What to do.....

[noremac 3]

Well my AOS package is sent off, and while I'm waiting around for it to be processed I want to know if there's any other paperwork or anything I should be getting ready ect..? I am going crazy sitting around all day when I'm used to working a minimum 12hrs a day - 6days a week... I'm just not good at sitting around...... Hurry up EAD card..!!! What do others in this situation do?

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Well if you don't have a SSN and you still have at least 2 weeks left on your I-94 then you can go get that. Aside from that, no, no paperwork, just sitting around waiting.

We subscribed to Netflix. I caught up on series I hadn't seen. Watched entire ones that I'd never seen before. I watched a lot of cooking and DIY channels. I crocheted some toys, cleaned the house, gave advice on here, FB, joined another forum for Aussies (Mates Up Over), another for bad in-laws

Basically some major time wasting I had to organise a TV schedule so I didn't go crazy(er). I of course did other things during the day (listed above) but always had the TV on in the background.

Now we have dogs (2 now) if I get bored I go for a walk with them (couldn't walk in Houston, too scary), my husband got me a bike for my birthday and I forgot how fun that is I have a little detachable basket on it so I'd go to the country store for drinks or to visit friends.

You COULD study the drivers guide so you can take your licence test once you have your EAD (or GC.. what they want depends on state). I also started learning spanish. I had to stop for a bit because I was starting to dream about it

Hope that gives you some ideas

[Travis and Meghan 24]

Netflix is a godsend, i've been here for three months and aswell as a wholeeee lotta movies movies i've also managed to get through the entire series of, law and order svu and criminal intent, roseanne, grey's anatomy, gossip girl, Merlin and X-files. I'm all caught up on TV shows now. I knit a lot too and play my instruments. Read, i used to read all of the time but since starting all the visa stuff last year and working all of the time this is the first time in ages i've been able to finish a book I do get a bit stir crazy though so when my husband finishes work we usually go for a walk or out for dinner so i can get out of the house for a bit.

Volunteering is a good idea too, i remember Dave saying that he was volunteering at an animal shelter while he was waiting for EAD. I thought about doing that too but they're all too far away from me

[Dave and Shannon 9]

Well my AOS package is sent off, and while I'm waiting around for it to be processed I want to know if there's any other paperwork or anything I should be getting ready ect..? I am going crazy sitting around all day when I'm used to working a minimum 12hrs a day - 6days a week... I'm just not good at sitting around...... Hurry up EAD card..!!! What do others in this situation do?

hey

it drove me crazy sitting around too.. felt like i was in prison... so yeh as stated before i did go to the local animal shelter pretty much every day they were open and walked dogs and played with puppys and kittens and cats... they really appreciate your help and the animals love it! and ur getting out and about in the fresh air... other then that played xbox and watched movies!

[noremac 3]

There is a couple things Ive sort of figured out that I want to do. Firstly I need to learn 'american math'and the whole imperial measurment system. In my job I used alot of maths so I need to get the adding/subbtracting/dividing/multiplication of fractions figured out again..havent done it in so long.. So possibly a few community college math classes will be something to look into. All I manage to do now is spend way too much money of stuff I dont really need all out of bordem.. and then there is sitting around watching HGTV and the Diy channel all day..haha

[Ben & Katie 13]

I'm going through the same boredom at the moment.

I fill my days by exercising (great to help clear by mind), volunteering at a food pantry once a week (a great way to meet new people), tv shows/movies/internet can burn up most of the day if I don't limit myself!

It's funny when I think back to when I was working 14 hour days and also studying in the time off and I never had time to do things for myself and now I have all the time in the world and all I want to do is work....grass is always greener I guess

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Netflix is a godsend, i've been here for three months and aswell as a wholeeee lotta movies movies i've also managed to get through the entire series of, law and order svu and criminal intent, roseanne, grey's anatomy, gossip girl, Merlin and X-files. I'm all caught up on TV shows now. I knit a lot too and play my instruments. Read, i used to read all of the time but since starting all the visa stuff last year and working all of the time this is the first time in ages i've been able to finish a book I do get a bit stir crazy though so when my husband finishes work we usually go for a walk or out for dinner so i can get out of the house for a bit.

Volunteering is a good idea too, i remember Dave saying that he was volunteering at an animal shelter while he was waiting for EAD. I thought about doing that too but they're all too far away from me

Oh reading yes! I got a Kindle and I download free books through Amazon (totally legit). I have read SO SO SO many books. I would say I have read more books in the 2 years I've been here than in the 10 years previous I tend to read at least 4 a week. LOVE my Kindle

My clarinet is still in Australia. There wasn't enough room last time I went home and came back. It's been so long since I've played I'm so bad.. all the lip muscles aren't there anymore so I can't play for as long... it's kinda funny actually

I too would love to volunteer (animal shelters specifically) but it's all at least an hour away.

