Our Interview

Our immigration interview was Tuesday, January 18th. We left Monday for the long drive to Chicago. I ended up driving the whole way because my husband was too nervous to concentrate. I found our hotel with ease, talked him into relaxing, and we went out for the night.

Before we left the hotel, I did a google search for malls in Chicago. What I found on google ended up being a downtown Chicago mall. We ended up paying $18.00 to park for 2 hours..yikes! I'm from a relatively small midwest town, not a big city like Chicago. Our downtown traffic was slightly hectic, but nothing in comparison to Chicago. I can't tell you how many times I heard people honking their horns. How rude! Seriously, give me time to get my foot off the freakin' brake and on the gas before you honk!!

Anyway...

We went to the mall, got incredibly lost, and fortunately made it out alive.

Next stop? back to the hotel to drop off the car and head out to Fogo De Chao. http://www.fogodechao.com/ ...we were both dying to eat good food. We avoided paying a ridiculous amount to park by walking.

My husband got a little tipsy drinking caipirinhas, I had a billion pieces of palmito and picanha, and then we walked back to the hotel to organize everything for the interview.

(picanha-YUMMY!)

(mouth-watering palmito)

                               

(my husband's favorite-caipirinha)

(us before the interview)

Here's the point of this entry. Our interview was a complete nightmare and I'm still recovering. I'm sure our interview was handled the same way as they all are, but I was so stressed I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. My husband had entered and departed the U.S. so many times that the officer kept questioning him. She even questioned me about the times he had entered and departed and I've only been with him since the last time he entered! Thank God for all the long nights we spent talking about our lives when we first started dating. She questioned why he had worked for one guy, then another, then back to the first. Why did we get married when we did? All kinds of random questions. Nothing like, "what color is his toothbrush?!" She kept trying to trick me, which I expected. This officer meant business and she held us for just a few minutes shy of an hour. I still can't remember all the questions she asked. I can barely remember what the building looked like. How sad.

I know the above sounds dramatic, but the interview meant a lot to us.

In the end everything was fine. We were approved, she made some copies of pictures, bills, and bank statements. He already has his work permit so now we're waiting for his green card.

This whole process has been a whirlwind. Everything fell into place after we submitted our paperwork. Everything took about 3 months. Maybe that's a potential blog entry...the papers we submitted, and so on. But only after I swim my way out of the piles of articles, books, and notes for school!!

Oh, the nerves!

On Tuesday, my husband and I have our immigration interview, which determines whether or not he is approved to adjust his status. Holy nerves! We have so much information to take with us. I think I'm nervous mainly because I don't know what to expect. I've read stuff online and talked with our lawyer a million times (which does help A LOT), but I'm still nervous. My husband keeps having nightmares about it and he feels like he's begging the officers to stay in America! hahah, cracks me up.

The emotions finally hit me today. I have class all day, studying to do tonight, I work all day Saturday and Sunday, Monday is a holiday so no class, interview is Tuesday. That means I will spend Monday studying what I will miss Tuesday and preparing all of our documents, then we will head to Chicago.

Neither of us have been to Chicago so we don't know what to expect. I still need to book a hotel!! On a good note, we are eating at a Brazilian restaurant, Fogo De Chao. I'm VERY excited about that! There was a Brazilian restaurant near the university I went to prior to moving. You can only imagine how much money we dropped there! Yum-O!

I'm sure you can imagine what my next few days will consist of. I'm going to be a nervous wreck and my husband is going to be a nervous, crabby, pain in the ***, areyousurewearen'tforgettinganypapersbecauseIwillbepissed!, type of person. Ohh nerves, bring it on.

Brazilian Dentistry

Last year at college was a stressful adventure. I began the fall semester soon after meeting my husband, and at winter break was faced with him possibly having to leave the states thanks to his boss failing to file the appropriate papers for his extension. All worked out in the end, but only after my husband (boyfriend at the time) had to go 500 miles away to work. Oh well, at least he was still within driving distance!

Anyway, the stress from everything being so unpredictable led me to sitting in front of my laptop blasting music, drinking cherry pepsi, and eating all sorts of candy and junk food for hours, which turned into months. When I arrived home for the summer I went to the dentist for a routine cleaning. I was not surprised one single bit when the dentist told me I had 3 cavities that needed to be filled. So, I immediately scheduled an appointment and was back in his office a couple weeks later.

The dentist and his assistant argued the whole time. They argued about how they were going to use their new tools, which methods were best, blah blah blah. I knew that was a terrible sign. The dentist was new and had replaced my old retired dentist. I had a feeling something was going to be wrong...

...as I assumed, something IS wrong. I can't eat anything sweet or chew gum on one side of my mouth. When I do, pain gets shot up through my mouth. How lovely. While home for Christmas I asked my dad what I should do about this problem. He pretty much had no advice so that's when my husband said, "Tuesday, don't pay to get your teeth fixed by another gringo. My friend in my town will do it for you!"

I obviously questioned him. Like, who is this friend? Is he any good? Has he done work on your teeth? Apparently it's one of his "best friends" and he is good..and yes, he's done all the work on my husband's teeth. I have yet to understand how this man is my husband's friend. Probably because he's his dentist and my husband thinks everybody he comes in contact with his friend.

After all this nonsense, I have a question. Has anybody seen a Brazilian dentist? Would you recommend me waiting a few months and having the work done in Brazil? Would it actually be cheaper than me having it done in the states? I'm seriously considering waiting until we are in Brazil to have them fixed. What an adventure that will be! I won't understand half of what the dentist is saying, but heck, if he gets the job done I don't mind!