October 2014 Filers - Texas Service Center

[Mena28 35]

We met when I was in college studying abroad in London for the summer. A bartender I became friends with introduced and the rest is history as they say! What about yall?

My area is the same. There isn't anything in walking distance and the roads are not walker-friendly. That's why we want to get married asap and get the process moving along. If that means he stays in London and works for a couple extra months after the visa is issued then so be it.

Bbq pool party wedding sounds fun! A minister/officiant can get the deed done and then you can change out of your wedding dress and into your wedding swim suit! Lol!

I have a long bucket list of places I'd like to go but towards the top is Croatia. The friend that introduced us is Croatian and was living in London on a gap year. So Croatia kinda has a special place in our hearts. If Croatians are as awesome as she was, then I know it would be a great place to see. Plus of course it's beautiful there from pictures I've seen. Where would yall like to go inside the US?

We met at a meetup that a friend took me to and were friends for quite a bit before dating, also I started climbing with his climbing group and after a while we were belay partners - the belayer is the one who holds the rope to secure the climber in case they fall. You want to climb with a belayer you trust, otherwise falls are nerveracking lol After about half a year of this we started dating and then things started to move rather quickly. Though our friends couldnt believe it took us this long :-D but we are happy with it, so thats what counts, right?

Glacier NP in Montana is on the top of my list, also the great lakes region, Arches NP and doing a rim-to-rim hike in the Grand Canyon - I have been there and was surprised by how much I loved it. Only hiked halfway down as a day hike though, so want to go back. Going back to Alaska. I have a looooooong list ;-) Are there any places you have been to that you´d recommend?

[Wooderz 314]

Thanks for the tips yuna. I think I'll do better if I go into the dress shop with a plan or at least an idea of what I like and don't.

Mena, I went to glacier np when i was a kid with my parents. It was great. I loved Alaska and I would love to go back some day too. All great choices!

[SantyAndAllie 155]

Thank you guys!

Aw, guys! I wish I COULD plan all of your weddings for you! If you all lived in Jersey, I 100% would! I seriously love it! One girl whose fiance is also from Ecuador who filed in November (Ecuador has literally like a total of 4 people petitioning for k1 right now, LOL) also lives in Jersey, and we're meeting up this weekend to talk about wedding planning! Seriously guys- let's plan a reunion after all of this!

Also- love everyone's stories. It's so great that we have the ability to be in relationships outside of our own culture. I've always wanted to live in another culture and be bilingual.. and well, now it's happening! craziness!

Oh, and since April did this, I thought it was a cute idea. Here's me & Santy when we first met and then us now! Not as much of babies as April & Daniel look, but we've definitely changed!

Pictures on the left are when we met in January 2012 [i had red hair, and he had like no hair hahahah!], and the pictures on the right are from this past October [Halloween] & our anniversary over the summer!

<3

Edited January 22, 2015 by lovecometruex

[Wooderz 314]

Cute pics Allie. It's fun to see the beginning of it all to the present time. How long is Santy's hair now??

That's so cool that you're going to meet someone else near you. It's a small world. I'm talking to some guys including av8or1 about meeting up soon. Also, vj's resident expert for the UK subforum lives about 15 minutes away from me and her husband has done work for some people that I work with. Crazy.

[JDWright 30]

I suggest Barbados for honeymoons

[SantyAndAllie 155]

Thanks April! Way too long lol! Mine is still longer (down to my butt!) but his is pretty long, too! You can kinda see in the Halloween pic

And yeah! I'm excited to be able to share the oh so fun k1 experience and Ecuadorian consulate w others! The other girl waiting on k1 is in NY so she's a little further but we talked about meeting up, too! She's an oct filer and has a similar timeline to Santy and I so cool to be close to people who share the same experience.

I keep forgetting you live in TX and others far away too or I'd be like 'let's all meet now!' Hahah one day maybe I do have family in TX but.. Big state ya know loll (ps I bet your accents together are so cute.. British and Texan. Love it)

And Hahaha JDWright- we'll consider it!

[Wooderz 314]

Lol! I keep asking Daniel to grow his hair out a little bit (but not that long lol). He has beautiful curly hair but he keeps it so short (much shorter than in that picture). He thinks it's too much work and too hot even the length it was in the pic. If he's too hot in London he's probably gonna wanna shave it all off when he moves here!

