Das Buch Wer mitmacht, hat Recht!

i’m taking a break from packing my bags right now, having some delicious chinese take-out my landlord bought and a beer that helps me cope with the hot sauce.
yes, you read correctly, i’m having problems with a hot sauce.

my landlord was wondering why they didn’t include the hot sauce by default, always forcing you to ask for it.
now he knows.
the sauce has to be almost pure habanero paste, it has the distinctive fruitish smell and flavor and excessive heat of habaneros. and it’s the spiciest hot sauce i’ve ever had.
i’m seriously having problems dealing with it.

in other news, back to topic.
it’s my last day in the states, my flight from SFO is scheduled to take off at 8:40am tomorrow morning.
packing my bags seems to be more difficult than it was when i got here half a year ago.
i blame this partly on the rainy weather, it’s rather depressing, making you feel like going back to bed and spending the whole day sleeping.
people keep telling me it hasn’t been raining like this in california for years.
right now “downpour” is the only word that kind of describes what’s happening outside.

nevertheless i got up at 5:30am today to drive my friends, which whom i spent the last two weeks of roadtripping with, to SFO so they could get their flight back to the netherlands.
on the way back, having no more rental car and thus being forced to use public transportation, i fell asleep on the BART. thank god i have to get off at the final stop of the line and don’t transfer in between.

i had to tie up some loose ends today, too. mostly finishing some paperwork at work (i love the shredder) and closing my checkings account at boa.
surprisingly i still have some money left after the last two weeks that have been kinda heavy, expense-wise.

as i mentioned before, i was on the road, all over california and nevada.
joined by a friends and one of his coworkers, we’ve been driving from san francisco santa barbara, on to los angeles, further down to san diego, back to los angeles and over to las vegas, back to los angeles again and finally to san francisco.
i’ve been driving most of the time putting a rough 2200 miles under my seatbelt.

the part i enjoyed most was definitely highway 1.
i’m not exaggerating when i say it’s one of the most beautiful things i’ve ever seen.
if you ever get the chance of getting driving down hwy 1, DO IT! it’s worth every inch, cent, and gallon.
it just blows you away, the so un-american curvy road, the awesome views especially at sunset, and constant smell of the ocean breeze, ... i could go on for hours.

santa barbara was awesome, too. it’s just beautiful. our motel was almost right at the beach (yes, sand) and it had a very nice inner courtyard.
i could have stayed there for at least one more day, just lying on the pool chair, enjoying the sun on my skin (and the laptop with wireless internet on my lap, of course).

los angeles was kind of a bummer, i didn’t like it at all.
we ended up staying in some dodgy motel in venice beach (let’s call it a quentin-tarantino-moment).
the city just sucks, the traffic is horrible, there’s lots of ghetto, and so on.
one of the nice things i remember is the warner brothers vip studio tour. it might sound like a very touristy thing to do, and it really is, but it’s also very interesting and gives you a good look behind the scenes of the movieindustry.

the next day got us down to san diego where we spent the whole saturday with the guys from “sd shakedown” (they have a live show on jungletrain.net).
rfx even showed me now to beat-match two records. fun!

after a quick drive-by in los angeles we went on to lost wages.
the city kinda sucks, but it’s yet nice in a weird way (even the hotel engineer told us he’s prefers lower pay at the place on the strip over working in downtown and getting killed).

anyways, after yet another stop in El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula in a better motel with a great view of downtown (yes, we have pictures) we went back to san francisco, the best city ever.

this kind of sums up the last two weeks.
i think i’ll finish up packing and go to bed, tomorrow’s gonna be hell.

there it is.
the last day at work.
it’s been raining for the past three days, the weather’s kinda depressing. listening to phil collins’ discography doesn’t help that either ;-)

i can’t believe that six months went past just like that.
guess i have to really take care about not showing up for work on monday :D

i’ve heard there are some weird guys doing a roadtrip the next two weeks
complete with picture and video documentation, real geek style.
should be pretty cool, give it a try!

i got a checking account today.
it din’t take a social security number, which was kind of cool, since i don’t have that yet, but a shitload of info.

the bank: bank of america.
the mission: get a checking account.
the info needed:
2 kinds of photo ID (passport & visa worked for me)
US home address
country of residence home address
full name
a nice mugshot so i can have a photo on my atm card
annual income
employer
etc etc etc

i can give them my social security number later, that’s nice!
and getting a checking account with minimum balance of 5-something is even nicer!

interesting sidenote:
when i noticed that the guy opening my account needed “an awefull lot of info” i got the following answer:
“well, it used to be less, but since the patriot act….”

here we go again.

i just set up the image gallery.
more pictures to come!

click here or on the picture to get to the gallery

in short: i made it!
i’m in the office right now :)

long version:

after about 3 hours of sleep i got up at 2am CEST to drive up to stuttgart. even tho i got told to be there 2 hours early, maybe even 2.5h the air france booth wasn’t open.

check-in wasn’t a problem at all.
the flight to paris/cdg took off almost on time.

paris was the place where the fun started.

after getting the passport checked, walking along endlessly long hallways, and riding the shuttle bus to terminal 2C i had to wait in line for quite some time.
i began to wonder what was taking so long.
when i got the metal detector and x-ray thingy where i even had to take off my shoes to get them x-rayed i kind of got the answer to that question.
but this would not have been the end of the fun.
around the time the plane was scheduled to take off, we got told that there would be “some delays” due to the fact that everyone gets “body searched”.
OH JOY! i was so looking forward to this.

when the plane was finally in taxi, it suddenly stopped.
cause: runway locked down. awwww
the plane finally took off about 2h late.

the flight was a little more than 10 hours.

now the really funny part.
US customs.

i got warned about them. more than once.
so i put on the friendly smile, and waited in line.
i guess i got lucky that day, the customs officers all seemed pretty happy, and it was no problem at all to get thru customs. took me like 3 minutes, 2 fingerprints, and a digital mug-shot.

waiting for the baggage took a little while.
the cute beagle didn’t find anything in my bags ;)
and even the extra attention, getting the baggage x-rayed again, was no problem at all.

i got picked up by jon, the office manager, at the airport lounge and we went straight to oakland to check if i can move into the place they found for me.

more about that later ;)

after the stuff happening recently i’m pretty sure i’ll get some extra fun at the airport on tuesday morning.

thank [deity] i can send my laptop and some gadgetry to the states via exfed which is pretty cool, given that the laptop is properly packaged (it’s original box, i still have it!) and insured!

and since i was planning on taking the laptop as my only hand luggage i guess i’ll be fine now… mostly… hopefully.

...have your company change it’s address.

you wont belive it. too bad, it’s true.

the company i’ll work for in the states starting in 2 weeks, relocated today.

the change is very minor.
a little more than 30 miles, different town, same state, just the other side of the bay.

but, this kind of killed my DS-2019 (if you can’t remember what it was, read up here).
now, what does this mean?

first of all, without a DS-2019, there is no visa.
without visa, there is no entry into the US.
and without that, my internship is .. ye well.

good thing: i can get a new DS-2019 !

...
..
.

the problem: CIEE can’t update my info since i already have my visa, which locks the data at SEVIS.
now the first thing i have to do the moment i get over there is log into SEVIS, which unlocks my data, and then have CIEE update the info and issue a new DS-2019.

guess it’s about time to start praying.