[Travis and Meghan 24]

i tried to play the clarinet once, my teacher ended up giving me a saxophone instead after a couple months, thought it would be easier for me. Clarinet is SO hard on your mouth, especially when you have braces, lol! Saxophone was a bit easier.

[noremac 3]

Vanessa you've been here two yrs and still haven't been able to find work? Or you don't want to work? Another thing is struggling to get motivated to do something in the first place. For example everyday I say to myself that I'm going to use the gym and work out... But I never do... This country is going to make me fat...haha

[Travis and Meghan 24]

I have the same problem! I've become so unmotivated. I used to work 40 hours a week as well as spend ten hours a week travelling and between that and talking to Travis i was lucky to get six hours sleep a night. Now i sleep for like ten or so hours somedays. Everyday i say i won't but i do, lol

[noremac 3]

It makes you realize how much of a huge part of your life that work is..lol..

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Vanessa you've been here two yrs and still haven't been able to find work? Or you don't want to work? Another thing is struggling to get motivated to do something in the first place. For example everyday I say to myself that I'm going to use the gym and work out... But I never do... This country is going to make me fat...haha

lol yeah I've done work but am not working atm. It was just one thing after the other when I arrived... here's my long winded story

When I first arrived (Sept 2009 - wow that seems like a LONG time ago ) we were living in Houston. We only had the one vehicle and were only supposed to be there until October when Tony graduated and then we'd return to his home state of Iowa where he had another vehicle. He was studying fulltime and working fulltime so there was no time I could take the car without him around. I also didn't want to take my licence test there when I'd just have to change it when we got to Iowa. Houston was SCARY. He didn't want me out at night. Didn't want to risk buses either. It was only for a couple of months so I didn't think anything of it. There were amber alerts a lot (I'm not a kid but that's pretty scary) and in the last week we were in Houston a girl, 13, was walking down our road (one of the busiest in Houston) around 3pm after the school bus dropped her off. She never arrived at home, just a block away and no-one saw anything (or would admit it anyway :S).

So we were supposed to move out in October, he'd organised to get out of his lease earlier (expired end of March 2010). When Tony went to speak to the property manager (we were in a unit in a secured gated community) it turns out that they'd sold the business to a new corporation and hadn't passed on the info about tony leaving earlier and they refused to honour that... so we had to hang out in Houston until the end of March.

Now about that time the warning to not change your address in the middle of the AOS process was extreme so we decided to hold off filing my AOS until we moved back to Iowa.

After we got to Iowa we were staying with his parents while we house hunted (to buy) so we filed AOS. I got my EAD in late June while living somewhere else and my GC arrived in July. We hadn't closed on the house yet but we had a puppy (rescue) who was still healing from her ordeal so we decided I would stay unemployed so I was able to It wasn't long after that that my dad had a stroke and I had to return to Australia. I was there for 2 months (Sept - Nov) and got back and it was snowing. I hadn't got my licence yet and I didn't relish the idea of learning to drive in snow.

So after the snow went away I got my licence. Eventually I started applying for work and got a job. It was only a temp job though and that ended in late October. I am now looking for more work but waited until after the holidays for more opportunities

[noremac 3]

You've really had an experience in a very short time... Haha.. All

Makes perfect sense though.. I too currently live in Houston, there are some pretty bad areas and alot of places you wouldn't go alone.. But for the most part it's not that bad... I've been driving around here for about a year now on and off, I've become pretty comfortable driving around here in this crazy traffic and no sense of road rules...

[VanessaTony 3,567]

You've really had an experience in a very short time... Haha.. All makes perfect sense though.. I too currently live in Houston, there are some pretty bad areas and alot of places you wouldn't go alone.. But for the most part it's not that bad... I've been driving around here for about a year now on and off, I've become pretty comfortable driving around here in this crazy traffic and no sense of road rules...

Seeing you're from Houston then you'll understand We were on 1960W. Our apartment was in Spring but our mailbox was Houston Yeah i've definitely had an eventful time

It wasn't really THAT bad but Tony had heard a lot of scary stories about women being kidnapped and... bad stuff... so he preferred I stay safe. He wasn't a local though, still a little on edge in crowds (thanks to his military days) but now we're back in small town Iowa (pop 300) he's much more chillaxed.

[Travis and Meghan 24]

Chillaxed....i haven't heard that word in so long. I like that word.