The accent thing is funny. We talk about that a lot. I don't really think I have one. I'm sure I do a bit but definitely not strong like my grandparents. And I don't really think Daniel has one either. When we talk, I just hear Daniel. I think over time the way we both talk to eachother has kinda blended into mixed accents and vocabulary. We both tend to use some words that the other understands instead of what we would normally say.

[CanadianYinzer 31]

The accent thing is funny to me too. My fiance is French-Canadian. Everyone says he has a strong accent, but I don't hear it so much anymore. He's been around me and my family so much in the last 3 years that he's starting to get a Pittsburgh accent and I hear that come through more than his French accent.

Edited January 23, 2015 by Shelley92

[Mena28 35]

Yay it is Friday! And here it is Friday afternoon, which is even better ;-)

Allie - I am all for reunions :-D I like meeting people in real life that I have only ever talked to over the internet. Unfortunately I am currently on a diff continent, so the closest person for me to meet up with is April´s Daniel :-D and some of the Germans. Once I am there I will be in Mass though, which is pretty close to NJ so I would love to meet up!

I have been looking for fellow Austrians - according to VJ there should be one more pending K-1 couple from Austria somewhere, but I havent been able to find them - also, people don´t seem to emigrate from my country - there is barely any info on it, it is quite puzzling.

We just talk :-D No idea if either of us truly has an accent - my fiance is from Illinois by way from Japan, Texas, Germany, England and a few other assorted places, and I cant tell an accent at all - and I am obviouls not a Native English Speaker, but have lived in so many different places that after a little while of being somewhere I just reflect the local accent, so as not to stick out :-D Noone can ever tell where i am from, it can be pretty funny (and in German it is usually _really_ easy to tell).

What does get fun is when my family and I are teaching Austrian German to my fiance - he can repeat everything back, even the trick words we like to annoy language learners with - and it is just too funny to hear him say "grias di" (thats austrian colloquial for "I greet you") in perfect accent, after he just talked to me in regular American English.

do you guys know each other´s languages, or just one of you both languages? which one do you mostly talk in?

[Mena28 35]

I tried uploading a picture, but it keeps telling me its too large - trying it like this now.

We dont really have any this is us now and this was us then pictures - havent known each other long enough for that, but still :-)

[CanadianYinzer 31]

do you guys know each other´s languages, or just one of you both languages? which one do you mostly talk in?

I have been trying to learn French. I have Rosetta Stone and he tries to teach me, but I don't think my brain is accepting it. I'll repeat something he says and he just laughs and laughs. haha

It's been a disaster so far, but I'm still trying because his Mom only speaks a little English and his Grandma doesn't at all. My fiance is fluent in English so there isn't a problem there.

[SantyAndAllie 155]

Aw, mena28, SO cute!! I love that picture of you guys!

My fiance and I speak both English & Spanish. We started in Spanish and worked our way to English. We tend to talk in English now and fight in Spanish, hahahaha. Neither of us was fluent before we met, and now we're fluent in both! It's great for when you don't want other people around you to know what you're saying- LOL! My family doesn't speak any Spanish, and his doesn't speak any English!

What I believe about languages is that they are a 'gift' or a 'talent', if you will, such as cooking or photography. I think that anyone can take a picture or cook a meal, but to do so WELL is a true talent that not everyone has. You can practice and develop it, but not everyone has the eye for photography or the 'taste' for cooking, if that makes sense. I think the same of languages. Anyone could 'learn a language', but still never be able to speak it 'well'. You'd be surprised at how many American missionaries living in Ecuador for 10+ years have the worst American accent in Spanish. It actually hurts my ears! They speak/understand fluently & better than me, but they sound like tourists reading from a Spanish dictionary, and they speak Spanish all the time! I've been told by one too many Ecuadorians that even if I can't remember a few words, I sound nothing like the missionaries

My American accent in Spanish is pretty minimal because obviously help from Santy but also because I think I've always had somewhat of a gift of learning other languages quickly and with little accent; I just.. got it, hahaha. When I went to Ukraine, I learned Ukrainian! In Africa, setswana (can't remember how to spell it!). In Haiti, creole! (obviously bits and pieces and alphabets of all of those, not fluently). And now Spanish is my second language AND I just accepted a job position for a family that speaks Portuguese, so I'm hoping to learn that, as well.

