Posts Tagged ‘San Francisco’

So, it is done. We arrived in San Francisco and activated our Greencards yesterday! The actual activation process was pretty easy, but it nearly didn’t happen. But let’s begin this story at it’s actual beginning. Our flight to Paris left on Saturday morning at 7.25am from Duesseldorf. My dad picked us up at home at 4am. Luckily! Because at 4 am we were both still fast asleep! Missing that flight would have been pretty bad, because our Visa’s expiration dates are on May 17.

The flights to Paris and the next one to San Francisco were pretty good. And I can really recommend San Francisco International as destination to activate your Greencard! They have a “new immigrants” counter, where you don’t have to wait at all. All you have do is give your finger print (old style way with real ink) and sign your name (my husband first wrote his whole name down, because he didn’t listen to what the officer told him) and than you can go to the actual counter. The officer there was really nice and just asked us, why we waited 6 months to activate our Greencards and if the address we want our Greencards to be send to is still the same. Then he ripped open our envelopes, checked the papers, stamped a new visa in our passports and we were ready to go!

Now we somehow feel more immigrant-like than before. I really love being in my new home country and look forward to the next two weeks we will be spending here! Right now I am sitting at the Madonna Inn hotel in San Luis Obispo, which is the cutest hotel I have ever seen in my life! My husband ordered some cute presents for me to our room as an surprise and I would love to call my parents, tell them to pack up my stuff, get rid of our flat and never leave this state again!

I will keep you updated on what will happen on our trip! Till then you can check out some pics…

Where did the last year go? When I read on Facebook this week, that the first winners of the DV-2011 have already been chosen, I was amazed. I had to look up the date of my husband’s Greencard win to really believe that it’s been a year, since he got that very special E-Mail!

I want to say my congrats to everyone who already won and wish everyone who is still waiting so much luck! For me and my husband this Greencard win has been nothing but a blessing so far! We do not live in the US, yet, but this experience already brought us, our families and our friends so much closer together!

On Saturday we will fly to San Francisco and do the final step to make our dream come true: We will activate our Greencards and than visit our future home Huntington Beach! I would like to tell everyone, who is not sure about this whole Greencard thing that I believe in fate. Because in our case it must have been fate that did all of the things that happened last year to us! If this really is your dream, you should to it! No matter what other people may say or try to force you to do! This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance and if you have the will to do it, there is nothing that can stop you!

Since I know Flo coincidences somehow are a part of my life. It actually is a pretty big coincidence that Flo and I did not meet earlier! Before we met we worked in the same street for nearly a year, went to the same partys and concerts for a long time and both knew the same people. Another big coincidence is that Flo and I had the same dream of moving to the US for a long time. I actually remember that when we have talked for the third time he told me about the Greencard Lottery. He told me that he applied for it and that he would marry me when he actually got lucky! And a few months later he opened that E-Mail that changed our both lifes. If that E-Mail would have arrived two years later, I guess we wouldn’t have been that happy about it, because till then we might have bought a house, have kids and more things that make it much harder to move to another country.

But the biggest coincidence ever occured to me last week. I had to talk to my colleague Vanessa at her office and accidentally looked at her calender. What followed was this dialogue:
Me: Hey Vanessa, you and me are having holidays at the same time!
Vanessa: Really? Cool, but I guess you are not going to the US!
Me: I actually am. But I guess you are not going to California!
Vanessa: Hm, I am, but you are not going to San Francisco, right?
Me: Actually, I am!
Vanessa: But I am only staying in San Francisco for a few days and will then travel to Los Angeles and Huntington Beach!

What big a coincidence is it to do the same trip as one of your colleagues in a company employing 650 people! And how crazy is it that we are going on this trip nearly at the same time? Okay, San Francisco and Los Angeles are big cities, but you know what: I guess I will meet Vanessa in the biggest crowd you can imagine at Disneyland or something similar! If the coincidences plan on staying in my life for a bit longer, I beg fate to give me the best job ever accidentally! But I don’t want to tempt fate! Because the Greencard win already is the best coincidence that ever happened to our young family!