time in England Victoria. I loved my 2 1/2 weeks there in August. We got our NOA2 last week and are getting ready for the NVC/consulate phase. We are planning a March 6 wedding. Mark is planning on spending Christmas in England this year before heading across the pond for his new life in America. It will be hard for us to get to spend anytime actually at Christmas in England since I am a nurse and getting any significant time off around that time of year is almost impossible. So, he is planning to stay in England until after the New Year. I so did not want to come home when it was time to come back. England is a lovely country. I agree about the bacon and the curry. I am going to have to learn to make a decent curry so he won't get too homesick here in Alabama. Mark HATES marmite so no worries there...LOL!

Awesome on your NOA2, we got ours on the 21st, can you believe it? Did you call the NVC/consulate to find out they had it after you received the official NOA2 letter or another way? On a positive note March 6 is going to come so fast. Oct - Halloween, Nov - Thanksgiving, Dec - Christmas, Jan - first month of year , Feb - Valentine's Day, Mar - married. Going to fly by for you - fantastic. Bought some crumpets at the British Emporium here, they were made in Canada - still not as good as the ones Paul gave me in England. and not sure what I did when I tried to make the proper bacon that I bought at the British Emporium as well ... but again not right. oh well, will have to try to get them some other way. Have a great week to you and everyone else on this thread.

[Ellie-and-David 38]

Interesting to see how you're all missing Blighty so much. Is it just me that, after living in the States for the last 6 months, and enjoying everything it has to offer, wouldn't go back home in a hurry if you paid me?

Serious question.

I would not go go back home to England if you paid me or in a hurry. Im with you so happier here.

I just miss some of the food. I love it here in Florida. Once I can drive, have a job and my GC, I think it'll feel even more like home because the day to day drudgery can kick in. At the moment I feel like I am in limbo a little bit.

Nope - go back to England to grey skies and pinched pale faces desperate for just one consistent week of sunshine....no thanking you

[Robyn-n-Kris 72]

Interesting to see how you're all missing Blighty so much. Is it just me that, after living in the States for the last 6 months, and enjoying everything it has to offer, wouldn't go back home in a hurry if you paid me?

Serious question.

I would not go go back home to England if you paid me or in a hurry. Im with you so happier here.

I just miss some of the food. I love it here in Florida. Once I can drive, have a job and my GC, I think it'll feel even more like home because the day to day drudgery can kick in. At the moment I feel like I am in limbo a little bit.

Nope - go back to England to grey skies and pinched pale faces desperate for just one consistent week of sunshine....no thanking you

We have lots of sunshine here in TX and well.. Kris hates the heat here though and I can't blame him. He said he never appreciated the UK till living here LOL. Unfortunately we are stuck here for at least the next 8 years. He's just hoping I will like the UK. hehe

[John and Camie 39]

hobnobs and irn bru is what i get imported along with my future wife

That is too cute.

If anyone is looking for good crumpets, Van De Kamp makes great ones (found them at Ralphs for $1.79!!). We put Marmite and butter on ours. Soooo good. And I was just carrying on about how much I missed the chocolate when my MIL sent us a grip of Cadbury in the post! So we are in heaven over here.

[DisneyLovers 18]

Paul and I got back the other day laden with suitcases full of yummy foods and chocolate up to the eyeballs lol, We had a wonderful time and went to Colchester Zoo with my parents and brothers and closest cousins and had a blast. And spending a day out on my parents speedboat out at Brightlingsea, going up to Wivenhoe and then round to Clacton.. I think my Dad's on his 20th childhood after the cars and now boats LOL. Ooh and we went to Tiptree which has the most awesome jam factory so I stocked up on Loganberry jam and Paul got some of their mustard and other condiments, just wish they had a tasting area We also did lots of exploring Ipswich and here there and everywhere really and catching up with family which is always fun. And as always coming back here it's not the places I miss, it's my family but we're concocting a plan to get at least my parents out here for christmas, which is going very nicely as we already have Dad looking at airfare

On the way back here however got really annoyed with being made to sit in the secondary review area of Tom Bradley terminal being asked really stupid questions. Sad that a genuine silly human error of miscounting days has made customs send me to secondary for a good hour and a half on top of the time standing in line

I don't mind being questioned really, I honestly offer up the info of my accidental overstay and the fact that it was only 1 day over (more like mere hours). but still get treated like a criminal and the customs staff were horrendous, making snide comments about other travelers and a lot of racist remarks that I'd rather never hear again. I know they are doing a job to keep illegals and dangerous people out etc but they were so disrespectful it made Paul and myself feel terrible for those in secondary having to hear and see their behavior. Especially as Paul knows some of the officers that switched across from TSA over to Customs, just glad it wasn't his old colleagues acting up so that I wont feel so bad when I sit down (when not so tired) to right a formal complaint. Making sure I include the asinine way they held me there in 07 for seven and a half hours without letting me use the bathroom, until I was taken to the back for an in-depth interview and had to beg the officer to let me go. He let me use the staff bathrooms only because of it being "that" time of the month. If it hadn't have been before my interview at the embassy I would have complained sooner. Apparently until I get citizenship they are always going to haul me off to their tiny uncomfortable, un-private area where you are all treated horribly (even when some I saw had been mistaken for someone else customs were after). I know I made a mistake back in 07 and I don't withhold the information when going through customs, in fact I carry the paperwork from that with me whenever I travel.

But I agreed to not try to use the VWP and I stayed in the UK until I got my visa and I applied and got my AOS sorted asap so as to not have been out of status at any point. We have done everything by the book aside from that one silly mistake, that even the customs officer that did my interview back then said was silly and wished that they could avoid the whole port parole thing. I took the repercussions of my mistake and have tried to get past it but I'm never going to like customs and their love of reminding me, just makes me sad.

Sorry I don't mean to rant just disappointed with the whole customs thing. But we had a great time and are adjusting back to LA time gradually whilst trying to keep all the chocolate from melting in other words munching on it whilst we try to stop ourselves from melting at the same time.

[pothergavel 0]

I found crumpets in Trader Joes t'other day. Didn't get any, but they had a Union Jack and a silhouette of Big Ben on the label, so they must be genuinely English ones, right?!

[Pooky 3,723]

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

OTOH, Trader Joe's has really awesome stuff - if only the nearest wasn't 2 hours away