It's a huge blessing to be able to speak both languages in a relationship, and it's really fun! Our weddings will be in both languages

[JDWright 30]

I'm back home, from my month long trip for the holidays. TBH I'm feeling very depressed and suffering with quite a bit of separation anxiety. I just want to be with my partner.

[Mena28 35]

I'm back home, from my month long trip for the holidays. TBH I'm feeling very depressed and suffering with quite a bit of separation anxiety. I just want to be with my partner.

I am sending you a big hug. Hope you feel better soon.

I had to say goodbye to my fiance four weeks ago and the first two weeks were not that fun. Now I got used to being by myself, even though it is really not something I want to be used to :-(

Do you know the story of the Little Engline That Could? Lately I sound like it when talking to myself "Yes, I can do it" I will add all of you and make it into "We can do it" :-)

Thank you Allie!

I think it is so great both of you speak both languages fluently! This is so handy :-)

I really want my fiance to learn German well, and he is making good progress when he is here, but then he forgets between visits. When he is by himself in the US he is lacking the motivation, but when he is here he wants to be able to communicate and understand.

Totally understand what you are saying about the accents of people you speak fluently and still have a horrible accent (not that we would tell them to their faces, right? :-P I maen, it is great they made the effort to learn) - German speakers have a really bad reputation for that lol

I am so lucky I moved so much as a kid and heard English early on (my mom´s friends are American) even though I never spoke it - I was used to adjusting my sounds, inflections and hearing them all. Now I am a chameleon :-D I once managed to pick up basic Dutch by listening to the Dutch version of the lion king - when I suddenly ended up with lots of Dutch kids in my group who didnt speak German or English yet I had something to fall back on! That is a few years back and I forgot most of it, which is sad.

You have traveled a lot! What did you do in Africa, Haiti and the Ukraine?

Yay for being bilingual ;-)

I always feel that apart from having an affinity for languages it def helps to BE where they are spoken - that way you hear them all day long and have a true motivation to communicate.

When I finally spoke American English really well I moved to England and had to learn a whole ´nother version of it. Used to have to ask my friends to repeat everything multiple times :-D

I have been trying to learn French. I have Rosetta Stone and he tries to teach me, but I don't think my brain is accepting it. I'll repeat something he says and he just laughs and laughs. haha

It's been a disaster so far, but I'm still trying because his Mom only speaks a little English and his Grandma doesn't at all. My fiance is fluent in English so there isn't a problem there.

Keept it up! Even if you can just do basic conversation it is worth so much, not depending on someone to translate every single thing you want to say!

Have you heard a lot of French in your life before? If not, it might be worth starting to listen to French music or TV channels while cleaning, cooking or driving, in the background, not really trying to study it I mean, just to get the sound of it into your ears. They just have some sounds that are hard to perceive for Native German or English speakers! And if you cant even hear and differentiate them, you cant possibly say them. Do you speak other languages already or not? If not, your brain is just not used to hearing other sounds and patterns, just give it time, plasticity of the brain is a wonderful thing, but takes a little repetition for everything to "stick" :-)

I work with young kids who learn German or English as a second language and we do a lot with background exposure to sounds of the language. Now, they are young and pick up on the sounds a little bit more easily, but as an adult you can put planned concentration and your cognition into it and expose yourself on purpose. Hope this makes sense and good luck!

The kids are trying to teach me how to count and say colors in their languages and I am so bad at it because I just dont hear the nuances of their languages - it is a good ice breaker, because then they are proud they are better at German than I am in Arabic/turkish/rumanian/albanian/you name it...

[yuna628 9,676]

I suggest Barbados for honeymoons

Do not mean to pry, but what part of Barbados are you from by chance? My great-grandma's/family were British Barbadian. Her mom and dad lived in Bridgetown. After meeting my great-grandfather, she immigrated to America with her son in 1920s. Some of my last remaining relatives still live in Barbados and I've always wanted to visit there some day.